Sprüche 12:7

7 The godless are overturned and are no more, But the house of the righteous stands. Bertheau and Zckler explain: The wicked turn about, then are they no more; i.e., as we say: it is over with them "in the turning of a hand." The noun in the inf. absol. may certainly be the subject, like Pro 17:12, as well as the object (Ewald, 328c), and הפך may be used of the turning about of oneself, Psa 78:9; Kg2 5:26; Ch2 9:12. That explanation also may claim for itself that הפך nowhere occurs with a personal object, if we except one questionable passage, Isa 1:7. But here the interpretation of the רשׁעים as the object lies near the contrast of בית, and moreover the interpretation of the הפך, not in the sense of στρέφεσθαι (lxx), but of καταστρέφειν (Syr., Targ., Jerome, Graec. Venet., Luther), lies near the contrast of יעמד. The inf. absol. thus leaves the power from which the catastrophe proceeds indefinite, as the pass. יהפפכוּ would also leave it, and the act designedly presented in a vague manner to connect with ו the certain consequences therewith, as Pro 25:4., as if to say: there comes only from some quarter an unparalleled overthrow which overwhelms the godless; thus no rising up again is to be thought on, it is all over with them; while, on the contrary, the house of the righteous withstands the storm which sweeps away the godless.

We are here taught as before (Pro 12:3 and Pro 10:25, Pro 10:30), 1. That the triumphing of the wicked is short. They may be exalted for a while, but in a little time they are overthrown and are not; their trouble proves their overthrow, and those who made a great show disappear, and their place knows them no more. Turn the wicked, and they are not; they stand in such a slippery place that the least touch of trouble brings them down, like the apples of Sodom, which look fair, but touch them and they go to dust. 2. That the prosperity of the righteous has a good bottom and will endure. Death will remove them, but their house shall stand, their families shall be kept up, and the generation of the upright shall be blessed.

12:7 The wicked might prosper momentarily, but they do not last. The family of the godly stands firm for generations.