American Standard Version Proverbs 28

Proverbs 28:1-28
EXPOSITION
This chapter is still part of the Hezekiah collection, and not a new series by another author. It may be regarded as describing the various destinies of the powerful and the weak, the sinner and the righteous.
Pro_28:1
The wicked flee when no man pursueth. The unreasoning terror of the sinner arises partly from his uneasy conscience, which will not permit him to transgress without warning of consequences, and partly from the judgment of God, according to the threats denounced in Le 26:36, 37. A terrible picture of this instinctive fear is drawn in Job_15:20, etc; and Wis. 17:9, etc. There are numerous proverbs about unreasonable timidity, such as being afraid of one’s own shadow (see Erasmus, ’Adag.,’ s.v. “Timiditas”). As the Eastern puts it, “The leaf cracked, and your servant fled;” and “Among ten men nine are women” (Lane). On the cowardice of sinners St. Chrysostom says well, “Such is the nature of sin, that it betrays while no one finds fault; it condemns whilst no one accuses; it makes the sinner a timid being, one that trembles at a sound; even as righteousness has the contrary effect How doth the wicked flee when no man pursueth? He hath that within which drives him on, an accuser in his own conscience, and this he carries about everywhere; and just as it would be impossible to flee from himself, so neither can he escape the persecutor within, but wherever he goeth he is scourged, and hath an incurable wound” (’Hom. in Stat.,’ 8.3, Oxford transl.). But the righteous are hold as a lion. They are undismayed in the presence of danger, because their conscience is at rest, they know that God is on their side, and, whatever happens, they are safe in the everlasting arms (see Psa_91:1-16.). Thus David the shepherd boy quailed not before the giant (1Sa_17:32, etc.), remembering the promise in Le 26:7, 8. The heathen poet Horace could say of the upright man (’Carm.,’ 3.3, 7)—
“Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinae.”
“Whoso feareth the Lord shall not fear nor be afraid; for he is his Hope” (Ecclesiasticus 31:14 (34), etc.). St. Gregory (’Moral.,’ 31.55, “The lion is not afraid in the onset of beasts, because he knows well that he is stronger than them all. Whence the fearlessness of a righteous man is rightly compared to a lion, because, when he beholds any rising against him, he returns to the confidence of his mind, and knows that he overcomes all his adversaries because he loves him alone whom he cannot in any way lose against his will. For whoever seeks after outward things, which are taken from him even against his will, subjects himself of his own accord to outward fear. But unbroken virtue is the contempt of earthly desire, because the mind is both placed on high when it is raised above the meanest objects by the judgment of its hopes, and is the less affected by all adversities, the more safely it is fortified by being placed on things above” (Oxford transl.).
Pro_28:2
For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof. This implies that the wickedness of a nation is punished by frequent changes of rulers, who impose new laws, taxes, and other burdens, which greatly oppress the people; but regarding the antithesis in the second hemistich, we take the meaning to be that when iniquity, injustice, apostasy, and other evils abound, a country becomes the prey of pretenders and partisans striving for the supremacy. The history of the northern kingdom of Israel, especially in the disastrous period succeeding the death of Jeroboam II, affords proof of the truth of the statement (comp. Hos_8:4). Septuagint, “Owing to the sins of ungodly men, quarrels (κρίσεις, lawsuits) arise.” But by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged. “The state” is the stability, the settled condition of the country. The word is כֵן (ken), here a substantive, equivalent to “station,” “base.” Umbreit, Nowack, and others translate it, “justice,” “authority,” “order.” When a wise and religious man is at the helm of state, justice continues, lives, and works; such a man introduces an clement of enduring good into a land (comp. Pro_21:22; Ecc_9:15). The good kings Ass, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, and Hezekiah had long and prosperous reigns. Septuagint, “But a clever man (πανοῦργος) will quench them (quarrels).”
Pro_28:3
A poor man that oppresseth the poor. The words rendered “poor” are different. The former is rash, “needy,” the latter dal, “feeble” (see on Pro_10:15). Delitzsch notes that, in accordance with the accents in the Masoretic text, we should translate, “A poor man and an oppressor of the lowly—a sweeping rain without bringing bread,” which would mean that a tyrant who oppresses the lowly bears the same relation to the poor that a devastating rain does to those whom it deprives of their food. But it is pretty certain that “the poor” and “the oppressor” designate the same person (though the vocalization is against it); hence the gnome refers to a usurper who, rising to power from poor estate, makes the very worst and most tyrannical ruler. Such a one has learned nothing from his former condition but callous indifference, and now seeks to exercise on others that power which once galled him. Thus among schoolboys it is found that the greatest bully is one who has himself been bullied; and needy revolutionists make the most rapacious and iniquitous demagogues. Of such tyrants the prophets complain (see Isa_5:8, etc.; Mic_2:2). Wordsworth refers, as an illustration, to Catiline and his fellow conspirators, who were moved by selfish interests to overthrow the commonwealth. Many modern commentators (e.g. Hitzig, Delitzsch, Nowack), in view of the present text, regarding the combination נבר רשׁ, and noting that elsewhere the oppressor and the poor are always introduced in opposition (comp. Pro_29:13), read ראֹשׁ, or consider רשׁ as equivalent to it—rosh, “the head,” in the signification of “master,” “ruler.” The gnome thus becomes concinnous, the ruler who ought to benefit his dependents, but injures them, corresponding to the rain which, instead of fertilizing, devastates the crops. The LXX. had a different reading, as it readers, “A bold man in his impieties (ἀνδρεῖος ἐν ἀσεβείαις) calumniates the poor.” Is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food; literally, and not bread. A violent storm coming at seed time and washing away soil and seed, or happening at harvest time and destroying the ripe corn. Vulgate, Similis est imbri vehementi, in quo paratur fames. Ewald supposes that such proverbs as these and the following belong to the time of Jeroboam II, when the prosperity of the people induced luxury and arrogance, and was accompanied with much moral evil, oppression, and perversion of justice (’Hist. of Israel,’ 3.126, Eng. transl.). The Bengalee compares the relation of the rich oppressor to the poor, not with the rainstorm, but with that of the carving knife to the pumpkin.
Pro_28:4
They that forsake the Law praise the wicked. This they do because they love iniquity, and like to see it extend its influence, and arm itself against the good, who are a standing reproach to them. St. Paul notes it as a mark of extreme wickedness that gross sinners “not only do the same iniquities, but have pleasure in them that do them” (Rom_1:32). Such as keep the Law contend with them; are angry with them. They are filled with righteous indignation; they cannot hold their peace when they see God’s Law outraged, and must have the offenders punished. The LXX. connects this verse with the latter part of the preceding, thus: “As an impetuous and profitless rain, thus those who forsake the Law praise ungodliness; but they who love the Law raise a wall around themselves.”
Pro_28:5
Evil men understand not judgment; or, what is right. An evil man’s moral conception is perverted, he cannot distinguish between right and wrong; the light that was in him has become darkness (comp. Pro_29:7). Many men, by giving themselves over to wickedness, awe judicially blinded, according to Joh_12:1-50 :89, 40. They who seek the Lord understand all things. These who do God’s will, seeking him in prayer, know what is morally right is every circumstance, have a right judgment in all things (comp. Ecc_8:5; 1Co_2:15). So 1Jn_2:20, “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things;” and our Lord has (declared, “If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine” (Joh_7:17).
Pro_28:6
This is almost the same as Pro_19:1, but varies a little in the second hemistich: than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich. The Hebrew literally is, perverse of two ways; i.e. who, going one way, pretends to go another; the “two ways” being the evil which he really pursues, and the good which he feigns to follow. Delitzsch calls him “a double-going deceiver.” So Siracides imprecates, “Woe to the sinner that goeth two ways” (Ecc_2:12). “A double-minded man,” says St James (Jas_1:8), “is unstable in all his ways.” It is not the endeavouring to serve God and mammon at the same time that is meant, but putting on the appearance of religion to mask wicked designs—in the present case in order to gain wealth. Septuagint, “A poor man walking in truth is better than a rich liar.”
Pro_28:7
Whoso keepeth the Law is a wise son. “Law” is torah, as Pro_28:4; but it seems here to include not only the Decalogue, but also the father’s instruction and commands. Such an obedient and prudent son brings honour and joy to a parent’s heart (see Pro_10:1; Pro_29:3). He that is a companion of riotous men shameth his father; literally, he that feedeth, hath fellowship with, gluttons (Pro_23:20). The son who herds with debauchers, and wastes his substance in riotous living, brings shame on, wounds, and insults, all connected with him. Such a one transgresses the Law and his father’s commands, and brings them into contempt (comp. Pro_27:11). Hence the antithesis of the two clauses. Septuagint, “He that cherishes debauchery (
ποιμαίνει ἀσωτίαν) dishonours his father.” Ἀσωτία occurs only in 2 Macc. 6:4, but is common in the New Testament; e.g. Eph_5:18; Tit_1:6.
Pro_28:8
He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance. “Usury” (neshek) is interest on money lent taken in money; “unjust gain” (tarbith) is interest taken in kind, as if a man, having lent a bushel of corn, exacted two bushels in return. All such transactions were forbidden by the Law of Moses, at any rate between Israelites (see Le 25:36, 37, “Thou shalt not give thy brother thy money upon usury (neshek), nor lend him thy victuals for increase [marbith, equivalent to tarbith, which is used in verse 36] “). Septuagint, Μετὰ τόκων καὶ πλεονασμῶν, “With interest and usury.” (For censure of usury, see Psa_109:11; Eze_18:13; and, contrast Psa_15:5; Eze_18:8.) He shall gather it for him that will pity the poor. He shall never enjoy it himself, and shall fall into the hands of one who will hake a better use of it (see on Pro_22:16; and comp Pro_13:22; Job_27:16, etc.). In our Lord’s parable the pound is taken from one who made no good use of it and is given to a more profitable servant (Luk_19:24).
Pro_28:9
He that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law. He who refuses to hearken to and to practise the dictates of the Divine law (comp Pro_1:20. Even his prayer shall be abomination (comp. Pro_15:8, and note there). “God heareth not sinners” (Joh_9:31). Such a man’s prayer, if he does pray, is not hearty and sincere, and therefore, lacks the element which alone can make it acceptable. He will not resolve to forsake his favourite sin, even while paying outward worship to the God whoso Law he breaks: what wonder that the prophet so sternly denounces such offenders (Isa_1:11. etc.), and the psalmist cries with terrible rigour, “When he shall be judged, let him be condemned; and let his prayer become sin” (Psa_109:7)? St. Gregory (’Moral.,’ 10.27), “Our heart blames us in offering up our prayers, when it calls to mind that it is set in opposition to the precepts of him whom it implores, and the prayer becomes abomination, when there is a ’turning away’ from the control of the Law; in that wrily it is meet that a man should be a stranger to the favours of him to whose bidding he will not be subject.” And again (ibid; 18.9, 10), “If that which he bids we do, that which we ask we shall obtain. For with God both these two do of necessity match with one another exactly, that practice should be sustained by prayer, and prayer by practice” (Oxford transl.).
Pro_28:10
A tristich. Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way. It is doubtful whether physical danger or moral seduction is meant. The gnome is true in either case; he who mishads one who trusted him, and who, being simple and good, ought to have been respected and to have received better treatment, shall fall into the destruction which he prepared for the other (Pro_26:27). Taking the proverb in a moral sense, we find this truth: If the good man does ever yield to the temptations of the sinner, the latter does not reap the enjoyment which he expected from the other’s lapse, rather he is made twofold more the child of hell, he himself sinks the deeper and more hopelessly for playing the devil’s pert, while the just rises from hi. temporary fall morn humble, watchful, and guarded for the future. But the upright shall have good things in possession; or, shall inherit good (Pro_3:35). He shall be abundantly rewarded by God’s grace and protection, by the comfort of a conscience at rest, and by prosperity in his worldly concerns—an adumbration of the eternal recompense awaiting him in the life to come. St. Jerome has changed the incidence of the gnome by inserting ejus, thus: Et simplices possidebunt bona ejus, which makes the meaning to be that the righteous shall be the instruments of retribution on the deceiver, whose riches shall pass over into their possession. But the Hebrew gives no countenance to this interpretation. Septuagint, “The transgressors shall pass by good things, and shall not enter into them,” where the translator has misunderstood the original.
Pro_28:11
The rich man is wise in his own conceit (comp. Pro_18:11). A rich man thinks so highly of his position, is so flattered by parasites, and deems himself placed so immeasurably above social inferiors, that he learns to consider himself possessed of other qualifications, even mental and intellectual gifts, with which wealth has no concern. This purse-proud arrogance which looks upon financial skill and sharpness in bargaining as true wisdom, is confined to no age or country. But the poor man that hath understanding searcheth him out (Pro_18:17). Wisdom is not to be bought with money. A poor man may be wise, his poverty probably making him a keener critic; and if he is brought into communication with this self-deluding plutocrat, he soon sees through him and recognizes his real value. Septuagint, “An intelligent poor man will condemn him.”
Pro_28:12
When righteous men do rejoice, there is great glory (comp. Pro_29:2; Pro_11:10). “Rejoice,” rather triumph, as conquerors, right prevailing and wickedness being overcome. Then there is great show of joy, and, as the expression implies, men put on their festal garments to do honorer to the occasion: See the description of Solomon’s time (1Ki_4:20, 1Ki_4:25). If we take this verse in connection with Pro_28:2, we may see in it the triumph of order after a period of confusion and anarchy. Septuagint, “Through the help of righteous men great glory arises.” But when the wicked rise, a man is hidden (comp. Pro_28:28, where, however, the verb is different). The Authorized Version m, one that when the wicked rise to power, people have to hide themselves in order to escape danger to life and property. The verb is more literally rendered, “are searched for,” i.e. they have betaken themselves to hiding places, and have to be looked for; they fear oppression and injury, and venture no longer into the streets and open places. Vulgate,Regnantibus impiis ruinae hominum, “When evil men are m power, there is general ruin;” Septuagint, “In the places of the ungodly men are caught.” Other interpretations of the proverb have been suggested, though none is so satisfactory as that given above. Thus some take the searching out to mean testing, in the sense that evil times try men’s characters, and bring out their true nature (1Co_11:19). Others explain that, under the reign of the impious, men do not come forward to take part in public affairs, but retire sullenly into private life.
Pro_28:13
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper. To cover one’s sins is either absolutely to disown them or to make excuses; a man who does this is never free from a burden of guilt, as the psalmist says, “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me” (Psa_32:3, etc.). Whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Confession alone without amendment, or what is called theologically satisfaction, does not win pardon and mercy. It is when the sinner acknowledges his transgression, and turns from it to newness of life, that God heals his backsliding, and turns away his auger and renews the tokens of his love (Hos_14:4). Confession is made to God, against whom all sin is committed (Jos_7:19; Job_31:33; 1Jn_1:8, etc.): and to man, if one has transgressed against him, or if he be in a position to give spiritual counsel. Thus the people confessed their sins before John the Baptist (Mat_3:6) and the apostles (Act_19:18; comp. Jas_5:16). Among the Jews, the high priest, acting as the mouthpiece of the people on the great Day of Atonement, confessed their iniquities, laying them on the scapegoat; and particular confession was also enjoined, and was part of the ritual accompanying a sacrifice for sin, by which legal purification was obtained (Num_5:6, Num_5:7, “When a man or woman shall commit any sin … then they shall confess their sin which they have done;” so Le Num_5:5). And the very offering of a trespass offering was a public recognition of guilt, which was exhibited by the offerer laying his hand on the head of the victim (Le Pro_1:4). Such confession is spoken of strongly by Siracides, “Be not ashamed to confess thy sins, and force not the course of the river” (Ecc_4:1-16 :26); i.e. do not attempt the impossible task of trying to hide them. The LXX. has, “He who sets forth accounts ἐξηγούμενος ἐλέγχους i.e. blames himself) shall be loved.” Lesetre quotes Sedulius, ’Carm. Pasch.,’ 4.76—
“Magna est medicina fateri
Quod nocet abscondi; quoniam sua vulnera nutrit
Qui tegit, et plagam trepidat nudare medenti.”
“Mighty relief
T’ expose what rankles while ’tis hidden still.
He feeds who hides his wounds and shuns to show
His heart’s plague to the good physician.”
Pro_28:14
Happy is the man that feareth alway. Some have taken the fear mentioned to be the fear with which God is to be regarded. Thus Aben Ezra. But it is rather the fear of sin which is meant—that tender conscience and watchful heart which lead a man robe prepared for temptation and able to resist it when it arises. Such a one distrusts himself, takes heed lest he fall (1Co_10:12), and works out his salvation with fear and trembling (Php_2:12; comp. Pro_14:16). “Grow not thoughtless of retribution” (’Pirke Aboth,’ 1.8). A horror of sin cannot be instilled too early into the young. Septuagint, “Happy is the man who piously (δἰ εὐλάβειαν) fears all things.” St. Bernard (’In Cant. Serm.,’ 54.9),” In veritate didici, nil aeque efficax esse ad gratiam promerendam, retinendam, recuperandam, quam si omni tempore coram Deo inveniaris non altum sapere, sed timere. Time ergo cum arriserit gratia, time cum abierit, time cum denuo revertetur; et hoc est semper pavidum esse.” He that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief; or, calamity (Pro_17:20). A man hardens his heart who attends not to the voice of conscience, the restraints of religion, the counsel of friends, the warnings of experience (comp. verse 26;
Pro_29:1; Exo_8:15; Psa_95:8). This man scorns the grace of God, loses his protection, and must come to misery.
Pro_28:15
A wicked ruler over the poor people; a people weak and resourceless. To such a powerful tyrant is as fatal as a roaring lion or a hungry bear prowling in quest of food. The prophets compare evil rulers to ravenous lions (see Jer_4:7; Eze_19:6). They are like lions in strength and cruelty, like bears in craft and ferocity. Septuagint, “A hungry lion and a thirsty wolf is he, who, being poor, rules over an indigent nation.” The poverty of the subjects embitters the conduct of the ruler.
Pro_28:16
The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor; literally, and rich in oppression. Ewald, Delitzsch, Nowack, and others take the verse, not as a statement, but as a warning addressed to the ruler, as we have so many addressed to a son, and as the author of the Book of Wisdom calls upon the judges of the earth to listen to his admonitions. They therefore render thus: “O prince, void of understanding, but rich in oppression!” The wording and accentuation of the passage confirm this view. Caher renders, “A prince that wants understanding increases his exactions.” The want of intelligence makes a prince cruel and tyrannical and callous to suffering: not possessing the wisdom and prudence necessary for right government, he defrauds his subjects, treats them unjustly, and causes great misery. See the prophet’s denunciation of Shallum and Jehoiakim for these very crimes (Jer_22:13-19). Septuagint, “A king wanting revenues is a great oppresser (συκοφάντης).” He that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days (Pro_15:27). The prince addressed is thus warned that his oppressive acts will be visited upon him judicially; that only a ruler who deals with his subjects liberally and equitably can attain to old age, and that his conduct will shorten his life. An early death is reckoned as a token of God’s indignation. The second hemistich Caher translates, “But he who hates lucre shall reign long.” Septuagint, “He who hateth iniquity shall live a long time.” (For “covetousness” (betsa), see on Pro_1:19.)
Pro_28:17
A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit. This should be, a man oppressed (Isa_38:14), burdened, with the blood of anyone. The wilful murderer, with his guilt upon his soul, flies in vain from remorse; his crime pursues him even to the grave. For inadvertent manslaughter the cities of refuge offered an asylum, but for deliberate murder there was no safe refuge, either from the stings of conscience or from the avenger of blood, but death. The homicide, like Cain (Gen_4:14), must be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. “Pit” (bor), some take to mean any hiding place, “a cave, or well;” but it is very commonly found in the sense of sepulchre (Psa_28:1; Isa_14:19, etc.), and is so explained here by most commentators. Let no man stay him. We had in Pro_24:11, etc; an injunction to save human life; but the case was quite different from this of wilful murder. Here it is directed that no one attempt to save him from the punishment which he has incurred, or to comfort him under the remorse which he suffers. Let him be left alone to meet the fate which he has merited. The LXX. gives a different idea to the gnome, “He who becomes bail for a man charged with murder shall be banished and shall not be in safety.” They add a verse which we shall meet again, almost in the same words (Pro_29:17,Pro_29:18), “Chasten thy son, and he will love thee, and will give honour to thy soul; he shall not obey a sinful nation.”
Pro_28:18
Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved. “Uprightly” (tamim); innocently, blamelessly (Psa_15:2). Vulgate, simpliciter; Septuagint, δικαίως; Aquila, Symmachus, τέλειος. “He is helped (βεβοήθηται),” Septuagint. Things shall prosper with him; God will work with him, and save him in dangers temporal and spiritual. But he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once. “He that is perverse of two ways,” or “in a double way,” as Pro_28:6. The man who is not straightforward, but vacillates between right and wrong, or pretends to be pursuing one path while he is really taking another, shall fall suddenly and without warning. בְּאֶחָת means “all at once,” or “once for all,” and so that nothing else is possible, equivalent to penitus. Schultens quotes Virgil, ’AEneid,’ 11.418—
“Procubuit moriens et humum semel ore momordit.”
Septuagint, “He that walketh in crooked ways will be entangled.”
Pro_28:19
A variation of Pro_12:11. Shall have poverty enough. The new clause marks the antithesis more clearly than that above.
Pro_28:20
A faithful man shall abound with blessings. “Faithful,” as in Pro_20:6, one on whom one can depend, honest and upright. Septuagint, ἀξιόπιστος. The blessings signified are such as come from God and man. Men will utter his name with praise and benediction (comp. Job_29:8, etc.), and God will show his approval by sending material prosperity. He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent (comp. Pro_20:22, and note there; Pro_13:11; Pro_20:21; Pro_21:5). One who is only anxious to become quickly rich, and is unscrupulous as to means, cannot be “a faithful man,” and therefore cannot be blessed. Instead of “innocent,” many expositors render “unpunished” (as Pro_17:5), which better contrasts with the blessings mentioned in the first hemistich, though the two ideas are coordinate. On this haste of covetousness, Juvenal writes (’Sat.,’ 14.173)—
“Inde fere scelerum causae; nec plura venena
Miscuit aut ferro grassatur saepius ullum
Humanae mentis vitium, quam saeva cupido
Immodici census; nam dives qui fieri vult,
Et cito vult fieri. Sed quae reverentia legum,
Quis metus aut pudor est unquam properantis avari?”
The Septuagint waters down the gnome, “But the wicked shall not be unpunished.”
Pro_28:21
The first hemistich occurs a little fuller in Pro_24:23, referring there, as here, to the administration of justice. For for a piece of bread that man will transgress. Thus translated, this clause confirms the former, and says that a judge given to favouritism will swerve from right under the smallest temptation. But to bribe a judge with a morsel of bread seems an unlikely idea; and the gnome is of general application, “And for a morsel of bread a man [not ’that man’] will transgress.” As some men in responsible positions are often swayed by low and unworthy considerations, so in social life a very insignificant cause is sufficient to warp the judgment of some persons, or draw them aside from the line of rectitude. (For “a piece of bread,” as denoting abject poverty or a thing of no value, see on Pro_6:26) The commentators cite Aul. Gell; ’Noct. Att.,’ 1.15, “Frusto panis conduci potest vel uti taceat vel uti loquatur.” Septuagint, “He that regards not the persons of the just is not good; such a cue will sell a man for a morsel of bread.”
Pro_28:22
He that hasteth to be rich bath an evil eye (see Pro_28:20); better, the man of evil eye hasteth after riches. The man of evil eye (Pro_23:6) is the envious and covetous man; such a one tries to improve his position and raise himself speedily to the height of him whom he envies, and is quite unscrupulous as to the means which he uses to effect his purpose, and keeps all that he gains selfishly to himself. And yet he is really blind to his own best interests (comp Pro_20:21). And considereth not that poverty shall come upon him (comp. Pro_23:4, Pro_23:5). His grasping greed brings no blessing with it (Pro_11:25), excites others to defraud him, and in the end consigns him to merited poverty. The LXX. here reads somewhat differently, and translates, “An envious man hasteth to be rich, and knows not that the merciful man (chasid instead of cheser) will I,ave the mastery over him,” i.e. will take his wealth, as Pro_28:8. Proverbs concerning hastily gotten wealth have already been given. Here are a few more: Spanish, “Who would be rich in a year gets hanged in half a year;” Italian, “The river does not become swollen with clear water;” says a Scotch proverb, “Better a wee fire to warm as than a meikle fire to burn us.”
Pro_28:23
He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour. The word rendered “afterwards” (postea, Vulgate), אַחֲרַי (acharai), creates a difficulty. The suffix cannot be that of the first person singular, which would give no sense; hence most interpreters see in it a peculiar adverb attached to the following verb, “shall afterwards find.” Delitzsch. Lowenstein, end Nowack take it for a noun with the termination -ai, and translate, “a man that goeth backward,” “a backslider” (as Jer_7:24). Hence the translation will run, “He who reproveth a backsliding man,” i.e. one whom he sees to be turning away from God and duty. He shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue (comp. Pro_27:6; Pro_29:5). A faithful counsellor, who tells a man his faults, brings them home to his conscience, and checks him in his downward course, will be seen to be a true friend, and will be loved and respected both by the one whom he has warned and advised and by all who are well disposed. Jas_5:19, “If any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him. let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and stroll hide a multitude of sins.” “Laudat adulator, sed non est verus amator.” The flatterer says only what is agreeable to the man whom he flatters, and thus makes him conceited and selfish and unable to see himself as he really is: the true friend says harsh things, but they are wholesome and tend to spiritual profit, and show more real affection than all the soft words of the fawning parasite. Septuagint, “He that reproveth a man’s ways shall have more thanks than he who flattereth with the tongue.”
Pro_28:24
Whoso robbeth his father or his mother (comp. Pro_19:26); taking from them what belongs to them. Septuagint, “He who casts off (
ἀποβάλλεται) father or mother.” And saith, It is no transgression. He salves his conscience by thinking all would be his ere long in the course of nature; or he uses the plea of Corban denounced by our Lord (Mar_7:11, etc.). The same is the companion of a destroyer (Pro_18:9); is no better than, stands in the position of, one who practises openly against his neighbour’s life and property. He is a thief, and fails in the simplest duty. Vulgate, particeps homicidae est. There may be an allusion to the guilt incurred by a witness in concealing his knowledge of a crime, which is denounced in Le Pro_5:1 (comp. Jdg_17:2).
Pro_28:25
He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife (Pro_15:18; Pro_29:22); literally, he that is of a wide soul. This may certainly denote pride (qui se jactat et dilatat, Vulgate), in which case the gnome says that one who thinks much of himself and despises others is the cause of quarrels and dissensions, occasioned by his struggles for pre-eminence and the ill feeling arising from his overbearing and supercilious conduct. Others, and rightly, take the wide soul to denote covetousness (comp. Pro_23:2; Isa_14:1-32; Hab_2:5). It is the man of insatiable desire, the grasping avaricious man, who excites quarrels and mars all peace, and in the end destroys himself. “Whence come wars,” asks St. James (Jas_4:1), “and whence come fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your pleasures that war in your members? Ye lust, and have act; ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war.” Septuagint, “An unbelieving [ἄπιστος, Alexand. ἄπληστος, insatiate] man judgeth rashly.” But he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat (Pro_11:25; Pro_16:20; Pro_29:25). The character here opposed to the covetous is that of the patient. God-fearing man, who is contented to do his duty, and leave the result in the Lord’s hands. This man shall be made fat, shall be comforted and largely blessed, while he who puts his hope in material things shall fall into calamity. Septuagint, “He who trusts in the Lord will be in his care (ἐν ἐπιμελείᾳ ἔσται).”
Pro_28:26
He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool (see Gen_6:5; Gen_8:21). What is here censured is that presumptuous confidence in one’s own thoughts, plans, and imaginations which leads a man to neglect both God’s inspirations and the counsel of others (comp. Pro_28:14; Pro_14:16). “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fail” (1Co_10:12). Septuagint, “Whoso trusteth to a bold heart, such a one is a fool.” Whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. This man looks outside himself for direction; be trusts in the wisdom which is from above; he walks in the fear of the Lord, and is saved from the dangers to which self-confidence exposes the fool. The best commentary on the gnome is Jer_9:23, Jer_9:24, “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord,”
Pro_28:27
He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack (see Pro_11:24, etc.; Pro_19:17). God in some way compensates what is spent in almsdeeds by shedding his blessing on the benevolent. “Der Geiz,” runs the German maxim, “sammlet sich arm, die Milde giebt sich reich,” “Charity gives itself rich; covetousness hoards itself poor” (Trench). “Alms,” said the rabbis, “are the salt of riches.” But he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse (Pro_11:26). The uncharitable man either turns away his eyes that he may not see the misery around him, or pretends not to notice it, lest his compassion should be claimed. The expression, “hiding the eyes,” occurs in Isa_1:15, “When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you.” The unmerciful man meets with the curses of those whom he has neglected to relieve when he had the power, and such curses are ratified and fulfilled because they are deserved, and Divine retribution attends them (see the opposite view, Isa_1:20). “Turn not away thine eye from the needy,” says the Son of Sirach, “and give him none occasion to curse thee; for if be curse thee in the bitterness of his soul, his prayer shall be heard of him that made him” (Ecclesiasticus 4:4, etc.; comp. Tobit 4:7). So in the ’Didache,’ ch. 4; we have, Οὐκ ἀποστραφήσῃ τὸν ἐνδεόμενον, “Thou shalt not turn thyself from one in need.” Septuagint, “lie that turneth away his eye shall be in great distress;” Vulgate, Qui despicit deprecantem sustinebit penuriam.
Pro_28:28
When the wicked rise, men hide themselves (see Pro_28:12); Septuagint, “In the places of the ungodly the righteous groan.” But when they perish, the righteous increase (Pro_11:10; Pro_29:2, Pro_29:16). The overthrow of the ungodly adds to the prosperity of the righteous, removes an opposing element, and promotes their advancement in influence and numbers.
HOMILETICS
Pro_28:1
The cowardice of guilt and the courage of righteousness
I. THE COWARDICE OF GUILT. “The wicked flee when no man pursueth.”

