Proverbs 24:20

24:20 for the evil person has no future, ¹ 

and the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished. ² 

Proverbs 24:14

24:14 Likewise, know ³  that wisdom is sweet ⁴  to your soul;

if you find it, ⁵  you will have a future, ⁶ 

and your hope will not be cut off.

[24:20]  ¹ tn Heb “there is no end [i.e., future] for the evil.”

[24:20]  ² sn The saying warns against envying the wicked; v. 19 provides the instruction, and v. 20 the motivation. The motivation is that there is no future hope for them – nothing to envy, or as C. H. Toy explains, there will be no good outcome for their lives (Proverbs [ICC], 449). They will die suddenly, as the implied comparison with the lamp being snuffed out signifies.

[24:14]  ³ tn D. W. Thomas argues for a meaning of “seek” in place of “know” (“Notes on Some Passages in the Book of Proverbs,” JTS 38 [1937]: 400-403).

[24:14]  ⁴ tn The phrase “is sweet” is supplied in the translation as a clarification.

[24:14]  ⁵ tn The term “it” is supplied in the translation.

[24:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “there will be an end.” The word is אַחֲרִית (’akhrit, “after-part, end”). BDB 31 s.v. b says in a passage like this it means “a future,” i.e., a happy close of life, sometimes suggesting the idea of posterity promised to the righteous, often parallel to “hope.”