Proverbs 10:2 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Treasures of wickedness Such as are got by any sort of unjust or wicked practices; or worldly riches in general, termed by our Lord, the mammon of unrighteousness, Luke 16:9, because they are often used in an unrighteous manner, and made instruments of unrighteousness, and for other reasons there explained; profit nothing Do the possessor no good at the time here intended, but, as is implied in the opposite member of the sentence, much hurt. They not only do not deliver him from death, but often expose him to it, either from men, who would take away his life that they may enjoy his wealth, or from God, who shortens his days, as a punishment of those luxuries and other sins into which his wealth led him: whence death becomes more terrible, as being attended with guilt and a dread of the second death. But righteousness True holiness of heart and life; or he may mean justice and equity in the getting of riches, and a liberal and charitable use of them, which is often called righteousness in Scripture, and is indeed but an act of justice; (of which see on Proverbs 3:27;) delivereth from death Frequently from temporal death, because men generally love and honour, and will assist such persons in cases of danger, and God often gives them the blessing of a long life; and always from eternal death, when such justice and charity proceed from true piety and a good conscience.