Proverbs 19:23

New English Translation

²³Fearing the Lord^[a] leads^[b] to life,^[c]
and one who does so will live^[d] satisfied; he will not be afflicted^[e] by calamity.

Proverbs 19:23 tn Heb “the fear of the Lord.” This expression features an objective genitive: “fearing the Lord.”
Proverbs 19:23 tn The term “leads” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and style.
Proverbs 19:23 tn Here “life” is probably a metonymy of subject for “blessings and prosperity in life.” The plural form often covers a person’s “lifetime.”
Proverbs 19:23 tn The subject of this verb is probably the one who fears the Lord and enjoys life. So the proverb uses synthetic parallelism; the second half tells what this life is like—it is an abiding contentment that is not threatened by calamity (cf. NCV “unbothered by trouble”).
Proverbs 19:23 tn Heb “he will not be visited” (so KJV, ASV). The verb פָּקַד (paqad) is often translated “visit.” It describes intervention that will change the destiny. If God “visits” it means he intervenes to bless or to curse. To be “visited by trouble” means that calamity will interfere with the course of life and change the direction or the destiny. Therefore this is not referring to a minor trouble that one might briefly experience. A life in the Lord cannot be disrupted by such major catastrophes that would alter one’s destiny.

Proverbs 19:23

Lexham English Bible

²³Fear of Yahweh leads to life;
he who is filled with it will rest—he will not suffer harm.

²¹The one who pursues righteousness and love^[a]
finds life, bounty,^[b] and honor.

Proverbs 21:21 sn These two attributes, “righteousness” (צְדָקָה, ts^edaqah) and “loyal love” (חֶסֶד, khesed) depict the life style of the covenant-believer who is pleasing to God and a blessing to others. The first term means that he will do what is right, and the second means that he will be faithful to the covenant community.
Proverbs 21:21 sn The Hebrew term translated “bounty” is צְדָקָה (ts^edaqah) again, so there is a wordplay on the term in the verse. The first use of the word had the basic meaning of “conduct that conforms to God’s standard”; this second use may be understood as a metonymy of cause, indicating the provision or reward (“bounty”) that comes from keeping righteousness (cf. NIV “prosperity”; NCV “success”). The proverb is similar to Matt 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.”

²¹He who pursues righteousness and kindness
will find life, righteousness, and honor.

⁴The reward^[a] for humility^[b] and fearing the Lord^[c]
is riches and honor and life.

Proverbs 22:4 tn The Hebrew term עֵקֶב (ʿeqev, “reward”) is related to the term meaning “heel”; it refers to the consequences or the reward that follows (akin to the English expression “on the heels of”).
Proverbs 22:4 tn “Humility” is used here in the religious sense of “piety”; it is appropriately joined with “the fear of the Lord.” Some commentators, however, make “the fear of the Lord” the first in the series of rewards for humility, but that arrangement is less likely here.
Proverbs 22:4 tn Heb “the fear of the Lord.” This is an objective genitive; the Lord is the object of the fear.

⁴The reward of humility is the fear of Yahweh—
wealth and honor and life.

New English Translation (NET)

Lexham English Bible (LEB)

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