The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.

The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to decline from the ruin of death.

The fear of Jehovah is a fountain of life, to turn away from the snares of death.

The fear of Jehovah is a fountain of life, To turn aside from snares of death.

The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, by which one may be turned from the nets of death.

The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, so as to turn aside from the ruin of death.

See the marginal reference and Proverbs 10:11 note.

The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life - מקור חיים mekor chaiyim, the vein of lives. Another allusion to the great aorta which carries the blood from the heart to all the extremities of the body. Of this phrase, and the tree of lives, Solomon is particularly fond. See on Proverbs 4:23 (note); Proverbs 10:12 (note).

The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,.... Where the true fear of God is, there is a real principle of grace, which is "a well of living water, springing up unto everlasting life", John 4:14; eternal life is connected with it; it makes meet for it, and issues in it: or the Lord, who is the object of fear, he is the fountain of life: as of natural, so of spiritual and eternal life; spiritual life springs from him, is supported and maintained by him, the consequence of which is life everlasting;
to depart from the snares of death; sins, transgressions, as Aben Ezra interprets it; these are the works of men's hands, in which they are snared; these are the cords in which they are holden, and so die without instruction; the wages of them are death, even death eternal: likewise there are the snares of the world and of the devil, temptations to sin, with which being ensnared, lead to death; now the fear of the Lord is a means of delivering from and of avoiding those snares, and so of escaping death.

(Compare Proverbs 13:14).
fear of the Lord--or, "law of the wise," is wisdom (Psalm 111:10).

27 The fear of Jahve is a fountain of life,
To escape the snares of death.
There springs up a life which makes him who carries in himself (cf. John 4:14, ἐν αὐτῷ) this welling life, penetrating and strong of will to escape the snares (write after the Masora ממּקשׁי defective) which death lays, and which bring to an end in death - a repetition of Proverbs 13:4 with changed subject.

To depart - To preserve men from destructive courses.