Proverbs 12:12

The wicked desireth the net of evil [men],.... To be master of all the wicked arts and methods evil men use to ensnare and oppress others; to get them and their substance into their hands; or

The wicked desireth the net of evil men: but the root of the righteous yieldeth fruit. The wicked desireth the net of evil (men): but the root of the righteous yieldeth (fruit).

The wicked desireth the net of evil men; he approveth and useth those cunning and deceitful arts, which wicked men use like nets to insnare other men, and to take their goods to themselves. Or, he desireth the fortress of wicked men, or of wickedness, i.e. he seeks to fortify and stablish himself by wicked practices. The root of the righteous yieldeth fruit; that justice and piety in which he is rooted, and which is the root of his actions, doth of itself, without the aid of any indirect and sinful courses, yield him sufficient fruit, both for his own need, and to do good to others. But because the word fruit is not in the Hebrew, and may seem to be too great a supplement, it is and may be rendered thus, the root of the righteous giveth it, to wit, that fortress or security which others seek in wickedness.

Proverbs 12:12 The wicked desireth the net of evil [men]: but the root of the righteous yieldeth [fruit].Ver. 12. The wicked desireth the net of evil men,] i.e., He so furiously pursueth his lusts, as if he desired destruction; as if he would outdare God himself; as if the guerdon of his gracelessness would not come time enough, but he must needs run to meet it. Thus thrasonical Lamech thinks to have the odds of God, seventy to seven. Thus the princes of the Philistines, while plagued, came up to Mizpeh against Israel - who were there drawing water, i.e., weeping abundantly before the Lord - as it were to fetch their bane. Thus Pope Julius III will have his pork flesh, al despito de Dio; and Doctor Story will curse Queen Elizabeth in his daily grace before eating, and yet say in open parliament that he saw nothing to be ashamed of, much less to be sorry for, but that he had done no more against the heretics, yea, against the queen herself in the days of her sister Mary. This Story, escaping out of prison, got to Antwerp, and there received commission under Duke d’ Alva to search all ships coming thither for English books. But one Parker, an English merchant, trading to Antwerp, laid his fair net to catch this foul bird, causing secret notice to be given to Story, that in his ship were store of heretical books, with other intelligences that might stand him in stead. The canonist, conceiving that all was cock sure, hasted to the ship, where, with looks very big upon the poor mariners, each cabin, chest, and corner above board, were searched, and some things found to draw him further on; so that the hatches must be opened, which seemed to be unwillingly done, and great signs of fear were revealed by their faces. This drew on the doctor to descend into the hold; where now in the trap the mouse might well gnaw, but could not get out; for the hatches went down, and the sails hoisted up, which, with a merry gale, were blown into England, where ere long he was arraigned and condemned of high treason, and accordingly executed at Tyburn, as he had well deserved. Jun. in loc. Acts and Mon., 1925. Speed’ s Hist. of Great Britain, fol. 1174.

(12) The wicked desireth the net of evil men—i.e., to enrich himself by prey as they do; but the “root of the righteous yieldeth fruit,” by their own exertion they gain all they require without injuring others.

Verse 12. The wicked desireth the net of evil men] They applaud their ways, and are careful to imitate them in their wiles.

12. net] This rendering, which is retained in R.V. text, and on which the rendering prey, R.V. marg., is only a gloss (prey=net, for what it catches), gives a good and forcible antithesis to the proverb. There is perhaps an intended contrast between the restless and often fruitless activity of the hunter with his net, and the calm, stedfast fruit-bearing, as by a natural process, of the firmly-rooted tree. So St Paul contrasts the “works” of the flesh with the “fruit” of the spirit, and “the unfruitful works of darkness” with “the fruit of the light” (Galatians 5:19; Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 5:9-10, R.V.). The abrupt change of figure from the “net” to the tree is quite in accordance with Hebrew modes of thought. In like manner in Psalms 1 the righteous is the flourishing and fruitful tree, and the wicked, not as we might have expected the barren and withered tree, but the chaff scattered by the wind as it sweeps across the bare hill-top of the summer threshing-floor. The rendering fortress (A.V. marg., the munimentum of the Vulgate) is explained to mean, that the protection which a wicked man seeks by associating with men like himself, and so finding security in numbers, the righteous has in his own innate stability. But this is far-fetched, and the rendering disappears altogether in R.V.

The meaning seems to be: The “net of evil men” (compare Proverbs 1:17) is that in which they are taken, the judgment of God in which they are ensnared.

12. Desireth the net — Spoil or prey, the product of the “net.” Of evil men — Or, of the evil.