Proverbs 22:4

The reward ¹  for humility ²  and fearing the Lord ³  is riches and honor and life.

Ps 34:9,10; Ps 112:1-3; Pr 3:16; Pr 21:21; Isa 33:6; Isa 57:15; Mt 6:33; 1Ti 4:8; Jas 4:6,10

¹ tn The Hebrew term עֵקֶב (’eqev, “reward”) is related to the term meaning “heel”; it refers to the consequences or the reward that follows (akin to the English expression “on the heels of”).

² tn “Humility” is used here in the religious sense of “piety”; it is appropriately joined with “the fear of the Lord.” Some commentators, however, make “the fear of the Lord” the first in the series of rewards for humility, but that arrangement is less likely here.

³ tn Heb “the fear of the Lord.” This is an objective genitive; the Lord is the object of the fear.