Proverbs 12:21

There shall no evil happen to the just: but the wicked shall be filled with mischief.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) There shall no evil happen to the just.—Comp. our Lord’s promise as to temporal matters for those who “seek the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33). and for God’s care in spiritual matters, 1Corinthians 10:13.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:16. A foolish man is soon angry, and is hasty in expressing it; he is ever in trouble and running into mischief. It is kindness to ourselves to make light of injuries and affronts, instead of making the worst of them. 17. It is good for all to dread and detest the sin of lying, and to be governed by honesty. 18. Whisperings and evil surmises, like a sword, separate those that have been dear to each other. The tongue of the wise is health, making all whole. 19. If truth be spoken, it will hold good; whoever may be disobliged, still it will keep its ground. 20. Deceit and falsehood bring terrors and perplexities. But those who consult the peace and happiness of others have joy in their own minds. 21. If men are sincerely righteous, the righteous God has engaged that no evil shall happen to them. But they that delight in mischief shall have enough of it. 22. Make conscience of truth, not only in words, but in actions. 23. Foolish men proclaim to all the folly and emptiness of their minds. 24. Those who will not take pains in an honest calling, living by tricks and dishonesty, are paltry and beggarly. 25. Care, fear, and sorrow, upon the spirits, deprive men of vigour in what is to be done, or courage in what is to be borne. A good word from God, applied by faith, makes the heart glad. 26. The righteous is abundant; though not in this world's goods, yet in the graces and comforts of the Spirit, which are the true riches. Evil men vainly flatter themselves that their ways are not wrong. 27. The slothful man makes no good use of the advantages Providence puts in his way, and has no comfort in them. The substance of a diligent man, though not great, does good to him and his family. He sees that God gives it to him in answer to prayer. 28. The way of religion is a straight, plain way; it is the way of righteousness. There is not only life at the end, but life in the way; all true comfort.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The "deceit" of "those who imagine evil" can work nothing but evil to those whom they advise. The "counselors of peace" have joy in themselves, and impart it to others also.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. no evil—(as in Ps 91:10), under God's wise limitations (Ro 8:28).

mischief—as penal evil.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No evil; either,

1. Of sin; or rather,

2. Of suffering or mischief, as the next clause explains this. No such evil shall befall them as doth commonly befall the wicked, who are filled, or overwhelmed, and utterly destroyed by it; whereas good men are supported under their troubles, and shall be delivered out of them, and receive much benefit by them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

There shall no evil happen to the just,.... The evil of sin: no iniquity, as the Targum; which, and the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, interpret of sin not being agreeable, convenient, suit able, and pleasing to a righteous man. Moreover, the Lord, by his Spirit and grace, weakens the power of sin in them; and, by his providence, prevents and removes occasion of sinning; and by his power preserves from it, from being overcome and carried away with it, at least finally and totally. Or the evil of punishment is here meant; no penal evil shall befall them; the punishment of their sin has been inflicted on Christ their surety, and therefore shall never be laid on them; and whatever afflictions may happen to them, which have the name and appearance of evil, these work together for their good, spiritual and eternal; so that, in reality, no evil thing, properly speaking, happens to them; see Psalm 91:10. Or whatever does come to them comes not by chance unto them, but by the decree and will of God, and is overruled for good;

but the wicked shall be filled with mischief; or "with evil" (h), the evil of sin; with malice and wickedness, with all impiety and unrighteousness, with ignorance and error; with all kind of sins, both against the first and second table of the law, and so with all the consequences of sin: with the evil of punishment; with an evil conscience, with the terrors of it; with many distresses here, and with everlasting destruction hereafter. Some understand it of the mischief they devise to others, which they are full of and big with; and "though" they are, as Aben Ezra interprets the word, yet no evil shall happen to the righteous; the mischief contrived by them shall fall upon themselves.

(h) "malo", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Michaelis.

Geneva Study Bible

There shall no evil happen to the just: but the wicked shall be filled with mischief.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. evil … mischief] Rather, mischief … evil, with R.V., reversing the meaning of the two Heb. words.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - There shall no evil - mischief - happen to the just. The mischief (aven) intended is not misfortune, calamity, but the evil consequences that follow on ill-doing (Proverbs 22:8); from these the righteous are saved. Our Lord goes further, and says (Matthew 6:33), "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these (temporal) things shall be added unto you." Vulgate, "Nothing that happens can make a just man sorrowful;" for he knows it is all for the best, and he looks toward another life, where all seeming anomalies will be cleared up. Septuagint, "The just man takes pleasure in naught that is unjust." The wicked shall be filled with mischief; rather, with evil, moral and physical (Psalm 32:10). The Old Testament takes a general view of God's moral government without regarding special anomalies. Proverbs 12:21

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

21 No evil befalls the righteous,

     But the godless are full of evil.

Hitzig translates און "sorrow," and Zckler "injury;" but the word signifies evil as ethical wickedness, and although it may be used of any misfortune in general (as in בּן־אוני, opp. בּנימין); thus it denotes especially such sorrow as is the harvest and product of sin, Proverbs 22:8; Job 4:8; Isaiah 59:4, or such as brings after it punishment, Habakkuk 3:7; Jeremiah 4:15. That it is also here thus meant the contrast makes evident. The godless are full of evil, for the moral evil which is their life-element brings out of itself all kinds of evil; on the contrary, no kind of evil, such as sin brings forth and produces, falls upon the righteous. God, as giving form to human fortune (Exodus 21:13), remains in the background (cf. Psalm 91:10 with Psalm 5:1.); vid., regarding אנה, the weaker power of ענה, to go against, to meet, to march against, Fleischer, Levy's Chald. Wrterbuch, 572.