Proverbs 14:26 - Exposition

In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence. The fear of God casts out all fear of man, all despairing anticipations of possible evil, and makes the believer confident and bold. St. Gregory ('Moral.,' 5:33), "As in the way of the world fear gives rise to weakness, so in the way of God fear produces strength. In truth, our mind so much the more valorously sets at naught all the terrors of temporal vicissitudes, the more thoroughly that it submits itself in fear to the Author of those same temporal things. And being stablished in the fear of the Lord, it encounters nothing without it to fill it with alarm, in that whereas it is united to the Creator of all things by a righteous fear, it is by a certain powerful influence raised high above them all." Comp. Psalms 27:1 and St. Paul's words, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" ( Romans 8:31 ). Septuagint, "In the fear of the Lord is hope of strength." And his children shall have a place of refuge ( Psalms 46:1 ). There is an ambiguity as to whose children are meant. The LXX . renders, "And to his children he will leave a support." Thus many refer the pronoun to the Lord named in the first clause—God's children, those who love and trust him, and look up to him as a Father, an expression used more specially in the New Testament than in the Old. But see Psalms 73:15 , and passages ( e.g. Hosea 11:1 ) where God calls Israel his son, a type of all who are brought unto him by adoption and grace. Others, again, refer the pronoun to "the fear of the Lord," "its children," which would be quite in conformity with Hebrew idiom; as we have "sons of wisdom," "children of obedience," equivalent to "wise," "obedient," etc. But most modern commentators explain it of the children of the God-fearing man, comparing Exodus 20:6 and Psalms 103:17 . Such a one shall confer lasting benefits upon his posterity ( Psalms 13:1-6 :22; Psalms 20:7 ). So God blessed the descendants of Abraham and David; so he shows mercy unto thousands i.e. the thousandth generation of them that love him and keep his commandments (see Genesis 17:7 , etc.; Exodus 34:7 ; 1 Kings 11:12 , etc.; Jeremiah 33:20 , etc.).