A good [man] leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner [is] laid up for the just.
Ver. 22. A good man leaveth inheritance to his child.] Personal goodness is profitable to posterity. God gives not to his servants some small annuity for life only, as great men used to do; but "keepeth mercy for thousands" of generations "of them that fear him" Exo 34:7 - (where the Masorites observe Nun-Rabbath, a large N, in the word Notsot, "keepeth," to note the large extent of God's love to the good man's posterity.) God left David "a lamp in Jerusalem," 1Ki 15:4 although his house were not so with God. 2Sa 23:5
And the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.] As Nabal's was for David, Haman's for Mordecai, the Canaanites' for the Israelites. Howbeit this holds not perpetually and universally in every wicked person; for some of them are "full of children, and leave the rest of their substance for their babes." Psa 17:14 Hereupon "their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever; they call their lands after their own names" - as Cain called his new built city after the name of his son Enoch Gen 4:17 - "this their way is their folly" - or, is their constant hope, for the word signifies both - "and their posterity approve their sayings," and vote the same way. Psalms 49:11 ; Psa 49:13 But together with their lands, they bequeath their children their sins and punishments, which is far worse than that legacy of leprosy that Joab left his issue. 2Sa 3:29 Compare Job 27:16-17 Isaiah 61:5 .