Commentary - Proverbs 10:16

Bird's-eye view

Proverbs 10:16 is a compact statement of the Bible's "two ways" theology, a theme that runs from Genesis to Revelation. This verse, situated in a chapter full of stark contrasts, sets before us the fundamental choice every human being faces and the inevitable outcomes of that choice. It is a proverb about spiritual economics. Everyone works for something; everyone receives a payment. The righteous man labors, and his paycheck is life itself. The wicked man also has an income, but his earnings are not what he thinks. What he accumulates is not true wealth, but rather a debt that results in punishment, or sin that leads to death. This is not a promise of earthly prosperity for the godly and poverty for the wicked in every instance, but rather a statement about the ultimate trajectory and end of two diametrically opposed ways of living. It reveals that our daily work, our striving, our getting and spending, is never neutral; it is always leading us toward one of two final destinations: life or death.

At its core, this proverb is a gospel statement. The "righteous" man is not one who is sinlessly perfect, but one who is in right standing with God through faith. His labor "tends to life" because he is connected to the source of life, Jesus Christ. The "wicked" man is the one who lives for himself, and his income is sin, which, as Paul tells us, has a fixed wage: death. This verse, therefore, is a call to examine our own lives. What are we working for? What is the true currency we are accumulating? Are we sowing to the Spirit and reaping eternal life, or are we sowing to the flesh and reaping corruption?

Outline

Context In Proverbs

Proverbs chapter 10 marks a significant shift in the book. The first nine chapters consist of longer, thematic discourses, primarily a father's extended exhortations to his son to pursue wisdom and avoid folly. With chapter 10, we move into the section of short, pithy, two-clause proverbial statements, often presenting a sharp contrast. This chapter is filled with antithetical parallelism, where the second line presents a truth that is the opposite of the first. We see contrasts between the wise and the foolish, the diligent and the lazy, the righteous and the wicked. Verse 16 fits perfectly into this pattern. It follows verses contrasting treasures gained by wickedness with righteousness that delivers from death (v. 2), the Lord's provision for the righteous with the frustration of the wicked's craving (v. 3), and the diligent hand with the slack hand (v. 4). This verse distills the essence of these preceding contrasts into a single, powerful statement about ultimate outcomes. The entire section is designed to show that righteousness and wickedness are not abstract categories; they are practical ways of life with real, tangible, and eternal consequences.

Key Issues

The Inescapable Payday

One of the central lies of our secular age is the idea of neutrality. The thought is that a man can simply live his life, do his job, mind his own business, and the ultimate consequences will be more or less negligible. He is not "religious," so he is not earning heaven, but he is not a monster, so he is not earning hell. He is just... living. But Scripture knows nothing of this neutral territory. Jesus Himself taught that the road is either broad and leads to destruction, or it is narrow and leads to life (Matt. 7:13-14). There is no third road that just leads to the mall.

Proverbs 10:16 makes the same point with the language of commerce. Everyone is on a payroll. No one is a volunteer. You are either working for God or you are working for yourself, which is ultimately to be in the employ of sin. And at the end of the day, there is a payday. The word for "wages" here (pe'ullah) refers to work, reward, or recompense. It is what you get for what you did. The word for "income" (tevu'ah) refers to produce, revenue, or gain. Both words point to an inescapable law of the harvest. What you sow, you will also reap. This proverb forces us to ask the question: "Who is my master, and what is my paycheck?" The answer to that question determines everything.

Verse by Verse Commentary

16 The wages of the righteous is life...

The first clause establishes the destiny of the righteous. The word "righteous" (tzaddiq) in the Old Testament refers to one who is in right covenant relationship with God. It is a legal, forensic term before it is an ethical one. Of course, one who is declared righteous by God will then begin to live righteously, but the foundation is his standing before God. For the Christian, this righteousness is the imputed righteousness of Christ, received by faith alone.

The "wages" or the labor of this righteous person "is life." The New King James Version says his labor "leads to life." This is a crucial distinction. We do not earn eternal life through our righteous labor. As Paul makes clear in Romans, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life (Rom. 6:23). Life is a gift. However, the life that is gifted to us in Christ then works itself out in our labors. The work we do as believers, our vocations, our parenting, our service in the church, is all part of the trajectory of this new life. It is the fruit of life, the evidence of life, and the path in which this life walks. It all tends in one direction: more life, fuller life, and ultimately, eternal life. The work of a righteous man, empowered by the Spirit, builds and cultivates and creates. It is life-affirming because it flows from the God of life.

...The income of the wicked, punishment.

The second clause provides the stark contrast. The "wicked" (rasha') is the one who is out of covenant with God, the one who lives as though God does not matter. He is his own law, his own master. He also has an "income" or "revenue." He is not idle. He schemes, he works, he builds, he accumulates. From the world's perspective, he may be wildly successful. He may have a massive portfolio and a sprawling estate. But what is his actual, spiritual profit?

The text here is potent. The NASB translates it as "punishment," while the KJV and ESV render it as "sin." The Hebrew word (chattath) can mean either sin or the punishment/offering for sin. And this is a beautiful ambiguity, because the two are inextricably linked. The revenue of the wicked is more sin. His sinful work produces a sinful character, which in turn produces more sinful work. He is caught in a downward spiral of sin that earns him only more sin. And what is the end result of this accumulation of sin? Punishment. Judgment. Death. His entire life's work, all his striving and gain, has only served to increase his guilt before a holy God. He thought he was building a fortune, but in reality, he was only building his own gallows. His final paycheck is death, a wage he has most assuredly earned.

Application

This proverb is a diagnostic tool for our souls. We live in a world that is constantly telling us what our labor is for. It's for the weekend. It's for the promotion. It's for the bigger house, the nicer car, the comfortable retirement. These things are not necessarily evil in themselves, but if they are the ultimate "why" behind our work, then we are on the wicked man's payroll.

The Christian must see his labor differently. Whether you are a pastor or a plumber, a mother or a machinist, if you are in Christ, your work is an opportunity to walk the path of life. Your labor is not ultimately for a paycheck from your employer, but for the glory of your Father in heaven. The integrity with which you work, the excellence you pursue, the love you show to coworkers and clients, all of it is part of the "wages" that is life. It is how we sow to the Spirit. It is how we lay up treasures in heaven.

Conversely, we must be on guard against the wicked man's accounting. It is easy to look at the apparent success of those who cut corners, who lie, who cheat, who live for themselves, and to feel a twinge of envy. But this proverb pulls back the curtain. Their income is a sham. Their profits are spiritual poison. They are earning death. We must, by faith, believe God's accounting system over the world's. We must believe that the path of righteousness, even when it is difficult and seemingly unrewarding, is the only path that leads to life. For the righteous man's hope is not in the wages he receives on Friday, but in the life he has been given freely in Christ Jesus, a life that animates all his work and will one day be consummated in glory.