Proverbs 23:18

23:18 For surely there is a future, ¹ 

and your hope will not be cut off. ² 

Proverbs 24:20

24:20 for the evil person has no future, ³ 

and the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished. ⁴ 

Proverbs 24:14

24:14 Likewise, know ⁵  that wisdom is sweet ⁶  to your soul;

if you find it, ⁷  you will have a future, ⁸ 

and your hope will not be cut off.

[23:18]  ¹ tn Heb “end” (so KJV); ASV “a reward.”

[23:18]  ² sn The saying is an understatement; far from being cut off, the “hope” will be realized in the end. So this saying, the thirteenth, advises people to be zealous for the fear of the Lord, their religion, rather than for anything that sinners have to offer.

[24:20]  ³ tn Heb “there is no end [i.e., future] for the evil.”

[24:20]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn The phrase “is sweet” is supplied in the translation as a clarification.

[24:14]  ⁷ tn The term “it” is supplied in the translation.

[24:14]  ⁸ 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.”