1. This cowardice springs from a natural feeling of ill desert. “Conscience doth make cowards of us all.” Apart from all authoritative revelation, when no prophet of God is charging a man with his sin, an awful voice within clamours against his guilt and shakes the very foundations of his confidence. Though he has never breathed a word of his misdeed in the ear of a fellow man, though all the world is deceived into believing him to be innocent, he cannot silence that dread inner voice. In many cases it utterly unnerves a man, though outwardly he dwells in perfect security.
2. This cowardice is nourished by a perception of Divine justice. A person who knows the revealed will of God, and his wrath against sin, must be prepared to expect judgments of condemnation on guilt. Though the avenging hand is stayed, it may fall at any moment. The miserable guilty man is like one in the condemned cell under sentence of death, who does not know the day or hour of execution, but who trembles at every footfall lest it should be that of the messenger who summons him to his doom.
3. This cowardice gives rise to needless alarms. The murderer starts at the fall of a leaf—so utterly unstrung is he under the tremendous consciousness of guilt. Can any condition be more dreadful? Rather than endure this agony of apprehension, men, who were in no danger of being arrested, have confessed their crimes and given themselves up to justice. When we consider the relation of sin to God and to his judgments, it is foolish indeed to live in the cowardly shame of guilt. For there are peace and pardon for the penitent.
   II. THE COURAGE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
4. This courage is based on a clean conscience.
   (1) The feeling of innocence. Una can brave the lion and subdue its savage nature to her service because the panoply of her innocence is her perfect protection. The martyr can face the fury of the persecutor, strong in the consciousness of right and truth. It is painful to be wrongly accused, but a sensible man should learn to bear calumny when he knows that he is not guilty in the sight of God.
   (2) The new experience of regeneration. One who has been redeemed by Christ and renewed by the Holy Spirit need not live in the perpetual fear of guilt and shame. He is forgiven and restored. He is like the prisoner who can walk boldly out of the jail with a royal pardon. Yet his confidence can never be the same as that of original innocence. It must always have a certain humility.
5. This courage is justified by experience. The true man does not find his boldness fail him. He is as safe as he feels himself. The first guarantee of success in any cause is a clear consciousness that we are in the right. In the end, right and truth must triumph. But if they meet with temporary defeat, their champion need fear no real evil. He now gives his life, as he has before given his strength, to the good cause. Whether be serves it by life or by death, he does nobly, and he need not fear that he will be deserted by God.
   Pro_28:9
   The prayer that is an abomination
   God does not hear all prayer. There are even prayers that he rejects with wrath. The broken words of the penitent, the simple cry of the little child, and the ungrammatical sentences of the ignorant person may be all acceptable to God, while prayers faultless in form and impressive in utterance are flung back as insults to the Divine majesty. The first consideration is not as to the nature of the prayer, but as to the character of the supposed worshipper. The prayer that is an abomination is one which, however perfect it may appear to be in itself, comes from contaminated lips. We need to examine ourselves rather than to weigh our phrases.
   I. THE CONDUCT THAT MAKES THE PRAYER AN ABOMINATION. This is the conduct of one “that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law.” Such conduct carries with it two, evil things.
6. Wilful error. The heathen who do not know the Law may well be dealt with leniently when they blunder into superstition, and even confuse their consciences with degraded forms of religion, for their error is involuntary. But when a man has an opportunity of coming to a knowledge of the truth, but rejects it in indolence or aversion, he is to blame for the wrong notions which would have been corrected but for his voluntary acceptance of darkness rather than light Devotion ought to be enlightened by instruction. The Bible should be read in public worship. Scripture truth is needed as a guide to prayer.
7. Deliberate disobedience. The turning aside from hearing the Law is not likely to spring from a mere reluctance to learn its doctrines. Behind this there lies a dislike to obeying its precepts, which reveals a stubborn self-will in opposition to the will of God. Now, such an evil state of the heart precludes all favour from Heaven.
   II. THE REASON WHY THE PRAYER IS AN ABOMINATION. This may be looked for in two directions. It may lie in the prayer itself, or it may be found in the man who utters it.
8. A bad prayer is offered. If the worshipper is wilfully ignorant, he is to blame for asking for things which he would refrain from seeking when in a more enlightened condition. If he is self-willed and disobedient, he is guilty of asking amiss for what he may spend on his own lusts (Jas_4:3), instead of seeking what is in accordance with the will of God.
9. A prayer proceeds from sinful lips. There are moments of distress when the most undevout man would be glad of heavenly aid, if only it would come like the help given by Homer’s gods and goddesses to his heroes in their times of danger. There is no spiritual religion in the cry for help under such circumstances. If the soul is alienated from God, and there is no sign of penitence, the prayer for deliverance, though genuine and heartfelt, may well be rejected. But worse than this is the mock worship of one who would have the honour of being religious together with the profit of being sinful. There can be no true religion without right conduct. God looks to the behaviour of the life more than to the language of the prayer. He cares nothing for reverence in the temple if he sees wickedness in the market place.
   Pro_28:10
   The tempter
   I. THE GREATEST SIN IS TEMPTING ANOTHER TO SIN. This is Satanic wickedness, following the example of the devil.
10. It is most guilty because it tends to increase wickedness. It is sowing evil seeds. It is bad enough to cultivate the deadly fruit in one’s own life, but to propagate it elsewhere is to be a source of trouble and manifold wickedness.
11. It is particularly guilty because it ruins souls. It is an attack upon other men. The tempter is a murderer. At least, he is an enemy who sows tares in his neighbours’ fields, and so brings trouble wantonly on others.
    II. THIS SIN IS COMMITTED BY MEANS OF EVIL EXAMPLE. The tempter need not whisper enticing words, much less need he approach his victim in the attitude of “a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” It is enough that his conduct sets a pattern of wickedness. We are responsible for the examples we exhibit before the world. Most important in the presence of children, who are naturally imitative, and who take their patterns from the manners of the elder people among whom they live, the example of heads of families is peculiarly impressive. Therefore the guilt of such persons is grave indeed when their reckless wickedness drags poor children down to sin.
    III. THIS SIN MAY BE SUCCESSFUL. It is possible to cause the righteous to go astray in an evil way.
12. This may happen with innocent children. They are naturally righteous; for “of such is the kingdom of heaven.” But they are not unassailable in their simplicity and early purity. The most awful fact in life is the corruption of childhood by the wickedness of older and stronger life.
13. It is possible with good men and women. To be good is not to be above temptation. Even Christ was tempted, though he resisted successfully. Therefore
    (1) when a good man is led astray we have no proof that his goodness was a hypocritical pretence; and
    (2) no one can be so secure in his consciousness of integrity as to afford to play with temptation and to beast of his own strength. There are joints in the thickest armour, and keen darts that find out the smallest weak places.
    IV. THE SIN OF TEMPTING ANOTHER TO SIN WILL BRING RUIN ON THE TEMPTER. Of all sins this one cannot be let go unchecked and unpunished. For the sake of the victims who are threatened by it God will assuredly visit it with wrath. The tempter is a deadly serpent, whose horrible enticements only make its venom the more dangerous; and all the resources of righteousness must be put forth to crush and destroy such a pest. But no miraculous interference is needed to punish the sin of tempting. We have not to summon the Archangel Michael to fight the dangerous reptile. In the end it will turn its sting on itself. The tempter will fall into his own pit. He will alienate his victims, and he will make an enemy of all that is good. Friendless and helpless, he must perish in the hour of his need.
    Pro_28:13, Pro_28:14
    Confession
    I. IT IS DANGEROUS FOR A MAN fro DENY HIS SIN.
14. It is false. If a man pretends to be virtuous when he knows that he is guilty, that man’s life is a lie. He lives in a continuous falsehood. Such a condition is rotten, turning his whole course into a delusion, and leading to a confused estimate of right and wrong. The very landmarks of righteousness are lost sight of in a fog of bewildering pretences.
15. It precludes forgiveness. God will only pardon the penitent, and penitence is impossible without an admission of guilt. Therefore the Divine covering of sin which will utterly bury it and allow of no ugly resurrection in a revival of old accusations, is hindered by the sinner’s foolish, cowardly attempt to cover it in his own way by a paltry concealment. The wretched rags that he draws over the foul thing will not really hide it, but they will prevent the massive shield of Divine forgiveness from being cast over it.
16. It confirms the sin. Sin is not destroyed by being covered. It is no more killed than the seed of a poison plant is killed when it is sown in the soil, and so temporarily buried out of sight. Driven hack to the secret chambers of the soul, the evil thing grows there and spreads its deadly influence. Confession would clear out the noxious malaria of guilt; concealment only shots it up to breed in the stifling atmosphere of its own corruption. Such a condition hardens the heart in wickedness.
    II. IT IS HAPPY FOR A MAN TO CONFESS HIS SIN.
17. This confession must mean an earnest desire to be free from it. The man who conceals his sin keeps it while he covers it, and holds it tight even when he is denying it. But one who confesses his sin aright hates it though he admits it. Three things are here implied.
    (1) He owns his guilt. Confession includes an admission both of the fact and of its evil character. He who confesses a sin must own that he did the deed, and that it is bad.
    (2) He forsakes the sin. A right confession is accompanied by repentance. It is the very opposite of the brazen-faced guilt that glories in its shame, because it loathes what still it cannot but own.
    (3) He first fears to sin again. He has learnt a wholesome lesson. He looks back in owning his guilt, and then forward in lear of repeating it.
18. Such confession will tie followed by God’s forgiveness and a new joy to the penitent.
    (1) God will forgive the penitent. He “shall have mercy.” Pride claims high desserts, but the humility of confession only seeks for mercy. It inspires the publican’s prayer, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” Now, as God is waiting to be gracious and loves mercy, as soon as the obstruction of impenitence is removed, his grace is tree to flow in and heal the humbled soul.
    (2) The penitent will experience a new joy. He will be happy even in his fear. He will “rejoice with trembling.” No longer living in the miserable fear of bring “found out,” the new fear that makes him trust his soul to God will be associated with the blessedness of forgiveness and the peace of a Divine protection.
    Pro_28:20
    A faithful man.
    I. HIS CHARACTER. Nothing can be more grand than fidelity. When found in a man it is an image of the eternal constancy of God; it is like that Divine righteousness which the psalmist compared to the “everlasting hills”—so firm, so enduring, so changeless. It would be well if this grand Old Testament grace were more prized and cultivated in the Christian Church. Let us consider it in some of its manifold aspects. What is the character of the faithful man?
19. He is true to himself. This fidelity must lie at the root of his fidelity to others. The faithful man must act out honestly what he feels to be demanded by his own inkier convictions.
20. He is true to his God. The man of God is faithful as well as trustful. Thus his faith has the two sides of passive submission and active loyalty. The primary duty to God must be observed before the secondary duty to man can be kept.
21. Are is true to his friend. This does not merely mean that he keeps his pledges. It also involves his regarding the welfare of his friend and coming to his aid in the hour of need, danger, and helpful service.
22. He is true to his word—one who “sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not.” It is nothing that we keep our promises when they run along the lines of our own inclinations. The test is that they are equally honoured when they involve self-sacrifice.
23. He is true when unobserved. Faithful service is the opposite of eye service. The faithful man will do well, though he never expects to be called to account. Faithful work is that which never meets the eye, and yet is as well wrought as the most conspicuous work.
24. He is true in face of danger. Here is the test of fidelity. The faithful servant of Christ is one who will not forsake his Lord when persecution threatens him. The martyr is “faithful unto death” (Rev_2:10).
    II. HIS FRUITFULNESS. He “abounds with blessings.” He is like Abraham, “the father of the faithful,” who was both blessed himself and a blessing to others (Gen_12:2).
25. He is a recipient of abundant blessings. It is a happy thing to be faithful even though fidelity be met with misunderstanding or persecution.
    (1) Fidelity is itself a blessing. This grace is its own reward. To have grace to live a strong, true, noble life is to be one of God’s blessed sons, though no further reward be anticipated.
    (2) Fidelity brings many earthly blessings. It may not secure worldly wealth, though generally integrity is a safer road to success in life than the crooked paths of dishonour. But it will secure peace, and in the long run it is likely to be recognized and rewarded with well-merited honour. To be accounted a faithful servant is to be crowned with better than Olympian garlands.
    (3) Fidelity will be rewarded with heavenly favour. This is just the chief of Divine approvals singled out by Christ for his servants, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Mat_25:21).
26. He is a source of abundant blessings. One true, faithful soul—what a tower of strength! what a treasury of help! what a haven of refuge! He is rich indeed who has a faithful friend. The faithful man can be relied on to help in time of need, when the faithless man, who perhaps is much stronger, deserts his trusting friend. Christ is faithful (2Th_3:3), and as such is a source of abundant blessings to his people. His fidelity is the ground of our faith.
    Pro_28:26
    The folly Of trusting one’s own heart
    I. WHAT IT IS TO TRUST IN ONE’S OWN HEART.
27. It is to trust in one’s own wisdom. The heart here, as throughout the Bible, stands for the intellectual as well as the emotional nature. Therefore we may be said to trust in it when we lean to our own understanding (Pro_3:5) rather than seek counsel from God in prayer and the use of the Scriptures.
28. It is to trust in our own character. We may think highly of our own goodness and moral strength, and so venture into temptation needlessly or rush into difficult enterprises without counting the cost.
29. It is to trust in our own affections. Thus we are led to believe, like Peter, that our love to Christ will not fail (Mat_26:35).
30. It is to trust in our own energy. Thinking we can do more than we are capable of accomplishing, through over-estimating our mental or spiritual powers we unduly rely on our own resources.
    II. HOW ONE IS TEMPTED TO TRUST IN ONE’S OWN HEART.
31. Pride tempts. It is humiliating to own weakness. A high opinion of one’s own merits inevitably leads to a dangerous self-confidence.
32. Unbelief tempts. If men had more faith in God they would not be so content to rely on their own poor resources. It is the worldly spirit that leads to the limitation of view to human powers.
33. Self-will tempts. Men naturally desire to have their own will fulfilled. The less they look away from themselves, the more does it appear that they can do as they like. A selfish life tends to be a self-contained life.
    III. WHY IT IS FOOLISH TO TRUST IN ONE’S OWN HEART.
34. The heart is deceitful. “Deceitful above all things” (Jer_17:9). We do not know our own hearts. There are hidden weaknesses, unsuspected snares, unlooked for limits. Ignorance of our own inner selves makes the self-trust a confidence without foundation.
35. The heart is sinful. “Desperately wicked” (Jer_17:9). Too often he who trusts in his own heart trusts in an evil heart. Therefore he is likely to be led astray by his thoughts and desires. Until the heart is cleansed and renewed, the worst possible course is to trust it. On the contrary, it must be distrusted, resisted, restrained.
36. The heart is frail. Even when it has been freed from the dominion of sin, the heart of man is liable to fall. open to temptation, and in danger of yielding in the moment of trial.
    IV. IN WHAT WAY ONE CAN AVOID TRUSTING IN HIS OWN HEART. It is not enough to see the danger and folly of this trust, for a man must have something to rest upon, and if the best foundation is unstable he will still build upon it rather than abandon himself to despair. Now, the cure for the tendency to trust in a wrong security is to be found in the possession of a better faith, a faith that is wise and safe. One great mischief of a man’s trusting in his own heart is that he is thus led to forsake God. The remedy is found in returning to the true ground of the soul’s confidence in God. He who thus trusts is wise.
37. God is true. Unlike the fickle heart, he is faithful and can always be trusted.
38. God is good. Therefore we should turn from the sinful heart to the holy and gracious God.
39. God is strong. The frail heart fails; the mighty God is a steadfast Rock.
    HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
    Pro_28:1-5
    Canons of moral truth
    I. WICKEDNESS IS FEARFUL, GOODNESS IS COURAGEOUS. (Pro_28:1.) A good conscience is better than a thousand witnesses; an evil conscience unmans (Job_15:21). What passes by the name of courage is often the effect of fear of men; and that which is discountenanced as want of spirit may proceed from the profoundest reverence for God. We shall never find anything in the world more to be feared than the warring presence within our own breast. True courage is the knowledge that we are for the time at one with God. The light of his countenance is life, dispersing the darkest cloud, and calming the most turbulent tempest. An evil conscience is “the worm that dies not.”
    II. POLITICS AND MORALS. (Pro_28:2.) Rebellion arising from the collision of party and personal interests must be very injurious to the well being of a small state. Rebellion can only be justified when there is not only the greatest wrong existing, but also the clearest possible prospect of success. If peoples in time of distress, instead of cursing and rising against their rulers, would patiently search into the causes of their grievances, a shorter way would often be found to redress. A certain unity of feeling is essential to the well being of a state. “When any of the four pillars of government are mainly shaken or weakened (which are religion, justice, counsel, and treasure), men had need to pray for fair weather” (Bacon).
    III. THE ODIUM OF PETTY TYRANNY. (Pro_28:3.) There is nothing more detestable than the oppressive rule of an upstart. A base mind becomes more corrupt from hasty elevation, a narrow heart more cruel, as in the case of Robespierre and other historical examples. As with learning, so with power; the smatterers are the most ostentatious of their knowledge; those “dressed in a little brief authority” love to
    “Play such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
    As make the angels weep.”
    The Divine rule is strong in gentleness.
    IV. THE SECRET OF MORAL SYMPATHY AND ANTIPATHY. (Pro_28:4.) Those that secretly love sin have pleasure in them that do it. “The world loveth its own.” It is fearful to sin; more fearful to delight in it; yet more to defend it (Bishop Hall). The pure heart has no “fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.” We reveal or betray ourselves by our sympathies. The homely proverb says, “Like lips, like lettuce.” And the important lesson arises here—that we should dwell on the best and brightest examples, for the sake of their effect on our character; the eye becomes sunny as it gazes at the sun.
    V. THE EFFECT OF VICE ON THE INTELLIGENCE. (Pro_28:5.) It is a most important principle that insight into intellectual relations of truth is affected by the mood of the heart. The clearest knowledge of the letter is here of no avail. “If any man shall do God’s will, he shall know of the doctrine.” The pure conscience conditions the bright intelligence. The understanding is darkened “because of the blindness of men’s heart;” and these call darkness light, and light darkness. Many things dark to reason are simplified to knowledge. The Divine mysteries are mysteries of love, and through love only may be known.—J.
    Pro_28:6-12
    The moral quality of life
    Nothing we can touch, no relation we can enter into or observe, but has its moral bearing. This, indeed, is the great lesson, in hundredfold iteration, of this book.
    I. POVERTY WITH INNOCENCE, WEALTH WITH PERVERSITY. (Pro_28:6.) Whatever be the compensations of poverty in a lower point of view, most men would vote for riches if they had the opportunity at the price of all its inconveniences, and we need to be reminded that he who would sell his peace of conscience for wealth does but “gain a loss.” Better go to heaven in rags than to hell in embroidery. Better God than gold; better be poor and live, than rich and perish.
    II. A MAN IS KNOWN BY THE COMPANY HE KEEPS. (Pro_28:7.) The first example is that of the man whose delight is in the Law, who is in fellowship with the truth, and who is therefore a companion “of all them that fear God and keep his precepts.” The second is that of one who keeps company with the dissipated, stains his name, and brings dishonour on his family. In society lie the greatest perils and the greatest safeguards. The Christian Church is the Divine society which aims at the true and holy ideal of living. As with books, so with men; the rule is—keep company only with the best.
    III. ILL-GOTTEN WEALTH DWINDLES. (Pro_28:8.) Wealth is not his who gets it, but his who enjoys it. And if gotten by ill means, it cannot be enjoyed; and “Ill got, ill spent,” says the proverb. Wealth, diverted by force or fraud from its natural channels flows back by a law of economic gravitation. A man labours for himself with selfishness and wickedness, and the harvest falls into better hands; “not intending it of himself; but it is so done through God’s secret providence.”
    IV. PRAYERS ARE VITIATED BY INJUSTICE. (Pro_28:9.) They are tainted by a horrible lie. In prayer the goodness, the moral perfection, of God is assumed; and prayer implies that the holy will ought to be done. Yet how great the contradiction between such prayers on the lips and the heart bent upon defeating that will! “Just reason that God shall refuse to hear him who refuses to hear God.” Without the “ceasing to do evil, and the learning to do well,” sacrifices are vain oblations, and incense is an abomination to God (Isa_1:11-15).
    V. THE SEDUCER IS SELF-SEDUCED. (Pro_28:10.) So the snare of Balaam, laid for Israel, became the cause of his own ruin. If the retribution is not visible, it is a fact in the soul. Among the ingredients of remorse, none is more bitter than the recollection of having led youth and innocence astray. It is a sin most difficult of self-forgiveness. But the righteous inherit salvation. There is a real sense in which men should seek to realize the character of “just men that need no repentance.” There is no salvation in selfishness—none which does not imply a regeneration of the social consciousness.
    VI. POVERTY AND RICHES HAVE THEIR COMPENSATION. (
    Pro_28:11.) Confidence in riches begins in illusory self-confidence; and there is much to abet and foster it in the opinion of the multitude; for, as the old saying runs, “Rich men have no faults.” But the poor man, endued with sense and with religion, sees through these false estimates; knows that the rich feel misfortunes which pass over his own head; that they pay a tax of constant care and anxiety; and that it is ever better to fare hard with good men than to feast with bad.
    VII. “THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE THE VOICE OF GOD.” (Pro_28:12.) Whatever be the love of greatness and splendour, of rank and position, in the common mind, the people cannot but rejoice in good rulers, and be depressed under evil. A generous acclamation breaks from the popular heart when good men are raised to honour. “When Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in the king’s royal apparel, …the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour; in every province … a feast and a good day” (Est_8:15-17).—J.
    Pro_28:13, Pro_28:14
    The inner conditions of peace and of misery
    I. THE CONCEALMENT OF SIN. (Pro_28:13.) It is like a worm in the bud, preying upon the check and upon the heart. The deepest way of such concealment is when the sinner persuades himself that “he has no sin,” apologizing to himself, giving a false colour to his wrong. The sense of a dualism in our being unreconciled will not admit of peace and rest.
    II. THE CONFESSION AND RENUNCIATION OF SIN. To admit the truth about ourselves, neither extenuating nor exaggerating our sin and fault; to allow the detecting and discriminating light of God’s judgment to fall clear and full on the conscience;—this is what confession requires. But it must be completed by renunciation; otherwise it is mockery. To say—
    “We’re sorry and repent,
    And then go on from day to day,
    Just as we always went”
    —in the words of the child’s hymn—is mere sentimentality and weakness. But never are these conditions fulfilled without a sense of the Divine pity striking into the heart. God is faithful and just to forgive our sins; and the conscience is assured that he is too just to permit the sinner who has become a sufferer from godly sorrow to be tormented by remorse one moment longer than is necessary for his healing.
    III. THE TENDER CONSCIENCE. (Pro_28:14.) It is well with him whose heart is in the constant habit of reverential dependence upon God. His law for human conduct envelops all life from the greatest to the minutest matters. It is the atmosphere of the soul that we need to keep pure; it is the fellowship with the Spirit who is holiness that we need most jealously to guard.
    IV. THE HARDENING OF THE HEART. (Pro_28:14.) Making light of sin leads to its repetition; repetition indurates the conscience. Disregard of the delicacies of the soul leads surely to a benumbed, and presently to a lost, sensibility. It is better to feel too keenly than not to feel at all; better the weak conscience than no conscience at all. He who presumes upon the mercy of God will have to reckon with his justice.—J.
    Pro_28:15, Pro_28:16
    The wicked ruler
    I. THE SIMILE. (Pro_28:15.) He is like a fierce and devouring beast. No pity softens his bosom; no justice regulates his conduct. Complaint provokes further exactions; resistance kindles him into fury. He looks upon his people, not as a flock to be tended, but to be preyed upon. He roars around them like the nightly bear about the fold. Such monsters have often appeared in history.
    II. THE SOURCE OF OPPRESSION. It lies in the ignorance of the oppressor’s heart—ignorance of policy, of humanity, of Divine and eternal right. The great generalization, “They know not what they do,” covers, indeed, all kinds of sin, but does not exempt from guilt. Men might know better; but, without the practice of what we know, our light itself becomes darkness.
    III. THE GOOD RULER. (Pro_28:16.) The trait that “he hates covetousness” may be made general; for false or perverted desire is the real motive of all such wickedness. “Lust and desire to have” gold, territory, power, etc; is selfish and cruel, and turns every man governed by it into a being more or less resembling the non-moral brute. Politics can never be excluded from Christianity; and the immense effect for good or evil of the acts of those in power is a reason why all good Christians should take a close interest in politics, and not permit any rank or station to be exempt from criticism.—J.
    Pro_28:17-22
    Judgments on transgressors
    I. THE VIOLENT MAN. (Pro_28:17.) His doom, here as elsewhere, is viewed as sudden; he hastes to Hades—lives not out half his days. The truth is general, reflecting the intuition of the moral order. And in accordance with that order it is that pity will be turned away from him that shows no pity. This is no argument for capital punishment, but it is an argument for such a treatment of criminals as will best deter from crime.
    II. THE INSECURITY OF EVIL WAYS. (Pro_28:18.) Integrity is alone safe; and in one or other of his crooked ways the sinner will ultimately fall. The dangerous feat is tried once too often. Our interest is attracted to “the dangerous edge of things,” and we are astonished that men can stand upon it so often without falling. We do not see the result of the last and fatal attempt; or, seeing it, we do not surmise the previous successful attempts to defy the law of things. Scripture is right; but we do not know enough of events absolutely to verify its truths.
    III. POVERTY AS A JUDGMENT. (Pro_28:19.) Here, again, we have a general truth—an abstract from the great broad field of life’s facts. On the whole, there is no secret of abundance but industry; nor of poverty but idleness and indulgence in pleasure and amusement as a pursuit. Repose and pleasure are the illusions from which the stern voice of God, speaking through daily experience, is ever rousing us. Hardly any disease of body or of mind, any social evil, is there which may not be traced to self-indulgence and inertia.
    IV. HASTE TO BE RICH. (Pro_28:20.) This temper is contrasted with that of the faithful man. There is a different scale of value in the two cases. The good man values things by the moral standard, the covetous man only by the standard of gold. The true way of looking at wealth is as an available means to all ends of health, wisdom, benevolence. These alone are rational ends; but they may be lost sight of in the passionate pursuit of the means. It was a thought deeply impressed on the ancient world that over-eagerness for riches must involve dishonesty. “No one quickly grows rich, being at the same time a just man,” says Menander. “For he who desires to become rich desires to become rich quickly. But what reverence for the laws? what fear or shame is there ever in the covetous man who hastes to be rich?” says Juvenal. To lessen our desires rather than to increase our means is the true wisdom of life—to study to give account of our little rather than to make our little more.
    V. RESPECT OF PERSONS IN JUDGMENT. (Pro_28:21, Pro_28:22.) The vice springs from some mean source—from fear, covetousness, or obsequiousness. Cato used to say of Caelius the tribune, that he might be hired for a piece of bread to speak or hold his peace. To prefer interest to the truth, this is the fiery temptation in one form or other of us all. And the keeping back of a part of the truth may be as injurious to others as the utterance of direct falsehood. Any meanness harboured in the soul exposes to constant danger. Timidity may fall into worse sins than those it seeks to avoid. And in other ways extremes meet. While the haster to be rich casts an evil, envious eye on the property of others, he is blind to the menace of poverty from behind. In any case, poverty of soul follows from the constant drain of thought and energy towards things that “perish in the using.” How much need have all to beware of those passions which are the “thorns” that spring up and choke the good word of God in the heart!—J.
    Pro_28:23
    Faithful counsel
    I. To GIVE IT MAY REQUIRE THE HIGHEST MORAL COURAGE. It may be in the teeth of the interest of the adviser; it may turn a friend into an enemy; it may inflict a keen smart. Nothing but the highest regard to truth on the one hand, to love on the other, may be sufficient to nerve for the task.
    II. THE TEMPORARY DISPLEASURE OF A FRIEND IS TO BE FACED RATHER THAN THAT HE SHOULD SUFFER LASTING EVIL. To save a soul from death, this is the great duty imposed by Christian love. And to that principle we must be true, whether we gain or lose a brother to our heart.
    III. FLATTERY TURNS OUT TO BE BITTER, NEED COUNSEL HUMBLY RECEIVED EVER SWEET IN THE END. The former swelling our self-conceit, blinds us to both our advantage and our duty; lures us to folly and, perhaps, to ruin. The latter opens our eyes to ourselves and to our circumstances, and turns our foot from the precipice. We have reason to be thankful for the warning word that has saved us, and to bless the faithful heart which dictated it; reason ourselves to pray that we may miss no such opportunity of another’s salvation.—J.
    Pro_28:24, Pro_28:25
    Sins of greed
    I. THEY MAY LEAD TO UNNATURAL VICES—EVEN THE ROBBERY OF PARENTS. (Pro_28:24.) The heart must be profoundly corrupted that can sacrifice filial affection on the shrine of the base lust for gain. Theft is not less but more a crime it committed against one’s own blood.
    II. THEY LEAD TO STRIFE. (Pro_28:25.) They overcome the instinct for justice and social right, and the man becomes an oppressor and a murderer—if not in act, in spirit and purpose—of his kind. Wars and fightings come of the “lusts in our members.” It is confidence in the eternal God—his gracious providence and goodness, which calms excessive desire, and fills the heart with peace and content. And the riches the soul thus gains are surer and more permanent than any treasures laid up on earth.—J.
    Pro_28:26
    Folly and wisdom in the personal relation
    I. THE PRINCIPLE OF FOLLY IS LIFE IN AND FOR SELF ALONE. The thought that is superior to counsel and comparison with other minds; the feeling which shuts out consideration and sympathy; the will which would act as if it knew no law but its own;—these are manifestations of that folly which is at once immoral and irreligious.
    II. PRACTICAL WISDOM WELL COMPARED TO A WALK. This is the rising in thought towards universal truth. It is governed by the pulse of charity in the soul; it moves towards all worthy Divine and human ends. In folly we advance to perdition, in aiming at our weal, in wisdom, renouncing self, we enter blessedness.—J.
    Pro_28:27, Pro_28:28
    The life that breeds perpetual benediction.
    I. THE KINDLY AND GENEROUS HEART”. (Pro_28:27.) This prompts the generous hand; gathers more than it sows; is not suffered to want any good thing. It stands out in bright colours and winning aspect against the dark background of the selfish, self-concentrated, hard hearted life Let us cultivate the open eye which drinks in the knowledge of all that concerns our fellows, and the open hand in harmony with it.
    II. ITS WORTH IS HEIGHTENED BY CONTRAST. (Pro_28:28.) Men cower, their brows contract, their mien becomes depressed, their soul enslaved, their manhood unmanned, beneath the proud man’s oppression and the wicked’s scorn. Persecution drives the moral sunshine out of the world, and tends to depopulate its moral life. As the increase of goodness depends largely on sound social and political conditions, it must be an object of prayer and of endeavour with all good men to overthrow tyranny and abolish fraud, that “the fruits of righteousness may abound and increase on every hand.”—J.
    HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
    Pro_28:1, Pro_28:13, Pro_28:25
    (latter part)
    The source of disturbance and the secret of security
    We hardly need the pen of the wise man to assure us that—
    I. SIN MEANS DISTURBANCE TO OUR SOUL.
40. It is bad enough to be unfortunate; to suffer from privation or loss.
41. It is far worse to be guilty. We soon accommodate ourselves to our misfortunes; we readily adjust ourselves to our circumstances, even though these may be very narrow. But sin strikes deep, and its wound lasts long. Among other painful consequences it fills the soul with a tormenting fear.
    (1) It dreads the pursuing penalty of God’s ordaining. And it has reason to do so, for “evil pursueth sinners” (see homily on Pro_13:21). In accordance with Divine Law, suffering, sorrow, shame, death, are following in the track of iniquity, and, except there be merciful interposition, will lay their hand upon it.
    (2) It dreads the pursuing penalty of man. More often than not sin is pursued by man, either by public taw or by private resentment; and he who has wronged his neighbour, either by fraud or force, has reason to expect arrest and punishment. It is well that it should be so. We have come lately to understand that it is our wisdom to abandon the heavy sentence which was seldom inflicted for the lighter one which is far more freely dispensed. The great thing in administering justice is to connect penalty with sin as closely as possible in the mind of those who are tempted to violate the law.
    (3) It dreads penalty when there is no punishment at all. “The wicked flee when no man pursueth.” The murderer cannot, dare not, stay in the presence of the body he has slain. The thief turns aside from the officer who has no intention of apprehending him. He who has inflicted the greatest wrong that one man can do another shrinks from his neighbour’s eye long before his sin has been suspected. Sin fills the soul with a harassing, a tormenting, fear. The guilty heart imagines a hundred dangers before the hand of judgment is outstretched to seize, or even its pursuing feet are on the path of apprehension. We reckon badly indeed if we only count the actual and palpable inflictions of justice which evil pays; in that penalty must be included all the anxieties, the alarms, the quakings and shiverings of the soul, the abject and haunting terrors which agitate the soul before the chains are on the wrist or the prisoner is at the bar.
42. There are two alternatives open to guilt: (Pro_28:13.)
    (1) It may try concealment; but this is a mistaken as well as a wrong course. It will “not prosper;” the time of concealment will be one of constant disquietude, and it will end in exposure and humiliation, for again and again it is seen that there is “nothing hidden which is not revealed.”
    (2) It should adopt the course of confession and amendment; whoso does this “shall have mercy” of God, and will very likely indeed have mercy of man also. But even if not, the way of confession and of penalty is less hard and thorny than the path of sin and secrecy, of cowardice and terror. It is often true that while to bear punishment is tolerable, the miserable effort to escape it is absolutely intolerable.
    II. RIGHTEOUSNESS MEANS SECURITY AND SERENITY. “The righteous are bold as a lion.” To the upright there are two sources of rest and strength.
43. The consciousness of integrity. He that knows and feels his purity, his innocency, has a fearless heart, and shows a brave front to the enemy. He does not fear that the shafts of falsehood will pierce his strong armour of truth and equity.
44. The favour of God. (Pro_28:25.) He “puts his trust in the Lord;” he commits his cause to the Righteous One; he is assured that God is on his side, and he “does not fear what man can do unto him.” “The Lord is his salvation; whom should he fear?” (see Psa_27:1-3; Psa_84:11, Psa_84:12).—C.
    Pro_28:4, Pro_28:5
    The practice and effect of sin and righteousness
    We have a double contrast here between the practice of the sinner and of the righteous man, and between the consequence of sin and of goodness upon the mind of the guilty and of the good.
    I. THE PRACTICE OF SINFUL MEN. They “praise the wicked;” they “bless the covetous” (Psa_10:3).
45. It is a fact that they do so. We hear the voice of ungodliness lifted up in favour of what is utterly wrong in the sight of God; it is expressed in the language of the lips and in every form of literature. There is hardly an evil thing perpetrated by men which does not find its advocate in some quarter.
46. It is comprehensible that they would do so. And this for two reasons. The wicked, as such, have an interest in lowering the standard of public morals; the more they can reduce this. the less will be their own condemnation, and the higher they may hope to move in the society they affect. But perhaps the main account of it is found in—
    II. THE BLINDING INFLUENCE OF SIN. Those who break God’s Law praise those who are wicked and that which is unworthy, because they “understand not judgment” (Pro_28:5). It is the fearful and fatal effect of sin upon the soul to pervert the moral judgment, to deprave the conscience, to make men regard with a diminishing disapproval the wrongness of evil deeds, until they become absolutely indifferent to it, until they positively approve the actions which they once hated and denounced. Then the light that is in them is darkness, and how great and how sad that darkness is (see Mat_5:23)! Everything is seen in a false light; truth appears as falsehood, good as evil, wisdom as folly; and, on the other hand, all those miserable delusions which a sinful heart holds, and which are leading it down to death, appear as truth, and wrong and guilty actions appear as right, and lives which are dismal failures seem to be successes.
    III. THE FUNCTION OF THE RIGHTEOUS. Their duty, or one of their duties, is to “contend with the wicked.” This was the office, the service, of righteous Noah, of Lot, of Elijah, of Daniel, of Nehemiah, of John the Baptist, of Paul; it has been the function of every true and loyal-hearted man placed in the midst of those who are opposing the will of God. Contention is not the highest, as it certainly is not the most inviting, duty we have to take in hand. But it is often very necessary, and is sometimes quite noble service.
47. We may have to contend with the flagrantly bad, to denounce violence, oppression, injustice, vice, profanity, etc.; or with the mere hypocrite, who is right in form but wrong in heart; or with those who are halfhearted, and who are practically opposing the truth and the kingdom of God.
48. We should be very sure of our ground before we take up the attitude and use the weapons of hostility.
49. We should oppose ourselves to those who are wrong in no spirit of animosity against men, but of hatred of all evil.
    IV. THE EFFECT AND REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. “They that seek the Lord understand all things.” It is the most blessed effect of obedience that it elevates the doer; it purifies his heart, it clarifies his vision, it unlocks the door within which are rare treasures of immortal truth, it makes the soul to see and to rejoice in that to which it had been wholly blind. It unveils the living truth of God. It enables us:
50. To know ourselves as God knows us.
51. To understand our life as God intended us to regard it.
52. To appreciate the words and to recognize the will of the Divine Teacher.
53. To know him himself, “whom to know is life eternal.”—C.
    Pro_28:8
    (See homily on Pro_28:20, Pro_28:22.)—C.
    Pro_28:9
    (See homily on Pro_15:8.)—C.
    Pro_28:12, Pro_28:28
    Hidden manhood
    The two main truths here taught have been anticipated by a foregoing proverb, viz. the advantage to society of promoting the good; and the injury done by the advancement of the wicked (see Pro_11:10). But there is a truth suggested by the wise man’s language which does not elsewhere appear; he says that when the wicked rise “a man is hidden,” that “men hide themselves.” The fact here alluded to is clear enough; we have often read, or have frequently observed, that the best men retire to seclusion and inactivity when iniquity is on the throne, when unprincipled cleverness holds the reins; they will not serve under a sovereign whom they despise, or in circumstances which make office holding a disgrace, if not a danger. But beyond and beneath this fact the language is fitted to suggest to us that there is much of hidden manhood amongst us. We find it in—
    I. PREMATURE RETIREMENT. Not only under the conditions stated in the text, when the withdrawal of honorable men is necessary to the upright and the high-minded, but also under very different conditions. When men are allured by a desire for quietude and ease, or when they are disheartened by disappointment, or are disgusted by the slowness of their ascent to place and power, or when they underestimate their capacity and their opportunity, and they therefore lay down the weapon and leave the field. This is a serious loss. Then “a man is hidden;” a man is burying the wisdom of maturity, the large result of manifold experience, the gathered fruit of many years. He is hiding in his own home the cultured capacity he should be expending on the city, on the country of his birth.
    II. UNDEVELOPED FACULTY. We do not know how often it happens that men are born with great capacities in their nature, and who live and die without manifesting them to the world. They fail to receive the education which would bring them forth, or they are confined within a range so narrow that they have no chance of showing what they could be and do. They “die with all their music in them;” they pass away, unknown, unproved, unfelt. That is expended upon unimportant trifles which might have directed the affairs of some great company, or guided the activities of some influential Church, or decided the course of some powerful nation. A “man is hidden,” and a community is left unenriched.
    III. UNDISCIPLINED FORCE. When God gives to a human spirit a strong power of will, there is an imperative necessity that it should be wisely and rightly guided and controlled in youth. Faithfully disciplined, such a one becomes a most useful man, who will contribute largely to the advancement and happiness of the world. But if that discipline be withheld, and the clever, wilful boy be allowed to grow up into untrained and uncultured manhood, there will be a sad waste of power. He will be more likely than not to do harm rather than good to his generation; he may be a blight instead of a blessing. There is “a man hidden;” one who has it in him to be one of the highest and worthiest, but who, as it is, is lost or even worse than lost, to his contemporaries and his country.
    IV. UNRESCUED WRONG. Even when we see humanity at its very worst, in its very foulness and baseness, we do well to feel that beneath the humiliating and pitiful exterior is a hidden manhood. It is the noble work of Christian beneficence to get down to this, to lay its kind and holy hand upon it, to raise and to restore it, to bring it into the sunshine of truth and love, to make it visible and even beautiful in the sight of God and in the estimate of man.—C.
    Pro_28:18
    (See homily on Pro_11:30—C.
    Pro_28:19
    (See homily on Pro_27:23.)—C.
    Pro_28:20, Pro_28:22
    (and Pro_28:8)
    Wealth or faithfulness? a sermon to young men
    What shall the young man set before him as his goal when he stands face to face with active life? Shall he make up his mind to be rich, or shall he resolve that, whatever his circumstances may be, he will be counted among those who are faithful to their trust? Shall he fix his mind upon and find his heritage in a large estate or in an honourable and a useful life? Let such an inquirer consider—
    I. THE GRAVE DOUBT ABOUT WEALTH. To have sufficiency of money for a comfortable home, for education, for the furtherance of the cause of God, and for the relief of human want,—this is certainly a very desirable thing. He who is facing the future may honestly desire to attain it, and he who has won it may well give God hearty thanks for the goodness which has placed this blessing in his power. But the mere acquisition of wealth, on which so many set their hearts, to which they devote their lives, and for which they sacrifice the best and highest things of all, ensures nothing at all of that which is valuable to a man who uses his reason and cares for his character. For who can be sure:
54. How it will be gained. There are temptations on every hand to gain money dishonestly or, if not fraudulently, by questionable means; by taking advantage of the weak and struggling in a way which, if it be not positively unjust, is inconsiderate and unkind. Of those who “make haste to be rich,” how very large a proportion fail to “be innocent” (Pro_28:20)! They either deviate from the straight line of perfect equity, or they wander into ways of rank injustice and shameful wrong. Who shall say whether the next aspirant will not be counted in their number? And what does it profit a man to gain a fortune and to lose his integrity?
55. How long it will stay. He “considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.” Few things are less certain than the duration of wealth. Who that has reached middle life has not frequently known of those that were supposed to be beyond the reach of misfortune being suddenly reduced or positively beggared (see Pro_23:5)?
56. How much it will do for its possessor. “He that hasteth … hath an evil eye;” so far is he from being satisfied with his fortune, and from looking graciously and generously upon all his neighbours, rich and poor, that he looks enviously upon those that are wealthier than himself, proudly upon those that are less successful, and grudgingly upon those that are poor, lest they should want his aid and diminish his store.
57. Whither it will go. If dishonestly obtained, it is likely enough that wealth will soon meet with the penalty it deserves, and pass to another holder. It may go to him that will “pity the poor,” or it may get into the hands of “the fool,” who will squander it in some kind of folly (Ecc_2:18, Ecc_2:19, Ecc_2:21). There is, then, an utter uncertainty about riches. It may be that God has not intended a man to be rich, but to be happy in a very humble station (Pro_30:9); and a pertinacious endeavour to secure what God has not placed within reach must end in a wretched failure and a badly bruised spirit. To such as these the strong words of Paul are applicable (1Ti_6:9, 1Ti_6:10).
    II. THE CERTAINTY ABOUT FAITHFULNESS. “A faithful man shall abound with blessings.” And there is no room for questioning it. Let a man be faithful to his convictions; let him be to God, his Father and his Saviour, what he knows in his heart he should be; let him be true and upright in all his relations with his fellow men, and he will be regulating his life by a sovereign principle which will “abound with blessings.” It will:
58. Build up a strong and noble character.
59. Establish an honourable reputation and win the confidence of men.
60. Secure as large a measure of peace and of happiness as is the lot of disciplined humanity.
61. Dispense much good of many kinds to those around, both in public and in domestic life.
62. Lead down to a peaceful end, and on to a glorious future. What wise man would endanger the loss of these priceless blessings for the uncertain and transient good of worldly wealth?—C.
    Pro_28:23
    (See homily on Pro_27:5, Pro_27:6.)—C.
    Pro_28:24
    Filial duty
    These words may be taken not only as condemnatory of filial wrong, but as suggestive of filial obligation. We look first at—
    I. THREE FORMS OF FILIAL WRONG.
63. Culpable carelessness. Doing things or leaving them undone, so that the money of parents (which, perhaps, can ill be spared) is wasted.
64. Unconscientious appropriation. Which may ascend from picking out of the pet or taking from the cupboard up to a serious appropriation of property.
65. Unprincipled involvement. Either in the form of
    (1) contracting debts which will have to be paid out of the father’s purse; or, what is still worse
    (2) following an evil course of conduct which will discredit the family name and rob it of its honoured and prized reputation.
    II. ITS GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD. They who do such things may justify them to their own minds; they may say to themselves, “It is no transgression; what is our parents’ is our own;” but this is not the light in which it shows to Heaven. It is not only the wise man. but the Son of God, who has affixed his solemn condemnation to filial shortcoming (Mat_15:5). Undutiful conduct toward parents is a very heinous sin.
66. It is in most distinct violation of the Divine command (Exo_20:12; Deu_27:16; Mat_19:19; Eph_6:1, Eph_6:2; Col_3:20).
67. It is a wrong done to those who, in virtue of their relationship, have the strongest claim upon us.
68. It is a sin against those who have spent on us the most patient, sacrificial love. To rob them to whom we owe more than we can owe any other human being is an aggravated offence indeed. It is well to consider—
    III. THE TRUE FILIAL FEELING. A true son, who realizes what is due to his parents, will not only shrink from taking the advantage which his father’s trustfulness places in his power, but he will consider how he may make some return for all that he has received at his parents’ hands. And he will understand that this is to be rendered by:
69. Responsive affection.
70. Prompt and cheerful obedience.
71. Ready acquiescence in those things which are beyond his reach; docility and submissiveness of spirit.
72. Practical willingness to share the burdens of the home. Thus he will lighten the labour and brighten the lives of those who were the first, and will perhaps be the longest, if not the last, W love him.—C.
    Pro_28:25
    (latter part) and 26 (former part)
    In whom to trust
    They who look forward to human life from the sanguine standpoint of youth may see in it little to be afraid about; but they who have reached the latter end of it, and look back upon it, know how much there is in it to give ground for serious apprehension. It is they who are concerned for the young, and who are so devoutly solicitous that these should put their trust in that which will sustain them. There are three principles which are applicable.
    I. SELF-RELIANCE IS BETTER THAN LEANING UPON OTHERS. To be kept from “the evil which is in the world” by the authority, or the counsel, or the entreaty of others is quite unsatisfactory in any but the very young. These human props will be taken away, and where, then, is our virtue?
    II. MORAL PRINCIPLE IS BETTER THAN RIGHT DISPOSITION. It is well enough to inherit or to imbibe right inclinations, pure impulses, honourable feeling. But these may go down before the force of some one very strong temptation, or be (as indeed they often are) worn down and worn out by the droppings of hostile influences. Moral principle, well rooted in the soul, will stand the rough wind and still lift up its head to heaven.
    III. TO TRUST IN GOD IS INCOMPARABLY WISER THAN RESTING IN OURSELVES,
73. To “trust in our own heart” is great folly. For, on the one hand, we do not know what we may have to encounter. Possibly our life may be comparatively free from evil, material and moral; but perhaps it may not be so. There may be before us trials of the utmost severity, for which the very greatest endurance will be required; or there may be temptations of the severest kind, which will assail us with tremendous and overwhelming force; or there may be demanded of us high duties, large services of even heroic order, only to be rendered by a noble self-abnegation; or there may await us splendid opportunities, to be unequal to which would be a lifelong regret, to avail ourselves of which would crown us with joy and honour. And, on the other hand, we do know that, associated even with moral principle, there is some measure of human weakness. Every man has his vulnerable point; and to every man’s strength of mind and character there is a limit which is only too easily reached. Who of us would dare to say that he, of himself, however fortified he may be even by sound convictions as well as excellent inclinations, is strong enough to withstand any storm that may beat against him, to swim any current into which he may be cast, to rise to any height that he may be called upon to climb?
74. To trust in God is the true wisdom. For
    (1) God is able to make us stand (Rom_14:4). He can make us to know “the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe.” We can “do all things in Christ who strengtheneth us.”
    (2) He has promised to sustain and to enable us, if we do put our trust in him (Psa_32:10; Psa_125:1-5 :11; Isa_26:3; Isa_40:30, Isa_40:31; 2Ti_1:12). God has given us abundant reason to believe that, if we practically and devoutly trust in him, he will see us safely through every evil we may have to meet and master, and will guide us to his own home and glory.—C.

