Proverbs 29:6

In the transgression of an evil man [there is] a snare,.... Or, according to the accents in some copies, "in the transgression of a man is an evil snare", as Aben Ezra observes the words may be read;

In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare: but the righteous doth sing and rejoice.

There is a snare; his sin will bring him to dreadful horrors and certain ruin. Doth sing and rejoice, because he hath sweet peace in his own conscience, and assurance of present safety and eternal happiness.

Proverbs 29:6 In the transgression of an evil man [there is] a snare: but the righteous doth sing and rejoice.Ver. 6. In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare.] Or, A cord - viz., to strangle his joy with - to check and choke all his comforts. In the midst of his mirth he hath many a secret gripe, and little knows the world where his shoe pincheth him. Every fowl that hath a seemly feather hath not the sweetest flesh, nor doth every tree that bringeth a goodly leaf bear good fruit. Glass giveth a clearer sound than silver, and many things glitter besides gold. The wicked man’ s jollity is but the hypocrisy of mirth; it may wet the mouth, but not warm the heart - smooth the brow, but not fill the breast. We may be sure, that as Jezebel had a cold heart under a painted complexion, so many a man’ s heart aches and quakes within him when his face counterfeits a smile. But the righteous sing and rejoice.] Good men only may be glad, and none have any reason to rejoice but they. The Papists have a proverb, Spiritus Calvinianus est spiritus melancholicus, and the mad world are easily persuaded by the devil that there is no comfort in a Christian course - that your precise fellows live a melancholy and monkish kind of life, and have no joy of anything. Herein the devil deals like those inhospitable savages in America, that make great fires, and set forth terrible sights upon their country’ s shore, purposely to frighten passengers from landing there. And as those wicked spies brought up an evil report of the land of Canaan, and thereby discouraged the people, so doth the devil and his imps of the purity of religion and power of godliness as uncouth and uncomfortable, when in truth there is no sound comfort without it - no true joy but in it. Though Saul could not be merry without a fiddler, Ahab without Naboth’ s vineyard, Haman without Mordecai’ s courtesy, yet a righteous man can be merry without all these. Yea, as the lily is fresh, beautiful, and looks pleasantly, though among thorns, so can he amidst troubles. Paul - than whom never any out of hell suffered more - did not only glory in tribulation, but "overabound exceedingly with joy."

(6) In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare.—For he knows not how by repentance to escape God’s wrath. But the righteous doth sing and rejoice.—Being assured of God’s mercy to those who repent, lie rejoices because his conscience is clear, and the “peace of God” (Philippians 4:7) keeps his heart.

6. a snare] in which, though perhaps he laid it for others (Psalms 9:15-16), he himself shall be taken, and so have sorrow, in contrast to the “joy and singing” of the righteous.

While the offence of the wicked, rising out of a confirmed habit of evil, becomes snare for his destruction; the righteous, even if he offend, is forgiven and can still rejoice in his freedom from condemnation.

6. Transgression… a snare — In which he is himself taken and brought to sorrow. But the righteous — He whose conduct is upright, escapes, and, as a consequence, he doth sing and rejoice.