9 The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked is snuffed out.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Very beautiful in its poetry is the idea of the light "rejoicing" in its brightness (compare Psalm 19:5; Job 38:7). Note also the distinction between the "light" and the "lamp." The righteous ones have the true light in them. That which belongs to the wicked is only derived and temporary, and even that shall be extinguished before long. Compare a like distinction in John 1:8; John 5:35.
The light of the righteous rejoiceth - They shall have that measure of prosperity which shall be best for them; but the wicked, howsoever prosperous for a time, shall be brought into desolation. Light and lamp in both cases may signify posterity. The righteous shall have a joyous posterity; but that of the wicked shall be cut off. So 1-Kings 11:36 : "And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light (נר ner, a lamp) always before me." 1-Kings 15:4 : "Nevertheless for David's sake did the Lord give them a lamp, to set up his son after him." See also Psalm 132:17, and several other places.
The light of the righteous rejoiceth,.... The light of joy and gladness, which is sown for them, and arises to them; the light of spiritual knowledge and experience they have; the light of sound doctrine; the light of good works, and a Gospel conversation; all this, as it is delightful to themselves and others, so it is increasing more and more to the perfect day, and it continues: so the Septuagint and Arabic versions, "light is always for the righteous"; especially it will be in the latter day, and particularly in the New Jerusalem state, when there will be no night, Revelation 21:23;
but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out; the light of the righteous is like that of the sun, bright and pleasant; but the light of the wicked is like that of a lamp, lesser and not so agreeable, nor will it last; their prosperity is short lived, their joy is but for a moment; the pleasures of sin are but for a season; their candle soon goes out; it is put out in obscure darkness, and they themselves are reserved to blackness of darkness, Job 18:5; as prosperous and flourishing as the kingdom of antichrist has been or is, it will be full of darkness, Revelation 16:12.
The light of the righteous is as that of the sun, which may be eclipsed and clouded, but will continue: the Spirit is their Light, he gives a fulness of joy: that of the wicked is as a lamp of their own kindling, easily put out.
light . . . lamp--prosperity; the first, the greater, and it
rejoiceth--burns brightly, or continues, while the other, at best small, soon fails.
The three following proverbs in Proverbs 13:9-11 have at least this in common, that the two concluding words of each correspond with one another almost rhythmically.
9 The light of the righteous burneth joyously,
And the lamp of the godless goeth out.
The second line = Proverbs 24:20, cf. Proverbs 20:20. In the Book of Job 18:5., אור רשׁעים ידעך and נרו עליו ידעך (cf. Proverbs 21:17) stand together, and there is spoken of (Proverbs 29:3) a divine נר as well as a divine אור which enlightens the righteous; however, one must say that the poet, as he, Proverbs 6:3, deliberately calls the Tor אור, and the commandment, as derived from it and separated, נר, so also here designedly calls the righteous אור, viz., אור היום (Proverbs 4:18, cf. 2-Peter 1:19), and the godless נר, viz., נר דלוק - the former imparts the sunny daylight, the latter the light of tapers set in darkness. The authentic punctuation is אור־צדיקים, Ben-Naphtali's is 'אור צ' si s'i without Makkeph. To ישׂמח Hitzig compares the "laughing tongue of the taper" of Meidni, iii. 475; Kimchi also the "laughing, i.e., amply measured span, טפח שׂוהק," of the Talmud; for the light laughs when it brightly shines, and increases rather than decreases; in Arab. samuḥa has in it the idea of joy directly related to that of liberality. The lxx translates ישׂמח incorrectly by διαπαντός, and has a distich following Proverbs 13:9, the first line of which is ψυχαὶ δόλιαι (נפשׁ רמיּה?) πλανῶνται ἐν ἁμαρτίαις, and the second line is from Psalm 37:21.
The light - The prosperity. Rejoiceth - Shines with a pleasant and constant brightness. Rejoicing is here ascribed to the light, as it is to the sun, Psalm 19:5, metaphorically. Put out - Their felicity shall have a hidden end.
*More commentary available at chapter level.