These two verses speak to the same purport, and the latter may be the
reason of the former. 1. That wealth which men get unjustly will do
them no good, because God will blast it: Treasures of wickedness profit
nothing, v. 2. The treasures of wicked people, much more the treasure
which they have made themselves masters of by any wicked people, by
oppression of fraud, though it be ever so much, as a treasure, and laid
up ever so safely, though it be hidden treasure, yet it profits
nothing; when profit and loss come to be balanced the profit gained by
the treasures will by no means countervail the loss sustained by the
wickedness, Matt. xvi. 26. They do not profit the soul; they will not
purchase any true comfort or happiness. They will stand a man in no
stead at death, or in the judgment of the great day; and the reason is
because God casts away the substance of the wicked (v. 3); he takes
that from them which they have unjustly gotten; he rejects the
consideration of it, not regarding the rich more than the poor. We
often see that scattered by the justice of God which has been gathered
together by the injustice of men. How can the treasures of wickedness
profit, when, though it be counted substance, God casts it away and it
vanishes as a shadow? 2. That which is honestly got will turn to a good
account, for God will bless it. Righteousness delivers from death, that
is, wealth gained, and kept, and used, in a right manner (righteousness
signifies both honesty and charity); it answers the end of wealth,
which is to keep us alive and be a defence to us. It will deliver from
those judgments which men bring upon themselves by their wickedness. It
will profit to such a degree as to deliver, though not from the stroke
of death, yet from the sting of it, and consequently from the terror of
it. For the Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish
(v. 3), and so their righteousness delivers from death, purely by the
favour of God to them, which is their life and livelihood, and which
will keep them alive in famine. The soul of the righteous shall be kept
alive by the word of God, and faith in his promise, when young lions
shall lack and suffer hunger.