Proverbs 28:14
(with 1Jn_4:18)
Fear has a place in the Gospel; may we but find it. Indeed, it is an old remark that every natural principle of our minds, every true inborn feeling in these hearts of ours—desire, affection, devotion, even anger, even indignation, hatred itself—has an object assigned to it—is not to be crushed and trampled out, only to be redirected—in that new and latest utterance of God to His creatures which is the Gospel of grace and salvation. So it is, certainly, with fear. The object of fear may be either a thing or a person.
I. We fear a thing which, being possible, is also undesirable or dreadful. We do not fear that which is impossible; we do not fear that which is pleasant or neutral. Our Prayer-book, commenting in the catechism upon the Lord’s Prayer, bids us call three things evil, not pain, not sickness, hot loss, not bereavement, not even natural death, but just these only: (1) sin and wickedness; (2) our ghostly enemy; (3) everlasting death. These three things then are the proper objects of Gospel fear.
II. The fear of God as a Person, even the dread of God as a Person, is essentially of a high order. To feel that there is One above me, a living Being, to whom I am accountable, if it be but as my Judge, to whom I am something, if it be but as a malefactor and a victim—there is something elevating in the very conception. But this, if it stop here, is the religion of nature, of fallen nature, of the thing made and corrupted crouching beneath the hand of its Maker. This mere dread, though it is a higher thing than indifference, is no part of the Gospel. From this kind of fear the convinced man, if he yields himself to Christ’s teaching, will pass on into a higher. Of all love, that is the most beautiful which is the gradual produce of the godliest fear. It springs not out of the forgetfulness, but out of the experience, of what I am and of what God is. It is no sentimental dream, no highly coloured fancy, no one-sided view of God’s revelation; it takes in all the truth, and is founded upon a rock.
C. J. Vaughan, Last Words at Doncaster, p. 19.
References: Pro_28:14-28.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. iii., p. 272. Pro_28:20-22.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 227.

