Proverbs 24:21,22 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

My son fear thou the Lord, &c.— The LXX, read, My son, fear God and the king; and be not disobedient to either of them: Proverbs 24:22 for they shall suddenly avenge the wicked; but the punishments of both of them, who shall know? Whence it is plain, says Dr. Grey, that they read the same word in both verses, though they happened to read the wrong word in both; namely שׁניהם sheneihem, them both; whereas it seems evident to me, that שׁונים shonim, them that are given to change, should be read in the second period as well as in the first; and then the sense will be, Suddenly shall their calamity rise; and the destruction of changes, who knoweth? i.e. "Who can tell the manifold miseries and mischiefs, which men of factious spirits bring upon themselves and others?" Houbigant renders the latter clause of the 22nd verse, And who can foresee the destruction by which they shall fall? The wise man here commands us first to obey God; and then, the king, or supreme legislature and magistrates of a state, whose office it is to see the laws of God observed by the subjects, and to make such laws as are not repugnant to those of God, to punish the contumacious, and to pronounce all sentences according to the law; and, thirdly, not to intermix with factious discontented persons, who wish to disturb the established government, and by that means bring upon themselves and others swift destruction.