Proverbs 14:19 - Exposition

The evil bow before the good; and the wicked stand at the gates of the righteous ( Proverbs 8:34 ). The final victory of good over evil is here set forth. However triumphant for a time and apparently prosperous the wicked may be, their success is not lasting; they shall in the end succumb to the righteous, even as the Canaanite kings crouched before Joshua's captains ( Joshua 10:24 ), and, hurled from their high estate, they shall stand humbly at the good man's door, begging for bread to support their life ( 1 Samuel 2:36 ). The contrast here indicated is seen in our Lord's parable of Dives and Lazarus, when the beggar is comforted and the rich man is tormented, and when the latter urgently sues for the help of the once despised outcast to mitigate the agony which he is suffering (comp. Wis. 5).