Proverbs 28:26
I. We may take these words of the Book of Proverbs as a warning to seek self-knowledge. And, as a first step to self-knowledge, they bid us beware of trusting our own heart, or we shall but see ourselves, in a high moral sense, to be “fools” at last. But it may be asked, Is not the heart God’s creation and God’s gift? Did He not plant eyes in it and give to it; light and discernment to guide our ways? Why must a man who trusts his own heart be a fool? (1) Because our hearts—that is, we ourselves—are ignorant of ourselves. If we knew ourselves, we should not trust ourselves; we do so because we do not know what we are. (2) Not only is the heart ignorant of itself, but it deceives itself. Ignorance is the danger of unawakened minds, self-deceit of the awakened. (3) Another reason why to trust our own hearts is a note of folly is because they flatter us. Self-flattery imposes upon us with the conceit of our own excellence.
II. If this be so, if we be our own deceivers, what securities shall we take against our own hearts? Out of many we can now take only two. (1) The greatest security against deceiving ourselves by trusting our own hearts is a careful information of conscience. A knowledge of sin in itself would interpret to us the true moral character of our own conduct and all its intricate parts of thought, word, and deed. Another benefit of this early information of conscience is that we should be preserved from the stunning and deadening insensibility which early sins bring upon us. No words too strong can be found to urge on parents and guides of children to begin the information of the conscience as early as the information of the reason. (2) The other security is the only one which remains to those who have never enjoyed the first, and that is to take the judgment of some other person instead of trusting in themselves. We advise others better than ourselves; so would they us again. How little do we lay to heart who he is that would fain stop our ears against all advisers. And the man who takes counsel of nobody is his easy prey.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. iii., p. 92.
References: Pro_29:15.—New Manual of Sunday-school Addresses. p. 164. Pro_29:1.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 359; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. x., p. 84; J. Keble, Sermons for Saints’ Days, p. 174. Pro_29:1-11.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. iii., p. 285. Pro_29:12-18.—Ibid., p. 297. Pro_29:15.—Outline Sermons to Children, p. 77.

