When the wicked increase, transgression increases, but the righteous will look upon their downfall.
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.
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...
(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).