Proverbs 16:31

31 Old age is a crown of honour, but it is found in the ways of righteousness.

Proverbs 16:31 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 16:31

The hoary head [is] a crown of glory
Gray hairs, white locks through age are very ornamental; look very beautiful, bespeak gravity, wisdom, and prudence, and command reverence and respect; with the ancient Romans ^F19, greater honour was paid to age than to family or wealth; and the elder were revered by the younger next to God, and in the stead of parents; (See Gill on Leviticus 19:32); [if] it be found in the way of righteousness;
that is, if such who are old and stricken in years are like Zacharias and Elisabeth, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless; when they are found in Christ, having on his righteousness; and when they live soberly, righteously, and godly; when they walk in the ways of God and true religion; keep up family worship, and private devotion; as well as constantly attend the ministry of the word and ordinances; then are they very venerable and respectable; their old age is a good old age; and in a short time they shall have the crown of glory which fadeth not away: but otherwise a sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed; an old man in the open ways of sin and vice, laden with iniquity, is a very contemptible and shocking sight.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F19 Vid. A. Gell. Noct. Attic. l. 2. c. 15.

Proverbs 16:31 In-Context

29 A transgressor tries friends, and leads them in ways not good.

30 And the man that fixes his eyes devises perverse things, and marks out with his lips all evil: he is a furnace of wickedness.

31 Old age is a crown of honour, but it is found in the ways of righteousness.

32 A man slow to anger is better than a strong ; and he that governs temper better than he that takes a city.

33 All come upon the ungodly into bosoms; but all righteous things of the Lord.

Footnotes

• [a] Gr. boasting.