Proverbs 28:1
Pursueth. “A crime is its own punishment.” (Seneca, ep. 93.) (Lev_26:36) — Dread. Of any thing terrestrial, as long as the object of his love is not attacked, Rom_8:35

Proverbs 28:2
Princes. Who each contend for the sovereign power. (Calmet)

Proverbs 28:8
Poor. It seldom happens that the unjust leave their riches to their children, chap. 13:22, and Job_27:16

Proverbs 28:9
His. Septuagint, “he rendereth his prayer abominable.”

Proverbs 28:13
Mercy. This is true repentance, which enjoins, “not only to bewail past sins, but also to amend.” (St. Ambrose, ii. Pen. v.) — Sacramental confession was not required of the Jews, but they confessed their sins, when they laid their hands on the victim, &c., Leviticus iv., and v. (Calmet)

Proverbs 28:16
Prudence. Septuagint, “riches.” Poverty is a great temptation to people in authority, more than avarice itself. (Calmet)

Proverbs 28:20
Innocent. Unpunished, if he employ fraud, ver. 22., and chap. 13:21

Proverbs 28:21
Forsaketh. Hebrew, “oppresseth (Septuagint, selleth) a man.” (Calmet) — Neither small nor great bribes must be taken. (Justinian)

Proverbs 28:22
Poverty. Septuagint, “the merciful shall have power over him,” ver. 8. (Haydock)

Proverbs 28:28
Men. Septuagint, “the just groan,” and all are under “apprehensions.” (Calmet)

Proverbs 28:1
Lev_26:17; Lev_26:36, 2Ki_7:6-7

Proverbs 28:4
(1806) The lawless will praise the wicked because there are no moral absolutes in their lives, Rom_1:28-32.

Proverbs 28:6
Jas_1:8

Proverbs 28:7
Pro_3:1-4, 1Co_15:33

Proverbs 28:8
Exo_22:25

Proverbs 28:9
(1807) The Torah is the moral code of conduct in life and breaking the Torah is sin ( 1Jn_3:4). Those who rebelliously turn away from hearing the Torah, even their prayer becomes an abomination.

Proverbs 28:10
Pro_26:27, Psa_57:6

Proverbs 28:13
Psa_32:1-2; Psa_32:5, Psa_51:1-4, 1Jn_1:9

Proverbs 28:14
Pro_23:17

Proverbs 28:19
Pro_12:11

Proverbs 28:26
Pro_3:5

Proverbs 28:27
Pro_11:24; Pro_19:17

Proverbs 28:1

A Bad or a Good Conscience

“The wicked” may have a big mouth, but inwardly they are always afraid. They have a guilty conscience and fear judgment. They trust no one, are suspicious, and even flee from imaginary danger (cf. Lev_26:36 ; Psa_53:6 ). Wicked people keep fleeing, for they always carry their bad conscience with them wherever they go. Sin makes a man a fearful person.

“But the righteous” are aware of the favor of God and people. The righteous one has a clear conscience. He doesn’t have to keep looking back over his shoulder to see if anyone is on his heels to do him harm. Like “a lion” he is free from fear. He is bold because he trusts not in his own strength, but in God. A righteous person does not go running for an imaginary enemy, for no such enemy exists for him.

The verse shows the connection between boldness and a good conscience and also the result of a bad conscience. “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline” (2Ti_1:7 ). He who is guided by God’s Spirit does not need to flee. Elijah, a righteous man, stood as a man of God “bold as lion” on Mount Carmel against hundreds of false prophets (1Kg_18:22 ).

Proverbs 28:2-5

Not Acknowledging God’s Authority

National sins bring national disasters. If a land has no regard for God and His Word, the cause is that there is no God-fearing ruler. As a result, rulers succeed one another in rapid succession, for each ruler is only after his own interest (Pro_28:2 ). The period of the judges with thirteen judges and the days of the northern kingdom of Israel with nine dynasties are examples of political instability due to sin. During rebellious, turbulent times, a nation has many takeovers and many people competing for power.

A people get the government they deserve. We see this not only in kingdoms, but also in countries with self-elected governments. One government succeeds another, while the government that steps down leaves the country in greater chaos than when it took office.

But if there is “a man of understanding [and] knowledge” in the government, justice “endures”. It is about understanding and knowledge of the will of God. If that is present, there will be good and also ‘enduring’ that is long lasting, government. Enduring justice means that as soon as evil elements reveal themselves that threaten the rule of law, that evil will be judged. Once this is ignored, the cycle of many rulers succeeding one another begins again, resulting in instability in the land. If the rule of law is upheld justly, a change of government does not take place again and again. This greatly benefits the stability of a land.

