| Geneva Study Bible And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me {h} that were sin. (h) Thus way the wicked measure God's favour by outward prosperity, and like hypocrites cannot endure that any should reprove their doings. Wesley's Notes 12:8 I am rich - Whatever is said, yet I get what I aim at. They shall find - Yet he hugs himself in the apprehension of close carriage of his affairs, so that no great crime can be found in him: none, that is sin, that is any great enormity. King James Translators' Notes in all...: or, all my labours suffice me not: he shall have punishment of iniquity in whom is sin that: Heb. which Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 8. And-that is, Notwithstanding. Yet I am . rich-I regard not what the prophets say: I am content with my state, as I am rich (Re 3:17). Therefore, in just retribution, this is the very language of the enemy in being the instrument of Israel's punishment. Zec 11:5: "They that sell them say . I am rich." Far better is poverty with honesty, than riches gained by sin. my labours-my gains by labor. they shall find none-that is, none shall find any. iniquity . that were sin-iniquity that would bring down the penalty of sin. Ephraim argues, My success in my labors proves that I am not a guilty sinner as the prophets assert. Thus sinners pervert God's long-suffering goodness (Mt 5:45) into a justification of their impenitence (compare Ec 8:11-13). Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 12:7-14 Ephraim became a merchant: the word also signifies a Canaanite. They carried on trade upon Canaanitish principles, covetously and with fraud and deceit. Thus they became rich, and falsely supposed that Providence favoured them. But shameful sins shall have shameful punishments. Let them remember, not only what a mighty prince Jacob was with God, but what a servant he was to Laban. The benefits we have had from the word of God, make our sin and folly the worse, if we put any slight upon that word. We had better follow the hardest labour in poverty, than grow rich by sin. We may form a judgment of our own conduct, by comparing it with that of ancient believers in the like circumstances. Whoever despises the message of God, will perish. May we all hear his word with humble, obedient faith. | 
