A wise [man] feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.
Ver. 16. A wise man feareth and departeth from evil.] He trembleth at the judgments while they hang in the threatenings, meets God with entreaties of peace, and so redeems his own sorrows. Solo auditu contremisco, saith Jerome, speaking of that terrible text, Ezekiel 16:42 : "I tremble at the very hearing of it." So Erasmus, repeating those words, "His blood will I require at thy hands"; Eze 3:18 these, saith he, are fulmina, non verba - not words, but thunderbolts. A good child, if but threatened only, will amend his fault; yea, if he but hear others threatened. Daniel was more troubled than Nebuchadnezzar was. Dan 4:19 Habakkuk, when in a vision he saw the judgments of God that were to come upon the Chaldeans, it made his very heart to ache and quake within him. Pro 3:16
But the fool rageth and is confident.] Some render it "rangeth and is confident," transit et confidit - so the Vulgate and the original will well enough bear it - he passeth on from sin to sin like a madman, and yet persuades himself that all shall do well. Such a desperate fool was Balaam, though the angel met him with a drawn sword, yet he would needs on; and what was the issue? He died by the sword of Israel, though he seemed a friend to Israel. Not to be warned is both a just presage, and desert, of ruin.