Proverbs 29:16 - Meaning and Application

Note, first, the more sinners there are, the more sin there will be. When wicked people are supported by authority and spread everywhere, it is no surprise if wrongdoing increases. It is like a disease in a country that keeps spreading as more and more people catch it. Sin becomes more bold and more threatening when many people help give it support. In the old world, when people began to multiply, they also began to grow worse, corrupting themselves and one another.

Second, the more sin there is, the closer the threatened ruin comes. Let the righteous not let their faith and hope be shaken by the increase of sin and sinners. They should not say they have kept their hands clean for nothing, or that God has abandoned the earth. Instead, they must wait patiently. Transgressors will fall, because the full measure of their guilt will come to an end. Then they will lose their rank and power, and fall into shame and destruction. The righteous will have the comfort of seeing that fall (Psalm 37:34), perhaps in this life, certainly in the judgment of the great day, when the fall of God's stubborn enemies will be the joy and victory of glorified saints. See (Isaiah 66:24; Genesis 19:28).