Proverbes 28:14

14 Heureux est l'homme qui est continuellement dans la crainte; mais celui qui endurcit son cœur tombera dans la calamité.

Proverbes 28:14 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 28:14

Happy [is] the man that feareth alway
Not men, but the Lord; there is a fear and reverence due to men, according to the stations in which they are; but a slavish fear of man, and which deters from the worship of God and obedience to him, is criminal, and brings a snare; and a man, under the influence of it, cannot be happy: nor is a servile fear of God intended, a fear of wrath and damnation, or a distrust of his grace, a continual calling in question his love, and an awful apprehension of his displeasure and vengeance; for in such fear is torment, and with it a man can never be happy; but it is a reverence and godly fear, a filial one, a fear of God and his goodness, which he puts into the hearts of his people; a fear, indeed, of offending him, of sinning against him, by which a man departs from evil, and forsakes it, as well as confesses it; but is what arises from a sense of his goodness: and it is well when such a fear of God is always before the eyes and on the hearts of men; in their closets and families, in their trade and commerce, in all companies into which they come, as, well as in the house of God and the assembly of his saints, where he is to be feared; as also in prosperity and adversity, even throughout the whole course of life, passing the time of their sojourning here in fear: and such a man is happy; the eye of God is on him, his heart is towards him, and he delights it, him; his secret is with him, he sets a guard of angels about him, has laid up goodness for him, and communicates largely to him; but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief;
that hardens his heart from the fear of the Lord; neither confesses his sin, nor forsakes it; bids, as it were, defiance to heaven, strengthens and hardens himself in his wickedness, and by his hard and impenitent heart treasures up to himself wrath against the day of wrath; he falls "into evil" ^F11, as it may be rendered, into the evil of sin yet more and more, which the hardness of his heart brings him into, and so into the evil of punishment here and hereafter.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 (herb) "in malum", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schultens.

Proverbes 28:14 In-Context

12 Quand les justes se réjouissent, la gloire est grande; mais quand les méchants s'élèvent, chacun se cache.

13 Celui qui cache ses transgressions, ne prospérera point; mais celui qui les confesse et qui les abandonne, obtiendra miséricorde.

14 Heureux est l'homme qui est continuellement dans la crainte; mais celui qui endurcit son cœur tombera dans la calamité.

15 Un méchant qui domine sur un peuple pauvre est un lion rugissant et un ours affamé.

16 Le prince qui manque d'intelligence fait beaucoup d'exactions; mais celui qui hait le gain déshonnête, prolongera ses jours.