It is very tragic, though, when “a poor man” becomes powerful, when he becomes a ruler, and in that position “oppresses the lowly” (Pro_28:3 ). A poor man, in a place of authority given to him because of his experiences, could have become a refreshing rain for his former companions. After all, no one better than he knows what it is to be “lowly”. But it is precisely then that a person can show the greatest contempt toward those among whom he used to find himself. His oppression of the lowly implies betrayal.

The second line of verse shows by comparison the result of the behavior of the man who was poor and has become powerful. He is like “a driving rain which leaves no food”. Rain should serve to bless the crop so that the harvest becomes good and there is bread, but here he does a destructive work. Hunger ensues. A ruler must provide a beneficent society (Psa_72:5-7 ) and not drive it away by heavy pressure (2Ch_10:10-19 ).

People who “forsake the law” have lost the good view, God’s view, of the wicked (Pro_28:4 ). They are no longer able to distinguish between good and evil. They disobey God’s law and therefore gain admiration for those who have clearly cast God aside and determine their own life. In a society where wicked people are praised, God’s Word has been thrown overboard. Free will, saying anything you think and doing anything you want, has become the highest good. Those who adhere to that praise the wicked for their wickedness (cf. Rom_1:32 ). An example is same-sex sexual intercourse.

Those who want to live according to God’s Word will fight against it. This may mean openly pointing out evil. In any case, it means not participating in praising the wicked. Then the prevailing opinion is fought against. The result is opposition.

To “understand justice” (Pro_28:5 ) is dependent on one’s mind, not one’s intellect (cf. Psa_119:100 ; Joh_7:17 ). “Evil men” are people who are not attuned to God, but to their own evil nature. They lust after evil. Their minds are corrupted. Therefore, they cannot understand “justice”, the legal rights of persons that have been established by God. They have no ‘antenna’ for it, for they are darkened in their mind. This becomes evident in the injustice they do to their neighbor.

The word “but” at the beginning of the second line of verse introduces the contrast with what is stated in the first line of verse. To “seek the LORD” means to ask Him for His will in order to do it (2Sa_21:1 ). We seek God’s will when we examine His Word. If we keep the Word closed, we do not seek Him. The Spirit causes us to find God’s will in God’s Word, understand it and carry it out. We “understand all things” through the Spirit Who dwells in us (1Jn_2:20 1Jn_2:27 ). For us to experience the full benefit of this in our lives, we must be spiritually minded, for then we can appraise all things (1Co_2:14-15 ).

Proverbs 28:6

Integrity Is Better Than Being Crooked

This verse is another “better… than” proverb. The proverb says that honest poverty is better than dishonest riches. Certainly, there are dishonest poor and honest rich. The verse only contrasts “the poor who walks in his integrity” with one who “who is crooked though he be rich” (Pro_19:1 ). The word for “crooked” suggests that the rich man goes several ways, sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left. It means that he is hypocritical, that he acts in more ways. Outwardly he is religious, but inside he is depraved and greedy. One moment he presents himself as a religious man, but another moment he acts as a greedy man.

Integrity is not automatically associated with wealth as a proof of God’s appreciation of that integrity. Being poor carries with it the danger of being dishonest or insincere. The poor who walks in his integrity does not succumb to that danger. His walk with God preserves him in his integrity.

Riches are not automatically evidence of God’s appreciation. The rich person who is crooked proves that he does not see his riches as a gift from God. His crooked ways are ways without God. He does not walk with God, but according to his own crooked views by which he believes he can hold and increase his riches.

Proverbs 28:7

A Discerning Son or a Son Who Humiliates

A person who is obedient to the law proves that he is “a discerning son”. His father has taught and demonstrated by his example to him the importance of observing the law: the discerning son has taken that teaching to heart. As a result, he makes wise choices and is a joy to his father.

A son “who is a companion of gluttons” – for example, indulging in eating and drinking and sexuality – has taken no notice of his father’s teaching. He has not said, “Depart from me, evildoers, that I may observe the commandments of my God” (Psa_119:115 ). Instead, he has chosen his own friends who are transgressing boundaries in all kinds of areas. He is a debaucher. This bad company and debauched life are much to the grievance of his father, whom he also “humiliates” by his behavior. He throws defamation on his entire family.

Proverbs 28:8

Dishonest Wealth Increase

The connection between the first line of verse and the second line of verse seems to assume that the increase in possession is the result of the plucking from the poor who have had to borrow or buy from him. This saying assumes that the property of one who obtained it dishonestly will eventually find its way to the poor (cf. Jer_17:11 ; Jas_5:1-6 ). God will see to that (Job_27:16-17 ; Ecc_2:26 ). He will see to it that it gets into the hands of someone “who is gracious to the poor”.

The law forbids asking interest from a neighbor, a fellow citizen (Exo_22:25 ; Lev_25:36-37 ; Deu_23:19-20 ; Psa_15:5 ). If the poor needed help, the rich were to give it to them as charity. They were not to exploit the plight of another Israelite for their own benefit.

Proverbs 28:9

God Is Deaf to Those Who Are Deaf to Him

Fellowship with God takes place through His Word and prayer. Through His Word God speaks to man and through prayer man speaks to God. If God speaks, but a man does not listen, God will not listen if that man speaks to Him. Listening means not only hearing, but also doing. If a person on his part is deaf to teaching from God’s Word, closes himself to it, God on His part will be deaf to his prayer.

The prayer will certainly not be a pure prayer. God is not only deaf to it, but it is an abomination to Him. He who refuses to obey God cannot possibly pray according to God’s will. Should anyone nevertheless have the audacity to ask God for something in an attitude of disobedience, he is told that God rejects his prayer (Isa_1:15 ). When the elders of Israel came to Ezekiel to ask about God’s will, God said He would not respond to their question because they had not obeyed what He had previously told them to do (Eze_20:1-8 ). Those who do not hear do not deserve to be heard. Of course, a prayer of repentance is not an abomination to the Lord.

Proverbs 28:10

Fall Into His Own Pit or Inherit the Good

Judgment is certain for him who “who leads the upright astray in an evil way”, that is, who tempts them to do sin. It is a great evil for God to cause “the upright”, those who are connected to Him, to go astray (Mat_18:6-7 ). Satan will try anything to lead the upright astray, and he has plenty of people he can use to do so. The world has a huge offer to lead upright people astray down a wrong path. This is done through advertisements and the Internet. The evil of unfaithfulness in marriage is denied, ‘an affair’ should be allowed. Satan, together with every creature who does as he does, will fall into the pit he and they have dug themselves.

But if we are and remain “blameless” we are not only kept from falling into the pit of the false teacher, but we “will inherit the good”. God will give the good as an inheritance to us. “The good” is everything that God gave to the Lord Jesus as a reward and which we will be allowed to share with Him. We can think of the good things we will enjoy in the kingdom of peace.

Proverbs 28:11

The Wise in His Own Eyes and the Poor

This proverb again deals with a contrast between “the rich man” and “the poor”. In this verse, the rich man is “wise in his own eyes”. He is filled with self-conceit. He sees only himself and thinks he can judge everything. “But the poor who has understanding sees through him”; such a poor does not let himself be fooled. The poor sees the rich man’s faults; he sees right through his posturing.

Riches and wisdom do not often go together. Often the riches of the rich man blind him to his spiritual poverty. He believes that his money determines the value of his soul. He who has money can buy power and assert it. But one who has no money but understanding sees through him; he sees that he is only a conceited brat, who is not what he pretends to be.

Riches can lead to pride (1Ti_6:17 ). The wisdom of the righteous is not that he knows how to make as much money as possible and get rich as quickly as possible. His wisdom is that he sees the uncertainty of riches and does not put his trust in them (Mat_6:19 ).

Proverbs 28:12

The Righteous or the Wicked in Control

The contrast in this verse is between the situation when “righteous” triumph and when “wicked” rise, i.e. come to power (Pro_11:10 ). The idea is that there is much confidence among the people when the righteous are exalted, when they are in power, when “there is great glory”. They have a positive effect among people. The righteous give luster to society. Society is prosperous. Everyone is happy and joyful because there is a just distribution of burdens and a fair sharing of benefits.

“But when the wicked rise”, when they come to power, that is the end of a peaceful, happy society. They have a negative effect among people. When the wicked become powerful, the streets become quiet, because people hide out of fear of them. We see these two opposite effects in the reign of Mordecai (Est_8:17 ) and that of the Midianites (Jdg_6:2 ).

Proverbs 28:13-14

Confessing and Fearing

The contrast in Pro_28:13 – indicated by the word “but” – is between “he who conceals his transgressions” and “he who confesses and forsakes them”. The former “will not prosper”, the latter “will find compassion”. This verse is unique in the book of Proverbs. It deals with the truth of forgiveness. Every part of this verse is essential to this truth. God’s forgiveness here is clearly linked to a true return to God to find with Him compassion instead of judgment (Psa_32:1-5 ; 1Jn_1:6-9 ).

A “ transgression” is the crossing of a boundary while the boundary is clearly marked. When David committed adultery with Bathsheba, transgressed, he crossed the boundary God has drawn around marriage. At first he “concealed” or covered that sin and remained silent. Then he did “not prosper”. His bones wasted away and he felt God’s hand pressing heavily on him. Then he made his sin known, confessed it and said: “My iniquity I did not hide” (Psa_32:3-5 ). Then he could say that God surrounded him “with joyful songs of deliverance” (Psa_32:7 ).

The consequence of received compassion after confessing a sin is always fearing (Pro_28:14 ) for the sin. Deep awe of sin is the point of this verse, not so much deep awe of the LORD. The latter is always true, but that is not the emphasis here.

‘Fearing always’ is deep fear. It is fear of sin, as Joseph feared sin (Gen_39:8-9 ), fear of the consequences that come from sin. It is the fear of falling (back) into sin, it is deep awe or deep fear of the power of sin. The point is that it is always, constantly there. This fear will certainly be there for the sin that we have had to confess (Pro_28:13 ). If we have this fear, we are “blessed”, happy, because then we will shun sin.

That we can think here of fear of sin is also evident from the contrast in the second line of verse. The verse contrasts the man who “fears always” with “he who hardens his heart”. It is inevitable that he who does the latter will “fall into calamity”. A deep awareness of sin is a special grace. He who has no fear of sin and hardens his heart against the warnings against it, falls into sin and plunges himself and also others into misery.

Proverbs 28:15-16

The Tyrant

“A roaring lion and a rushing bear” are awe-inspiring beasts that know no compassion at all (Pro_28:15 ). They follow their instincts and hunt their prey. Once they have it, they tear it apart. These ferocious beasts that frighten and pursue their prey are the fitting symbol for “a wicked ruler over a poor people”. Political tyrants, like these beasts, are unaccountable, powerful, insensitive, cruel, bloodthirsty and tearing apart. The ruthless world rulers Daniel sees in a vision are also depicted as beasts (Dan_7:1-8 ). The poor suffer under such tyrants because they cannot meet their demands (cf. Ecc_4:1 ).

In this “wicked” ruler we see a picture of the antichrist. This extremely cruel ruler will be accepted as leader by the unbelieving mass of the Jewish people after the rapture of the church. This wicked one will particularly target the believing remnant, which we see in “a poor people”. But they will be redeemed by the true David when He returns to earth. As David “killed both the lion and the bear” (1Sa_17:34-36 ), so the Lord Jesus will kill the wicked antichrist we see here in the lion and the bear.

A tyrant always “lacks understanding” (Pro_28:16 ). He is blinded by lust for power and maintains his power by his performance as “a great oppressor”. His lust for money determines his actions. He oppresses people, for example, by imposing heavy taxes. In contrast (“but”) is the righteous ruler. This is one who is not after his own gain (Exo_18:21 ). Not only is he not after money, but is one who “hates unjust gain”. That ruler “will prolong [his] days”. In this we again see the Lord Jesus, Whose kingship will have no end (Luk_1:32-33 ).

Proverbs 28:17

The Guilt of Human Blood Leads to the Pit

The first line of verse reads literally: “A man tormented by the blood of a life.” This refers to a murderer on the run. He is “a man who is laden with the guilt”, meaning that he has a burdened mind or a guilty conscience. Even though his flight keeps him out of the hands of the avenger of blood, his conscience continues to indict him. Thus, after a shorter or longer time, his flight always ends in death. Nothing can be done about this. The brother murderer Cain understood this (Gen_4:12-14 ).

The second line of verse says that it is not good to try to support a murderer who is on the run. One should not interfere with him, for justice must take its course (Gen_9:6 ).

However, the gospel can be brought to him, so that through repentance and conversion he may have peace of mind for his conscience. Then he is still on his way to death, for he deserves the death penalty, but no longer as a fugitive from just judgment.

Proverbs 28:18

To Be Delivered or to Fall

He who walks blamelessly can be threatened by hostile people or struck by misfortune. He who walks blamelessly walks with God. There is no other way to walk blamelessly. Therefore, he knows that God is with him and will deliver him from misfortune. He who walks blamelessly walks safely.

The second line of verse begins with “but”, indicating that a contrast follows the previous line of verse. There are two contrasts in this verse. “He who walks blamelessly”, contrasts with “he who is crooked”, and “will be delivered”, contrasts with “will suddenly fall at once”. He who is crooked walks insincerely. He is dishonest and depraved and out to benefit himself at the expense of others. He does not take God into account. Therefore, there is no salvation for him when he comes into need. And his distress will come suddenly, he will fall all at once.

Proverbs 28:19-20

Results of Diligence and Faithfulness

In Pro_28:19 , there are two kinds of plenty (Pro_12:11 ). There is plenty of food and poverty in plenty. “Have plenty of food” is the result of diligently doing your daily work, which is indicated here by “he who tills his land”. You don’t get your food by some miracle, but you have to work for it. If you do, you will have plenty of food.

The second line of verse again begins with “but”, indicating that a contrast follows. Opposed to the diligent worker is one who “follows empty [pursuits]”. One who does such a thing shows what he himself is like. He does not do anything, but profits from others. Every now and then he has something to eat, but in the end he has “poverty in plenty”. He who tills his land has his lunchbox, table and stomach full of bread. He who follows empty pursuits has his lunchbox, table and stomach full of emptiness.

The contrast is between the one who concentrates on his work, and the one who gets distracted and spends his time and energy on non-productive activities. Some relaxation and distraction are useful in their time, but too much of it leads to poverty, both material and spiritual.

Pro_28:20 follows on from Pro_28:19 . The first line of verse talks about “a faithful man”, meaning, among other things, that he is diligent at work and faithful in it. He “will abound with blessings”. By contrast with the second line of verse, one of those numerous blessings seems to be that of sufficient income. He does not have to be eager to become rich; he is rich because of his faithfulness in his work. As a result, he is able to provide for his family. He is also able to give something away to the poor and, above all, to give God His share. He rejoices in God’s favor. Faithfulness determines success.

Opposed to a trustworthy man is “he who makes haste to be rich”, also translated as “he who is eager to get rich”. Such a person uses dishonest means to do so. We can conclude this from the words “will not go unpunished”. The idea is that the first is faithful to his obligations to God and to other people. The second, one who aspires to become rich, is doing so without working diligently for it, but by using deception. By doing so, he not only loads riches on himself, but more importantly, guilt. He will have to pay for his deceit and misconduct (
1Ti_6:9-10 ).

Proverbs 28:21

Partiality Leads to Transgression

Showing “partiality is not good”; it is not allowed (Lev_19:15 ; Deu_1:17 Deu_16:19 ; Pro_18:5 Pro_24:23 ). Someone can be partial because it concerns someone distinguished, or someone rich, or a relative, or a friend. The second line of verse begins with the word “because”, indicating that reason follows what is said in the first line of verse. Partiality works an unjust assessment of a dispute. If a judge in a lawsuit, or one who has a dispute with another, is partial, he is corruptible. His motives are impure. Because of this, he already becomes a transgressor if someone offers him a piece of bread to induce him to make a false judgment. He is that easy to bribe.

We can apply this to preachers who preach to the church people in order to benefit themselves. Here the saying goes: “Whose bread you eat, whose word you speak.” People like to pay preachers who give sermons they like to hear. These preachers are partial; they choose the favor of people instead of the favor of God. They violate God’s Word and mutilate it for a piece of bread.

Proverbs 28:22

Greed Leads to Want

He who is out to increase possession and hastens to do so is so fixated on his possessions because he has “an evil eye” (cf. Pro_23:6 ). He only sees his own wealth, while the thought of granting anyone anything is reprehensible to him. Then he would be a thief of himself. No, never grant anyone anything. What you begrudge the other person, you might miss, so your possession does not grow.

He has an evil eye because his eye is focused on the riches of the world and not on God and His will. As a result, he does not know that God will punish him with “want” for his covetousness. He will not be able to hold on to his possessions but lose them as a result of what God brings upon him.

Proverbs 28:23

Rebuking Is Better Than Flattering

Pointing out someone’s character flaws or faulty actions or responsibility does not often garner immediate appreciation. It may be met with rejection or even anger. But over time, hurt will turn into appreciation. It will sink in that the rebuke was justified and that listening to it has brought blessing. This is not about meddling or a critical spirit, but instruction out of love for the purpose of helping.

A young believing woman who was in a fixed relationship with a young unbelieving man was pointed out the wrong of that. Scripture says that a believer should not go with an unbeliever under an unequal yoke (2Co_6:14 ). It is not pleasant to confront someone with it and not pleasant to be confronted with it. The sister accepted the rebuke. Then, by God’s grace, the man came to true, living faith in the Lord Jesus. They were both very grateful for the rebuke. Some time later they were married.

