Proverbs 13:12 (BSB)

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

From Proverbs 13. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 13:12

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 13:12: Note, 1. Nothing is more grievous than the disappointment of a raised expectation, though not in the thing itself by a denial, yet in the time of it by a delay: Hope deferred makes the heart sick and languishing, fretful and peevish; but hope quite dashed kills the heart, and the more high the expectation was raised the more cutting is the frustration of it.
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 13:12: Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,.... That is, the object hoped for; if it is not enjoyed so soon as expected, at least if it is delayed any length of time, the mind becomes uneasy, the heart sinks and fails, and the man is dispirited and ready to despond, and give up all hope of enjoying the desired blessing; whether it be deliverance from any...
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (Reformed), Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible on Proverbs 13:12: desire cometh--is realized. a tree of life--or, "cause of happiness."
• Keil & Delitzsch (Lutheran), Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament on Proverbs 13:12: Pro 13:12 The figures of paradise in Pro 13:12 and Pro 13:14 require us to take along with them the intermediate verse (Pro 13:13). 12 Deferred waiting maketh the heart sick, And a tree of life is a wish accomplished. Singularly the lxx Κρείσσων ἐναρχόμενος βοηθῶν καρδίᾳ, followed by the Syr. (which the Targ.