Proverbs 10: 3

Proverbs 10: 3 (NKJV)

3 The LORD will not allow the righteous soul to famish,

But He casts away the desire of the wicked.

Today’s verse is another contrast between the “righteous” person and the “wicked” one. It contains a wonderful promise for those who choose the “paths of righteousness.”

NOTE: In most translations of the Bible, when the word “LORD” is in all capital letters, it has been translated from the Hebrew word, YHWH, which is so holy that many very devout Jewish people won’t even speak the word. When it has been translated from the Hebrew word, Adoni, it is written as “Lord,” and when the two Hebrew words are used together in the Old Testament, it is translated as “ Sovereign LORD.”

As we saw in our last study, the word, “righteous,” is defined in the Online Dictionary as: 1. Morally upright; without guilt or sin. The word, “famish,” is defined as: 1. To cause to endure severe hunger. 2. To cause to starve to death. This is a literal definition, and not someone who is just “very hungry,” but this is speaking of someone who is “starving to death!” This verse, then, says that God will NOT allow the righteous soul (a reborn soul) to starve to death. It is a promise we need to remember and have faith in.

To “cast away” is to: chuck out, discard, throw away, or throw out, and, as we have studied before, the “desires of the wicked,” could also be called the “lusts of the flesh.” Those that follow these “lusts” or fleshly desires are in direct opposition to the things of God, and they shall eventually be “cast away.”