Proverbs 19:29

Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(29) Judgments are prepared for scorners.—(Comp. Proverbs 19:25.)

Fools.—See above on Proverbs 1:22.

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 19:29. Judgments are prepared for scorners — Either by men, or, at least, by God; although they be deferred for a time, yet they are treasured up for them, and shall infallibly be inflicted upon them: and stripes for the back of fools — Nor shall other sinners escape, who sin through want of consideration, but they also shall be punished, though in a less degree.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:29. The unbelief of man shall not make God's threatenings of no effect. Christ himself, when bearing sins not his own, was not spared. Justice and judgment took hold of our blessed Surety; and will God spare obstinate sinners?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ungodly witness - literally, "Witness of Belial," "worthless," "untruthful."

Devoureth iniquity - Seizes on it eagerly, as a dainty, lives on it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

29. Their punishment is sure, fixed, and ready (compare Pr 3:34; 10:13).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Prepared, either by men, or at least by God; although they: be deferred for a thee, yet they are treasured up for them, and shall infallibly be inflicted upon them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Judgments are prepared for scorners,.... Either by the civil magistrate, or by the Lord, and indeed by both; and if they miss the one, they will certainly meet the other; though they mock at present punishment and a future judgment, yet everlasting fire is prepared for them, Matthew 25:41;

and stripes for the back of fools; as scorners are; which shall be inflicted on them sooner or later; if they are not stricken with the stripes of men, they shall endure the strokes of divine justice and vengeance hereafter.

Geneva Study Bible

Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 29. - Judgments are prepared for scorners (see on ver. 25). The judgments here are those inflicted by the providence of God, as in Proverbs 3:34. Scorners may deride and affect to scorn the judgments of God and man, but they are warned that retribution awaits them. And stripes for the back of fools; Vulgate, Et mallei percutientes stultorum corporibus (comp. Proverbs 10:13: 26:3). We had the word here rendered "stripes" (מַהַלוּמות mahalumoth) in Proverbs 18:6. The certainty of punishment in the case of transgressors is a truth often insisted on even by heathens. Examples will occur to all readers, from the old Greek oracle, Οὐδεὶς ἀνθρώπων ἀδικῶν τίσιν οὐκ ἀποτίσει, to Horace's "Raro antecedentem scelestum," etc. (See on Proverbs 20:30, where, however, the punishment is of human infliction.)



Proverbs 19:29

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

29 Judgments are prepared for scorners,

     And stripes for the backs of fools.

שׁפמים never means punishment which a court of justice inflicts, but is always used of the judgments of God, even although they are inflicted by human instrumentality (vid., 2 Chronicles 24:24); the singular, which nowhere occurs, is the segolate n. act. שׁפט equals שׁפוט, 2 Chronicles 20:9, plur. שׁפוּטים. Hitzig's remark: "the judgment may, after Proverbs 19:25, consist in stripes," is misleading; the stroke, הכּות, there is such as when, e.g., a stroke on the ear is applied to one who despises that which is holy, which, under the circumstances, may be salutary; but it does not fall under the category of shephuthim, nor properly under that of מהלמות. The former are providential chastisements with which history itself, or God in history, visits the despiser of religion; the latter are strokes which are laid on the backs of fools by one who is instructing them, in order, if possible, to bring them to thought and understanding. נכון, here inflected as Niph., is used, as Job 15:23, as meaning to be placed in readiness, and thus to be surely imminent. Regarding mahalǔmoth, vid., at Proverbs 18:6.