Proverbs 29:16 (BSB)

When the wicked thrive, rebellion increases; but the righteous will see their downfall.

From Proverbs 29. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 29:16

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 29:16: Note, 1. The more sinners there are the more sin there is: When the wicked, being countenanced by authority, grow numerous, and walk on every side, no marvel if transgression increases, as a plague in the country is said to increase when still more and more are infected with it. Transgression grows more impudent and bold, more imperious and threatening, when there are many to keep it in countenance.
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 29:16: When the wicked are multiplied,.... Or "are in authority" (r); as the word is rendered, Pro 29:2; transgression increaseth; among the common people, being encouraged by their wicked rulers, whose examples they follow; or as the wicked themselves increase, in numbers, in age, in power, and riches, their sins increase too; but the righteous shall see their fall, from their places of authority and power...
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (Reformed), Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible on Proverbs 29:16: (Compare Pro 29:2, Pro 29:12; Psa 12:1-8). shall see . . . fall--and triumph in it (Psa 37:34-38; Psa 58:10-11).
• Keil & Delitzsch (Lutheran), Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament on Proverbs 29:16: Pro 29:16 16 When the godless increase, wickedness increaseth; But the righteous shall see their fall. The lxx translation is not bad: πολλῶν ὄντων ἀσεβῶν πολλαὶ γίνονται ἁμαρτίαι (vid., regarding רבה, Pro 29:2, Pro 28:28); but in the main it is only a Binsenwahrheit, as they say in Swabia, i.e., a trivial saying.