The interpretation timeline

Prov 10:21

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1 Jewish · 2 Reformed · 1 Catholic · 1 Lutheran

Prov 10:21 · Douay-Rheims
“The lips of the just teach many: but they that are ignorant, shall die in the want of understanding.”
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1105
A.D.
Rashi Jewish
1040–1105
“The lips of the righteous will feed many, etc. Many eat in his merit and because of his prayer.”
666 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Post-Reformation c. 1650 – 1900
1771
A.D.
John Gill Reformed
1697–1771
“The lips of the righteous feed many,.... Not their bodies; words are but wind, and will not feed; it is not enough to say to the distressed, "be ye warmed and filled", and give nothing; unless this can be understood of obtaining food for others by their prayers, as Jarchi interprets it: but the souls of many; these the righteous feed, by communicating the spiritual knowledge and understanding of divine things they are partakers of; by setting before them the bread of life, the honey and milk of the Gospel, they have under their tongue; and by the good counsel and advice, comforts and admonitions, they give them; see Jer 3:15; but fools die for want of wisdom: not a corporeal death, which is common to men of every rank and quality; wise men die even as fools; but they continue under the power of a spiritual death, for want of enlightening and quickening grace, and so die an eternal death: not for want of natural wisdom, which they may have a greater share of than those who live spiritually and eternally; but for want of spiritual wisdom and knowledge; the knowledge of Christ, and the way of life and salvation by him, and the knowledge of God in Christ; and not always for the want of the means of such wisdom and knowledge; as the Scriptures, which are able to make a man wise unto salvation; and the Gospel, which is the wisdom of God in a mystery; but through the neglect and contempt of them: though sometimes men perish through want of the means of knowledge, and the neglect of those who should instruct them, Hos 4:6.”
Source
1849
A.D.
1871
A.D.
1871
“Fools not only fail to benefit others, as do the righteous, but procure their own ruin (compare Pro 10:11, Pro 10:17; Hos 4:6).”
1875
A.D.
Keil & Delitzsch Lutheran
1861–1875
“21 The lips of the righteous edify many; But fools die through want of understanding.”
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.