If this woman had been congratulated on her wrong connection, she might have felt flattered and supported in her choice at that time. But how dramatic would have been the development of the relationship then. A rebuke in love using God’s Word brings blessing to him who rebukes and to him who lets himself be rebuked.

He who flatters with his tongue plunges others and himself into misery. He who flatters is out for personal gain. In any case, he does not want to be disliked, which can happen with rebuke. If we want to please people, we will flatter; if we want to please God and gain favor from people, we will rebuke. God does not flatter man, but exhorts him to repent. Whoever listens to Him and does what He says will find His favor.

Proverbs 28:24-25

Covetousness

In Pro_28:24 it goes beyond failing to fulfill the duty to care for one’s parents (Pro_19:26 ). It speaks of one who “robs his father or his mother” and then even without any shame or guilt he dares to claim: “It is not a transgression.” Is it possible to sink any deeper? The person we are talking about here is someone in whom the most basic form of natural love has disappeared, that is love for parents. The company in which he finds himself is that “of a man who destroys”.

He who robs his parents, no matter how he tries to justify it, is a pernicious man. He anticipates what he will inherit at their death. He cannot wait for that. He wants to try to gain control of his parents’ property prematurely. To do so, he uses some form of psychological pressure or even physical force. His reasoning is that one day the inheritance will be his anyway. No one needs to accuse him of a transgression, he thinks.

Such a person is spiritually akin to the Pharisees who had also devised cunning methods for robbing father and mother (Mat_15:1-9 ; Mar_7:6-13 ). They told people to say the word “Corban (that is to say, given [to God])” as a kind of magic spell over an amount of money that actually served to support the parents. This made that amount of money sacred and it was not a sin if it was given to them, the Pharisees. Thus these depraved people filled their own wallet. The Lord Jesus condemns them for this hypocrisy in sharp terms.

Pro_28:24 refers to the sphere of the family; Pro_28:25 refers to all of society. “An arrogant man” (Pro_28:25 ) is a great egotist and often ruthless. Wherever he goes, he “stirs up strife”. He does not consider anyone and thinks only of himself. His attitudes and actions cause strife because people do not tolerate him for long.

Against the turmoil that permeates the first line of verse, the second line of verse is an oasis of calm. The word “but” introduces the contrast. “He who trusts in the LORD” for temporal and eternal things, “will prosper”, literally “be made fat”. Trusting in the LORD nullifies arrogance. God provides for all the needs of those who trust in Him. That is the contentment that fills a person. For earthly conditions, satiation is being content with “food and clothing” (1Ti_6:8 ).

Proverbs 28:26

Self-Confidence or Walking Wisely

A characteristic of “a fool” is that he “trusts in his own heart”. He has no idea that a man’s heart, including his own, is deceitful (Jer_17:9 ). Full of self-importance, he counts on the fact that what his heart prompts him to do will benefit him the most. Therefore, he follows the promptings of his own foolish heart, without consulting anyone else, much less God. This is not necessary, for after all, he himself knows what is best and he alone knows it. This verse condemns and rebukes exhortations such as ‘you should simply follow your heart’ or ‘do what your heart tells you to do’.

The word “but” indicates that a contrast follows with the fool who trusts in his own heart. Opposed to this fool is “he who walks wisely”. To such a person God looks with favor, for he walks according to His Word and listens to its teaching. As a result, he escapes the folly of following the promptings of his own heart. It will preserve him from the disasters and plagues that are the inevitable part of the fool. He is delivered from them, while the fool perishes in them.

Proverbs 28:27

He Who Gives, Has No Lack

Generosity is rewarded, but indifference is cursed (Pro_22:9 Pro_11:24-26 ). The presence of the poor in God’s people is a test for the rich. God wants His people to be a giving people, in imitation of Him (Deu_15:7-11 ). Whoever gives will not become poorer, but richer. God will not make him lack, but provide what is needed. That experience is already a great reward. Added to this is the fact that the poor person will pray for the giver and will also be willing to do for him what he can.

The contrast, introduced with the word “but”, is the indifferent rich person. “He who shuts his eyes”, or turns away his head, when he sees a poor person, is not open to the need of his neighbor. Every time he turn away his head, he will have “curses”. This man is characterized by it. That he “will have many curses” indicates that he is a seasoned egotist. He does not want to face distress because it costs money or means loss of property. In the end, he will be cursed by God.

Proverbs 28:28

Wicked People Rise, but They Also Perish

If wicked people can show themselves and behave wickedly, if they are given room and even come to power, no man is safe anymore (Pro_28:12 ). The righteous will hide from this evil. Other groups of people who can be targets of the wicked will also hide. Wicked people know no mercy. They are out to cause as much evil and as much harm as possible.

“But” their rule is limited; they do not rule forever. The time comes “when they perish”. When that happens, the “righteous” appear and “increase” (cf. Est_8:17 ). There will be room for multiplication of those who give God what is due to Him. This will have its full fulfillment in the kingdom of peace. At the establishment of the kingdom of peace, the Lord Jesus will first cleanse the earth by judging the wicked. Then a righteous people can enter the kingdom of peace and be made numerous by God (Isa_26:2 ; Jer_30:19 ).

Proverbs 28:1
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_28:1. For the transgression, etc. Or, “In the rebellion.” “For this use of the word transgression in the sense of revolt, compare the verb employed in this sense in 2Ki_1:1; also Exo_23:21, etc.” (Zöckler). Zöckler translates the last clause, “through wise, prudent men, he (the prince) continueth long.” Delitzsch reads, “Through a man of wisdom, of knowledge, authority continues.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_28:1
COWARDICE AND COURAGE
I. This act of a wicked man reveals an unnatural condition. The sparrow flees to her nest when the hawk is on the wing, and the stag flees before the hunter or the hounds that are on his track. But neither bird nor beast is ever found fleeing in terror when it is not pursued. But bad men flee when they are not chased, and when there is nothing following them more substantial than their own shadow.
II. The cause of this unnatural action. There must be some influence at work somewhere which strikes this terror into the human spirit. There must be some hidden power which thus unnerves a man when he is out of the reach of any visible avenger, and causes him to tremble at the sound of his own footstep, or to see the reflection of the face of the man he has wronged in every human countenance that he meets. In the absence of all causes without we must look within, and there we find the pursuer. It is conscience that thus makes every wicked man a coward—that voice within him which thus bears witness to the existence of a Divine law which he has broken, and to a Divine Lawgiver to whom he must render an account whether he escape human justice or not.
III. The hopeless nature of the act. The man who flees when none are pursuing reveals that he is engaged in an attempt to flee from himself, and this is an endeavour that will ever be fruitless. A man may quit the scene of his crime and go into a country where all around him is entirely different, but he will be painfully conscious that he is himself the same being—that although he has changed everything outside himself he has preserved his identity. He can free his soul from his body and so flee from the world, but he cannot free himself from the consciousness of guilt and so break the tie that binds him and his sin together. For this flight from self is but another name for flight from God—from Him to whom alone the Psalmist’s words apply:—“Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold Thou art there; if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall uphold me.” (Psa_139:7; Psa_139:10.)
IV. The entirely contrary attitude of a righteous man reveals an entirely opposite relation to conscience and to God. The natural position of any creature in relation to the Creator is the position which he held when he was originally created. Man was then on such good terms with himself and in such conscious favour with God that he had no sense of fear and no desire to flee from the Divine presence. It was not until the first sin had been committed that Adam and his wife hid themselves, and fled when no man pursued. But there are descendants of Adam who, although they cannot pretend to sinlessness, have no guilty fear of God, and consequently are not afraid of man. The original and natural relation between them and their Father in heaven has been re-established by their acceptance of His conditions of reconciliation, and being now on the side of righteousness they have no reason to flee even when many pursue them, much less when they are alone with themselves and God. They can sing with the Psalmist, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?… Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.” (Psa_27:1; Psa_27:3.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Moses “feared not the wrath of the king.” Caleb and Joshua stood firm against the current of rebellion. Elijah dared Ahab’s anger to his face. Nehemiah, in a time of peril, exclaimed—“Should such a man as I flee?” The three confessors stood undaunted before the furious autocrat of Babylon. The Apostles’ boldness astonished their enemies. Paul before the Roman governor, and even before Nero himself, witnessed a good confession. Athanasius before the Imperial Council of Heresy; Luther at the Diet of Worms, finely exemplified this lion-like boldness.—Bridges.
The wicked is a very coward, and is afraid of everything; of God, because He is his enemy; of Satan, because he is his tormentor; of God’s creatures, because they, joining with their Maker, fight against him; of himself, because he bears about with him his own accuser and executioner. The godly man contrarily is afraid of nothing; not of God, because he knows Him his best friend, and will not hurt him; not of Satan, because he cannot hurt him; not of afflictions, because he knows they come from a loving God, and end in his good; not of the creatures, since “the very stones in the field are in league with Him;” not of himself, since his conscience is at peace.—Bp. Hall.
Conscience within a man is one extremity of an electric wire, whose other extremity is fastened to the judgment-seat.… A man may be saved from death by seeing the reflection of his danger in a mirror, when the danger itself could not be directly seen. The executioner, with his weapon, is stealthily approaching through a corridor of the castle to the spot where the devoted invalid reclines. In his musings the captive has turned his vacant eye towards a mirror on the wall, and the faithful witness reveals the impending stroke in time to secure the escape of the victim. It is thus that the mirror in a man’s breast has become in a sense the man’s saviour, by revealing the wrath to come before its coming.—Arnot.

Proverbs 28:2
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_28:2
THE PENALTY OF REVOLT
As will be seen by a reference to the CRITICAL NOTES, the word transgression would be better translated rebellion. The proverb then sets forth,
I. The disadvantages attendant on revolt against the existing government. Whether the rebellion be a lawful one or not—whether the ruler that is dethroned be a tyrant or a wise and just monarch, the result is very much the same. There will be many claimants to the vacant place, and many to support the claims of each aspirant. This is an effect which is almost certain to follow any uprooting of the existing order of things, whether the order be good or bad. If the crew of a vessel put their officers in irons, the difficulty will immediately arise as to who is to guide the vessel. If this is not speedily settled, the ship will be in danger of running upon the rocks while she is drifting on without a guide. It is the same with the vessel of the State. Many justifiable efforts to better the government of a country have broken down at this point—although there has been entire unity of feeling in favour of a change, there has been a great diversity of opinion as to who should inaugurate it and succeed those who have been deprived of authority. The confusion and in security which such a division has caused, has often made way for a return to the old condition of things, and the last state of the land has been worse than the first. But this can hardly be used as an argument against all revolt against existing abuses, but only as a strong incentive to try every other means before resorting to this last extremity.
II. That which makes revolt unnecessary, and consequently conduces to the peace of the commonwealth. Wisdom and prudence on the part of the monarch and his ministers (for the words may be referred to either) will avert such a calamity. That kingdom is highly blest in which the throne is filled with a worthy occupant, and surrounded by men of intellectual ability and moral worth, and therein lies its only real security. For every reasonable man knows that the reins of government must be held by some one, and there is generally a sufficient number of reasonable citizens in a nation to uphold an enlightened administrator of righteous laws, and to keep in check those turbulent spirits to be found everywhere, who, under the name of patriots, only advocate change to serve their own selfish ends.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
“Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.” The kingdom to which they belong has one King; and a king whose reign is permanent as well as unparticipated. There are no rival powers there. If the princes of this world, in the plentitude of their presumption, take upon them to intrude themselves within the precints of His sole jurisdiction, and to intermeddle with what does not belong to them, the subjects of the King of Zion must stand by His prerogative, resist the encroachment, and, at all risks as to this world, refuse obedience. In the spiritual kingdom of which they are subjects, Christ is the only Head; and His word the only authoritative rule.
And there is no succession here. He reigns over the house of Jacob for ever; “and of His kingdom there is no end.” Blessed be God for this! The sceptre of our King can never, even to the end, be wrested out of his hands; and He never dies. He must reign, till all His people are saved with an everlasting salvation, and all His enemies are put under His feet.—Wardlaw.

Proverbs 28:3
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_28:3
THE MOST INEXCUSABLE OPPRESSION
I. Oppression from an unexpected quarter. Although poverty sometimes has a very hardening influence upon men, we do not often find it takes the form of oppression of their fellow-sufferers in poverty. On the contrary, the sympathy of one poor man for another is often the brightest spot in his character. But the ability to oppress implies some elevation of the oppressor over the oppressed, and therefore leads us rather to look for the heartless tyrant among those who have known poverty, but who are now in some degree raised above it. And even here we should hardly expect to find an oppressor of the poor. Such a man cannot plead ignorance of the miseries of poverty. We might expect that he would be full of sympathy for those into whose trials his own experience has so fitted him to enter. If we wanted a tender nurse for a wounded man we should expect to find one in him who has himself been wounded, and who knows what bodily pain is, and in a man who has himself been poor we ought to find the most patient and generous ruler and judge of the poor. Oppression from such a quarter is a painful surprise.
II. Oppression to an extreme degree. The oppressor of the proverb is one who has sinned against the knowledge furnished by his own experience, and is therefore a greater transgressor than one who sins without such experimental knowledge. If this barrier is not strong enough to restrain him, he is not likely to be hindered by any less powerful ones, and will therefore allow his cruel and unnatural passions to have full dominion over his conduct. And so it will come to pass that a man, who has been poor if he become an oppressor, will be a more terrible one than he who has been always rich and powerful. It may be regarded as a rule with few exceptions, that he who breaks through the most restraints in order to sin will go to the greatest lengths in it.
ILLUSTRATION
This illustrative comparison is here most impressive. It is founded upon a phenomenon which I have frequently seen, and sometimes felt. A small black cloud traverses [the sky in the latter part of summer or beginning of autumn and pours down a flood of rain that sweeps all before it. The Arabs call it sale; we, a water-spout, or the bursting of a cloud. In the neighbourhood of Hermon I have witnessed it repeatedly, and was caught in one last year, which in five minutes flooded the whole mountain side, washed away the fallen olives—the food of the poor—overthrew stone walls, etc. Every summer threshing-floor along the line of its march was swept bare of all precious food … And such is the oppression of a poor man that oppresseth the poor. These landlords, and sheiks, and emirs are generally poor, hungry, greedy, remorseless, and they come in successive swarms, each more ravenous than his predecessor. On a gigantic scale, every hungry pasha from the capital is such a sale, sweeping over the distant provinces of the empire. Vast regions, formerly covered with golden harvests in their season, and swarming with people full of food and gladness, are now reduced to frightful deserts by their rapacity.—Thomson’s “The Land and the Book.”
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Woeful is the condition when necessity and imbecility meet together and encounter. For necessity hath no mercy, imbecility hath no help. When poverty oppresseth anyone, there is no measure in his oppressing another that is poor. He spares not to strip him naked who hath already no clothes on. He fears not to be a spoiler whom spoiling hath left nothing. For there is nothing that doth so harden the heart of man as his own need; and he hath little or no feeling of another’s misery, who feels the biting of his own. As the rain falls, so the earth bears it; and as oppression dealeth, so must the poor suffer it; for as the earth lieth under all, so doth he. The rich man is a dashing rain upon him, and when he pleaseth, washeth away his means and succour from him … but there is no such sweeping rain unto him as when the oppressor is oppressed by poverty.… For he having nothing, takes all that he can get, and the hunger of his own distress so devoureth all, as that he Jeaveth no food.—Jermin.

