13:19

Notice that the following lines have no contrasting pairs:

19a Desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul,

19b but turning from evil is detestable to fools.

There is no explicit connection between the two lines. However, it is implied from 13:25 as well as 10:3 and 10:24 that only righteous people truly experience the satisfaction of their desires. The implied contrast here may be as follows:

19a
⌊Righteous people experience⌋ the pleasant feeling that results from their desire being fulfilled,

19b but fools ⌊will not experience this pleasure, because they⌋ refuse to turn from their evil ways.

13:19a

Desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul: In this context, the word sweet means “pleasant” or “agreeable.” The word soul represents the person himself. Another way to express this meaning is:

How good it is to get what you want! (Good News Translation)
-or-
It is very pleasant when what you desire comes true

13:19b

but turning from evil is detestable to fools: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as is detestable to fools is literally “abomination of fools.” The phrase “abomination of…” usually describes what the LORD detests. Here it indicates that a fool is disgusted or repulsed by the thought of abandoning his evil conduct. Some other ways to translate this clause are:

but turning from evil is disgusting to fools (God’s Word)
-or-
but fools hate to stop doing evil (New Century Version)

The Hebrew word translated here as fools is the same as the word that was used in 13:16b. See the note there. For the word detestable, see the note in 11:1a.

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