The labor of the righteous - The good man labors that he may be able to support life; this is his first object: and then to have something to divide with the poor; this is his next object.
The fruit of the wicked to sin - This man lives to eat and drink, and his property he spends in riot and excess. God's blessings are cursed to him.
A warning against the conclusion to seek wealth first of all, which men of lower natures might draw from Proverbs 10:15.
“Quaerenda pecunia primum est;
Virtus post nummos?”
Horace, Ep. 1. i. 53.
Such an inference is met by the experience, that while wealth gotten by honest industry is not only, like inherited riches a defense, but also a blessing, the seeming profit (rather than “fruit”) of the wicked tends to further sin 1 Timothy 6:10, and so to punishment. Compare Romans 6:21.