Proverbs 13:19

The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul,.... Whether the desire be after riches and honour, after wisdom and knowledge; or after the best things, the knowledge of God, and communion with him; an

The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul: but it is abomination to fools to depart from evil. The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul: but (it is) abomination to fools to depart from evil.

The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul; the satisfaction of a man’ s desires by the enjoyment of the things desired is very acceptable to him; which may be taken either, 1. Of the desire of fools, which may be understood out of the next clause. So the sense of the verse is, It is sweet to sinners to indulge and satisfy their desires, which are wholly carnal and sinful, and for that reason they love sin, and hate the thoughts of leaving it, because their desires are wholly and fully set upon it. Or, 2. Of good desires, or of the desires of wise and good men, as the LXX., and Chaldee, and Syriac, and Arabic interpreters understand it, by the opposition of fools in the next clause. So the sense may be this. The desires of good men are set upon what is good, and they rejoice when they attain to it, and are grieved when they fall short of it; but the desires of the wicked are set upon sin, and it is a pleasure to them to commit it, and an abomination to them to be hindered from it. Or rather, 3. Of desires in general. Whatsoever men do earnestly desire, the enjoyment of it is very sweet and grateful to them; and therefore sinners rejoice in the pursuit and satisfaction of their sinful lusts, and abhor all restraint and mortification of them. For this is certain and confessed, that many things are understood in these short proverbial speeches which are not expressed. But; or, and, as this particle properly signifies; or, therefore, as it is frequently used.

Proverbs 13:19 The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul: but [it is] abomination to fools to depart from evil.Ver. 19. The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul.] Tota vita boni Christiani sanctum desiderium est, saith Augustine: The whole life of a good Christian is one holy desire; he even spends and exhales himself in continual sallies, as it were, and expressions of strongest affection to God, whom he hath chosen, and with whom he hath much sweet intercourse. He cannot be at rest without some comings in from him every day. And then, Oh the joys, the joys, the inconceivable joys! as she once cried out ‘ Oh that joy! O my God, when shall I be with thee?’ These were the dying words of the young Lord Harrington. He was in heaven aforehand, as having let out his holy soul into God, the fountain of all good. But it is abomination to fools to depart from evil.] To be pulled from their vain delights, though never so sinful, never so destructive. Esau, for a mess of pottage, sold his birthright; Cardinal Burbon would not part with his part in Paris for a part in paradise. Theotimus, in Ambrose, being told that intemperance would be the loss of his eyesight, cried out, Vale lumen amicum. He would rather lose his sight than his sin; so doth many a man his soul. The panther loves man’ s dung, they say, so much, that if it is hanged a height from him, he will leap up, and never stop till he hath burst himself in pieces to get it; and this is the way they get that creature. Like policy uses Satan, by base lusts, to draw many to hell. It was a speech of Gregory Nyssen, He that doth but hear of hell, is without any further labour or study taken off from sinful pleasures. Men’ s hearts are grown harder today. Mrs. Kath. Brettergh. Fun. Serm. by Mr Stock.

(19) But it is abomination to fools . . .—That is, though their clinging to evil prevents the attainment of such objects as are worth desiring. If the verse be interpreted “therefore it is abomination,” &c, the sense will be, “because the satisfaction of desire is pleasant, therefore fools will not give up anything, though evil, on which they have set their minds.”

Verse 19. The desire accomplished] See on Proverbs 13:12.

19. but] If with R.V. we retain but, we must understand desire in the first clause in a good sense, as in Proverbs 13:12 : q.d. in spite of the sweetness of good desires accomplished, fools will not forsake evil to attain to it. Balaam’s desire, “let me die the death of the righteous” (Numbers 23:10), would have been “sweet to his soul” in its accomplishment, but it was abomination to him to depart from “the wages of unrighteousness.” (2 Peter 2:15.) Some, however, would understand the first clause as assigning a reason for what is stated in the second: Because the desire accomplished, &c., therefore it is abomination to fools to depart from the evil on which their heart is set.

The connection is somewhat obscure. Either, “Satisfied desire is pleasant, therefore it is an abomination to fools to depart from the evil on which their minds are set;” or, “Sweet is the

19. Desire accomplished is sweet — In this is implied that the desire is itself for good, consequently its accomplishment brings pleasure; fools so adhere to evil as to be incapable of good desires,