Proverbs 14:16 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil He trembles at God's judgments when they are either inflicted or threatened; and shuns sin, which is the procuring cause of all calamities; but the fool rages Frets against God, or is enraged against his messengers who declare the threatening; or, as the Hebrew, מתעבר, should rather be translated here, transgresseth, or goeth on in sin constantly and resolutely; which is fitly opposed to departing from evil; as his being confident, in the next clause, that is, secure and insensible of danger, till God's judgments overtake him, is opposed to fearing. Bishop Patrick's interpretation is, “A wise man, being admonished of his error, and of his danger, is afraid of incurring the divine displeasure; and instantly starts back from that evil way into which he was entering, or wherein he was engaged: but a fool storms at those that would stop him in his course, and proceeds boldly and securely to his own ruin.”