Proverbs 14:32

This verse also contains a key-word beginning with מ, but pairs acrostically with the proverb following: When misfortune befalls him, the godless is overthrown; But the righteous remains hopeful in his death. When the subject is רעה connected with רשׁע (the godless), then it may be understood of evil thought and action (Ecc 7:15) as well as of the experience of evil (e.g., Pro 13:21). The lxx (and also the Syr., Targ., Jerome, and Venet.) prefers the former, but for the sake of producing an exact parallelism changes במותו [in his death] into בתמּו [in his uprightness], reversing also the relation of the subject and the predicate: ὁ δὲ πεποιθὼς τῇ ἑαυτοῦ ὁσιότητι (the Syr.: in this, that he has no sin; Targ.: when he dies) δίκαιος. But no Scripture word commends in so contradictory a manner self-righteousness, for the verb חסה never denotes self-confidence, and with the exception of two passages (Jdg 9:15; Isa 30:2), where it is connected with בּצל, is everywhere the exclusive (vid., Psa 118:8.) designation of confidence resting itself in God, even without the 'בה, as here as at Psa 17:7. The parallelism leads us to translate ברעתו, not on account of his wickedness, but with Luther, in conformity with במותו, in his misfortune, i.e., if it befall him. Thus Jeremiah (Jer 23:12) says of the sins of his people: בּאפלה ידּחוּ, in the deep darkness they are driven on (Niph. of דחח = דחה), and Pro 24:16 contains an exactly parallel thought: the godless stumble ברעה, into calamity. Ewald incorrectly: in his calamity the wicked is overthrown - for what purpose then the pronoun? The verb דחה frequently means, without any addition, "to stumble over heaps," e.g., Psa 35:5; 36:13. The godless in his calamity is overthrown, or he fears in the evils which befall him the intim…

Here is, 1. The desperate condition of a wicked man when he goes out of the world: He is driven away in his wickedness. He cleaves so closely to the world that he cannot find in his heart to leave it, but is driven away out of it; his soul is required, is forced from him, And sin cleaves so closely to him that it is inseparable; it goes with him into another world; he is driven away in his wickedness, dies in his sins, under the guilt and power of them, unjustified, unsanctified. His wickedness is the storm in which he is hurried away, as chaff before the wind, chased out of the world. 2. The comfortable condition of a godly man when he finishes his course: He has hope in his death of a happiness on the other side death, of better things in another world than ever he had in this. The righteous then have the grace of hope in them; though they have pain, and some dread of death, yet they have hope. They have before them the good hoped for, even the blessed hope which God, who cannot lie, has promised.

14:32 Proverbs infrequently hints at life after death. Some scholars think this verse refers to God’s granting courage to face death with dignity and serenity.