Proverbs 13:9 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The light of the righteous rejoiceth— See chap. Proverbs 4:18-19. Schultens renders it, The light of the righteous shall shine forth joyfully; but the darkening lamp of the wicked shall be put out. If there was a difference anciently, as there is now, in Egypt, between the lamps of the poor and of the prosperous, as to the brightness and agreeableness of the scent of the several kinds of oil which they burnt, possibly Solomon might refer to that circumstance in these words. The light of the righteous rejoiceth; he uses the brightest burning and most agreeable scented kind of oil; he prospers: But the lamp of the wicked shall be put out; he shall not only be poor, but be destroyed, and his house become desolate. It may, however, very possibly refer to the great number of lights which the righteous burned, which might be as numerous almost as those of an illumination in a time of public rejoicing, the families of the wealthy in these countries being extremely numerous; and, according to Maillet, every inhabited apartment has a light burning in it: whereas the wicked shall sink in his circumstances, and have hardly a servant to attend him; yea, shall absolutely perish, and his house become desolate. See Observations, p. 108.