Proverbs 24:16 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

Falleth; either,

1. Into sin. Or, rather,

2. Into calamities, of which he evidently speaks, both in the foregoing verse, and in the opposite and following branch of this verse, and so this word is used in the next verse, and Psalms 37:24 Isaiah 24:20 Jeremiah 25:27 Amos 8:14 Micah 7:8, &c. And so this is fitly alleged as a just reason to dissuade wicked men from their unjust attempts against righteous men, because they should not succeed in them; and although they might by God's permission bring them into some distress for a thee, yet God would deliver them out of their hands, and they should be disappointed of their hopes. Seven times, i.e. frequently. Into mischief; into unavoidable and irrecoverable destruction, ofttimes in this life, and infallibly in the next.

Proverbs 24:16

16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.