Do not let your heart envy sinners,But be zealous for the fear of the LORD all the day;
For surely there is a hereafter,And your hope will not be cut off.
Proverbs 23:17–18 · NKJVPart of Do Not Envy Sinners, Proverbs 23:17–18.
Quick answer
Do not let your heart burn with envy at sinners who seem to be winning; keep that same burning aimed at the fear of the LORD instead, all day long. The next verse supplies the reason: the story is not over.
Read the whole unit
Read the whole unit
Envy of the wicked is the honest believer's recurring illness, and Scripture never pretends otherwise; Psalm 73 is an entire psalm of it. The pair's first move is shrewd: it does not tell the heart to stop burning, it redirects the burn. The same word covers envy and zeal; the heart will be fervent about something, so let it be fervent "in the fear of the LORD all the day." The second verse then attacks envy at its root, which is a timeline error. Envy of sinners is always a judgment made at halftime. "Surely there is a hereafter," an acharit, an end, an outcome, a future, and hope anchored there "will not be cut off." The prosperity that provoked the envy has no such anchor.
The pair recurs almost verbatim at 24:14 and 24:19–20, where the wicked man's lamp is put out. The Thirty Sayings return to this medicine because the illness keeps returning.
From this side of the cross
The believer's "hereafter" now has a name and a face. Hope that will not be cut off is no longer only a proverb; it is a person raised from the dead, which is why envy loses its grip in exact proportion to how real the resurrection is to you.
What this verse contributes
the redirection. Fervor is not extinguished but re-aimed.
The other half
There is a "hereafter," a future, an outcome still ahead, and the hope of the one who fears the LORD will not be cut off. The verse answers envy's math by extending the timeline.
Related: Proverbs 24:19–20 · Proverbs 24:14 · Psalm 73:16–17
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.