Proverbs 28:4-10
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_28:5. Judgment, or, “what is right” (Delitzsch).
Pro_28:6. Perverse, etc., literally, “he who is crooked in two ways.” Delitzsch translates, “a double-going deceiver.”
Pro_28:8. Usury and unjust gain. Literally, “Interest and usury.” “These are so distinguished according to Lev_25:36, that the former denotes the annual revenue of a sum of money loaned out, the latter an exaction in other things, especially in natural product” (Zöckler).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_28:4-5
LAWKEEPERS AND LAWBREAKERS
I. A quick understanding in Divine things springs only from sympathy with Divine precepts. Spiritual truth can only be apprehended by a soul in love with what is good and true. A mere intellectual assent to certain moral propositions will not bring men to a real and intimate acquaintance with Divine realities, for the revelation of God is not a mathematical problem which appeals only to the intellect, but a message to the consciences and affections of men. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” (Psa_25:14.) There must be spiritual sympathy before there can be spiritual perception, for sin puts out the eyes of the soul, and renders a man incapable of apprehending spiritual realities, as physical blindness makes him unable of seeing material objects. Hence our Lord made willingness to do His will the one essential condition to knowledge concerning His teaching. (Joh_7:17.)
II. Those who love and obey the Divine precepts contend with the wicked by their obedience. Love to God and obedience to Him are inseparable. The one is the necessary outcome of the other, so that the “seekers after God” described in Pro_28:5, and the “keepers of the law” mentioned in Pro_28:4, are the same persons. The lives of such people are a more powerful reproof to the godless and wicked than any words which they can utter. The feathers of the arrow have their place and value in helping the arrow to find its destination, but it is the steel point that penetrates the breast. So words of admonition fitly spoken have their worth, and are of some weight in contending with the wicked, but a constant life of obedience to God is more convincing and penetrating. So that every true servant of God is fighting against the servants of sin by simply seeking to bring his life into conformity with His Master’s will.
III. All neglect of God’s law is a commendation of sin. There are many men who would be ashamed openly to praise a wicked action who yet by their disregard of the Divine requirements encourage open transgressors. For there is no middle way here. Every man is on one side or the other, and all who are not contending with the wicked by obedience are countenancing their evil courses by their own forsaking of the law of God.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_28:4. “Forsaking;” simply evading or avoiding it, no matter on what pretence. Solomon strikes for the result. He scoffs at all apology. Do you, or do you not, obey direction? If you do not, the fact that you do not is all that is needed to mislead the looker-on, for, seizing upon that most villainous of all things, praising the wicked—a thing that scarce ruffians do, a thing that obscene seducers scarcely venture—he says, All disobedience does it … But the lonely widow, going quietly to heaven, who has asked carefully the road, and has moved on as she was directed, the text suddenly arms with a sword and spear! She is a warrior! In her quiet walk she is smiting down the rivals of her King. And Solomon literally means it. The most effective army of the saints is the quiet group that dream of nothing but obedience.—Miller.
Pro_28:5. The natural man perceiveth not the things that belong to God, but the spiritual man discerneth all things. Albeit there is some light in the wicked man which is sufficient to make him inexcusable, yet he is always so blinded by natural ignorance and malice that both Christ and the Law to him is a mystery. Hence it cometh to pass that he neither fully seeth what is to be believed nor yet what is to be done, either generally in all sorts of actions, or particularly in the course of his calling or office.—Muffett.
Origen saith, “Of them who do not see, some are blind, and do not see because of their blindness; others are in darkness, and therefore do not see; but others do not see because they shut their eyes.” And this it is which many times makes the evil man not understand judgment—he will not do judgment, and therefore will not understand it. But true also it is that wickedness is a great blinding of the understanding. For it turns away the eyes from the Son of Righteousness, and casteth also a black shadow before it … But what do they not understand, that understand Him that understandeth all things? In all things that are required of them, they understand what is to be done by them; in all things that are taught them, they understand the truth of them.… They understand the judgment that shall be upon the wicked; they understand the reward that shall be to themselves; they understand in all things to do judgment to others; they are general scholars in their duties both to God and man.—Jermin.
He who makes wickedness his element, falls into the confusion of the moral conception; but he whose end is the one living God gains from that, in every situation of life, even amid the greatest difficulties, the sense of what is morally right. Similarly the apostle John (1Jn_2:20): “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things;” i.e., ye need to seek that knowledge which ye require, and which ye long after not without yourselves, but in the new Divine foundation of your personal life; from thence all that ye need for the growth of your spiritual life, and for the turning away from you of hostile influences, will come into your consciences.—Delitzsch.
For Homiletics on Pro_28:6, see on chap. Pro_19:1, page 561; on Pro_28:7, chap. Pro_10:1, page 137; on Pro_28:8, see the last remarks on chap. Pro_13:22, page. 332. On the subject of Pro_28:9, see on chap. Pro_15:8-9, pages 407 and 408, and on Pro_28:10, see on chap. Pro_26:27, page 722, etc.

Proverbs 28:11-12
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_28:12. Hidden. Or “sought for.” Delitzsch understands this to mean “plundered,” or “subjected to espionage.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_28:11
WISDOM IN WEALTH AND POVERTY
I. Riches tend to produce self-deception. The power of riches to give external position and influence is almost unlimited. Wealth can bring its owners into the palaces of princes, and place them on an equal footing with men of talent and rank. It can surround a man with servants who will obey his nod, and with friends who will flatter him to his heart’s content. By means of riches a man can make his name famous in both hemispheres while he lives, and cause it to be remembered after he is dead. It is not therefore surprising that many men who possess this potent means of influence should be so dazzled by it as to be unable to see themselves apart from it, and should credit themselves with
being more than ordinary men, while the only difference is that they have more. A rich man is always in danger of mistaking his wealth, which is but an appendage to his personality, for the wealth of wisdom, which is a part of oneself, and so of being the subject of the worst of all deception, viz., self-deception.
II. But the possessor of riches does not often deceive other people as to his real worth. Men around him may flatter him and treat him as if they thought him very wise and clever, but they are often despising him all the time, and oftentimes there are those about him who, although they are beneath him in rank and wealth, are far above him in sagacity and penetration, and can read his character and motives far better than he can himself. Wealth can do much for a man, but it cannot purchase for him the respect and esteem of even the poor man who “hath understanding,” and poverty has many drawbacks, but it is free from this one—it does not minister to human vanity.
III. A poor man who has moral and mental wealth is a greater blessing to the world than even a rich man who is wise and good. He can show the world that there are some things better than wealth, and that these better things are in no sense connected with it or dependent upon it. He can convince men that gold is but a shadow and that riches of heart and mind are the substance, and he can demonstrate how much more lasting and satisfying is the influence gained by wisdom than that which is born of wealth.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The phrase, “searcheth him out,” may be variously understood. He discerns his true character. He sees that wisdom and wealth do not always go together; that a full purse is quite compatible with an empty head. He sees, too, that a man’s wisdom is not to be estimated by his opinion of himself. He sees shallowness where the man himself fancies depth, and folly in what elates him with a vain consciousness of his own wisdom. He sees abundant reason for not making the rich man his oracle, or setting him up as his idol, or making his example the pattern for his imitation, merely for the number of his acres, or for the gold and silver in his coffers. He sees how prone men in general are to allow weight to counsel in proportion to the wealth of the counsellor. But the “understanding” which God has given him shows him the absurdity of this. He “searches out” the fallacy, and detects and exposes the imprudence and folly of sentiments and proposals, that are propounded and recommended by the wealthiest of the wealthy. And still further, taking “understanding” in its higher sense, as it is used in this Book, as including a mind divinely enlightened and under the influence of the fear of God and all the principles of true religion:—the poor man who has this, sees and knows that “a little with the fear of the Lord is better than the riches of many wicked;”—that “a good understanding have all they who do his commandments;”—that no folly can be more palpable and flagrant than the folly of “trusting in uncertain riches,”—“setting the eyes upon that which is not,” and neglecting provision for the soul and for eternity,—forfeiting the “unsearchable riches” provided by the mercy of God for sinners,—all the blessings, unspeakably precious, summed up in “life everlasting;”—spurning away the counsel that would put these in possession;—greedily coveting the treasures of the world that perish in the using, and rejecting the Divine offer of the treasures of immortality. The poor man who hath understanding—I can hardly say “searches out” the folly of this,—he discerns it by a kind of spiritual intuition.—Wardlaw.
The thought in Pro_28:12 is the same as in chap. Pro_11:10. See Homiletics on page 206.

Proverbs 28:13-14
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_28:13
CONFESSION AND FORGIVENESS
I. Sin tends to produce shame. Even a child often tries to hide an act of disobedience to a good mother’s law, and this not from fear of punishment merely, but from an undefined sense of shame. And this feeling clings to all men through life who are not entirely hardened in iniquity. So long as the conscience is not entirely stifled, men try to hide their wrong actions from their fellow-men even when no human punishment would follow the discovery, and they even try to cover them from themselves by inventing excuses for them. They often endeavour to cloak their sin before their fellow-creatures by putting on the garb of special sanctity, and so add hypocrisy to their other transgressions, and they will try to palliate their guilt at the bar of their own conscience by lowering the standard of morality which God has set up within them, or by persuading themselves that He is a hard taskmaster, requiring them to render Him an unreasonable and a burdensome service. There are other motives which induce men to cover their sins beside this one of shame, and other methods by which they try to do it, but whatever impels them, and whatever means they use, the truth taught in the proverb is always verified, viz., that all such makeshifts are worse than useless.
II. The only prosperous method of dealing with sin. This method consists of two acts which God has joined together, and which man may not put asunder, because neither of the two by itself would give evidence that the sinner was fit to receive full absolution. If a man confesses his sin without forsaking it, he seems almost to aggravate his transgression, for he acknowledges that he sins knowing that it is sin, and that it is useless to pardon him to-day, because he will do the same thing to-morrow. And if he forsakes sin without confessing his guilt he shows that he does it from some other motive than abhorrence of evil. Certain sins are sometimes forsaken from expediency, or from self-righteous motives, but in such cases there is no guarantee that there will not be a return to them. Our Lord describes such when he speaks of the unclean spirit going out of a man, but returning to find an empty house—a soul with none of the newborn hopes and desires and aims which always come with true repentance—and of such He says that “the last state of that man is worse than the first.” (Luk_11:26.) But when hearty and sincere acknowledgment of sin is joined with earnest endeavour to forsake it, God sees a soul which will know how to value His pardon, and will find strength in it to fight against evil and finally to overcome it. And to such a soul it is given to know the blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. (Psa_32:1-2.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
There are various ways of endeavouring to cover sins. By denying them. A lie is a cover which men put over their sins to conceal them from others. They sin and deny the fact, they wrap up their crimes in falsehood. Thus Cain, Rachel, Joseph’s brethren, Peter, Ananias and Sapphira, endeavoured to hide their sins. By extenuating them. Men plead excuses. The influence of others, the power of circumstances, the moral weakness of the constitution. Extenuation is a common cover. By forgetting them. They endeavour to sweep them from the memory by revelry and mirth, by sensuality, worldliness, and intemperance.—Dr. David Thomas.
A child of God will confess sin in particular; an unsound Christian will confess sin by wholesale; he will acknowledge he is a sinner in general, whereas David doth, as it were, point with his finger to the sore: “I have done this evil” (Psa_51:4); he doth not say I have done evil, but this evil. He points at his blood-guiltiness.—Watson.
Confession of sin will work a holy contrition and a godly sorrow in the heart. (Psa_38:18.) Declaration doth breed compunction. Confession of sin is but the causing of sin to recoil on the conscience, which causeth blushing, and shame of face, and grief of heart.… Secret confession gives a great deal of glory to God. It gives glory to God’s justice. I do confess sin, and do confess God in justice may damn me for my sin. It gives glory to God’s mercy. I confess sin, yet mercy may save me. It gives glory to God’s omnisciency. In confessing sin I do confess that God knoweth my sin.—Christopher Love.
It is fearful for a man to bind two sins together when he is not able to bear the load of one. To act wickedness and then to cloak it, is for a man to wound himself and then go to the devil for a plaster. What man doth conceal God will not cancel. Iniquities strangled in silence will strangle the soul in heaviness. There are three degrees of felicity:—the first is, not to sin; the second, to know; the third, to acknowledge our offences. Let us, then, honour Him by confession whom we have dishonoured by presumption.… Sinfulness is a sleep, confession a sign that we are waked. Men dream in their sleeps, but tell their dreams waking. In our sleep of security we lead a dreaming life, full of vile imaginations; but if we confess and speak our sins to God’s glory, and our own shame, it is a token that God’s spirit hath wakened us.… This is true, though to some a paradox; the way to cover our sins is to uncover them.—T. Adams.
Sin is in a man at once the most familiar inmate and the greatest stranger.… Although he lives in it, because he lives in it, he is ignorant of it. Nothing is more widely diffused or more constantly near us than atmospheric air; yet few ever notice its existence and fewer consider its nature. Dust, and chaff, and feathers, that sometimes float up and down in it, attract our regard more than the air in which they float; yet these are trifles that scarcely concern us, and in this we live, and move, and have our being.… Such, in this respect, is sin. It pervades humanity, but, in proportion to its profusion, men are blind to its presence. Because it is everywhere, we do not notice it anywhere.… But the chief effort of the alienated must ever be to cover his sins from the eye of God.… All the wiles of the tempter, and all the faculties of his slave, are devoted to the work of weaving a curtain thick enough to cover an unclean conscience from the eye of God. Anything and everything may go as a thread to the web; houses and lands, business and pleasure, family and friends, virtues and vices, blessings and cursings—a hideous miscellany of good and evil—constitute the material of the curtain; and the woven web is waulked over and over again with love and hatred, joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, to thicken the wall without, and to deepen the darkness within, that the fool may be able, with some measure of comfort, to say “in his heart, No God.”—
Arnot.
Sin and shifting came into this world together. Sin and Satan are alike in this, they cannot abide to appear in their own colour.… We must see our sin to confession, or we shall see it to our confusion … No man was ever kept out of heaven for his confessed badness; many are for their supposed goodness.—Trapp.
St. Gregory speaketh, “He that covereth his sin, doth not hide himself from the Lord, but hideth the Lord from himself, and that which he doth, is that himself may not see God, who seeth all things, not that he be not seen.”—Jermin.
For Homiletics on Pro_28:14 see on chaps. Pro_12:15, and Pro_14:16, pages 271 and 365

Proverbs 28:15-23
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_28:16. Ewald, Zöckler, Delitzsch, and others read this verse, “O prince devoid of understanding, he that hateth unjust gain continueth long.”
Pro_28:17. First clause. “A man laden with the blood of a soul.”
Pro_28:18. Perverse ways. Rather “double ways.”
Pro_28:21. Zöckler reads the last clause, “And (yet) even for a piece of bread (many) a man will transgress”
Pro_28:22. Rather “The man of an evil eye hasteth, etc.
Pro_28:23. Delitzsch reads this verse, “He that reproveth a man that is going backwards,” etc.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Pro_28:15-17
VICE AND VIRTUE IN HIGH PLACES
I. A cruel ruler is on a level with the most cruel of the brute creation. The more power a man holds in his hand over the destinies of his fellow-creatures the greater is his responsibility, and the blacker is his crime if he abuses his opportunities of blessing them. In proportion to the unlimited character of his authority ought to be his care not to overstep the limits of the strictest justice, and he is bound to lean rather to the side of mercy than to severity. The less reason he has to fear any retaliation from those whom he rules, the more is he bound to mingle much gentleness and forbearance with his government, for it is the act of a coward to act towards the weak and defenceless as we should fear to act towards one who is our equal in strength. The man who can be capable of such cowardice no longer deserves the name of a man, but puts himself on a level with those beasts of prey from whom we shrink in terror, knowing that in them there is no reason, or conscience, or pity to which we can appeal.
II. Incapacity in a ruler may work almost as much misery as cruelty. A mother may not be guilty of positive acts of cruelty towards her children, and yet they may suffer very keenly and very seriously from her unfitness to train their souls and her ignorance as to how to take care of their bodies. Her neglect may in the end bring consequences as fatal as the greatest severity would have done. This rule holds good wherever one human creature has others dependent upon him, and the more entire the dependence the more miserable will be the results of his or her incapacity. In countries where rulers do not bear absolute sway, a “prince who wanteth understanding” is not so great a curse as where his will is the only or the supreme law, but the history of our own country contains instances of monarchs who, although they would have been harmless in private life, were, from lack of capacity to rule, very great oppressors of the people.
III. The curse which rests upon all such oppressors of their kind. Like Jehoram of old, they depart undesired. (2Ch_21:20). The blood of their brothers crieth out for vengeance upon their heads, and no man puts forth a hand to arrest their doom. Even those who pity as well as blame, if they wish well to the body politic, feel it is a blessing when such tyrants are removed from the earth—when their power of doing violence to the rights of their fellow-creatures is at an end. “Let no man stay him” for the sake of those whom he leaves behind, and let no man hinder his departure for his own sake, for his continuance in his place upon the earth would but give him opportunity to add to his crimes, and thus increase the weight of his punishment. (For illustrations of this subject and additional Homiletics see on chap. Pro_11:17, page 220—also page 208.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_28:15. But these emblems were insufficient to represent the monstrous barbarities that have been often exercised by those that were at the head of the Roman empire in its pagan or antichristian state; and, therefore, Daniel and John represent them under the figure of monsters more dreadful than any that were ever beheld by the eyes of man. (Jer_31:18; Dan_7:10; Revelation 13) The language of inspiration could not furnish out more terrible images for the devil himself, than those which have been used to represent the wickedness of tyrannical and persecuting powers. We ought to be thankful for the wounds that have been given to the beast with seven heads and ten horns, and for the civil and religious liberties which we enjoy.—Lawson.
Pro_28:16. As want of understanding maketh a man an oppressor, so to be an oppressor sheweth a want of understanding in him. But the special want at which the verse seems to aim is the greedy want of covetousness. For as a covetous man wanteth understanding, because he seeketh that so eagerly which he cannot keep, so a covetous prince wanteth understanding, because he seeketh that so earnestly which he hath already.—Jermin.
Pro_28:17. God’s jealous regard for the life of man was strongly expressed at the second outset of our world’s history; and expressed in terms of evident allusion to the early and awful violation of its sacredness in the antediluvian period:—“And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Gen_9:5-6). For my own part, having examined the various principles of interpretation by which those who are for doing away all capital punishments have explained these words, I have not been able to satisfy myself with any one of them. They seem to be all forced and unnatural, and, on different critical grounds, inadmissible. I cannot but regard the language as bearing no fair and natural interpretation, but that which makes it a Divine requisition, on the part of man, of blood for blood—that is, of life for life; and as thus affording more than a sanction, as laying down a requirement. Though I am far from conceiving that we are bound by Jewish criminal law, yet in the law regarding murder there is so evident an allusion to this original and universal injunction, and the language withal is so very pointed and emphatically reiterated, that I cannot go the length of those who would include murder among crimes to be punished with infliction short of death. When set beside the original and universal law it serves, by its very emphasis and peremptoriness, to confirm the ordinary interpretation of that charge to the second progenitors of our race as the just one, and to show, therefore, the universality of its obligation.—Wardlaw.
Even the heathen judged this awful transgressor to be under the Divine vengeance. (Act_28:4.) The death therefore of the murderer is an imperative obligation. It is miscalled philanthropy that protests against all capital punishments. Shall man pretend to be more merciful than God? Pity is misplaced here. The murderer therefore of his brother is his own murderer.—Bridges.
This is not directly an admonition against that which is immoral; it may also be a declaration of that which is impossible.—Delitzsch.
The subjects of the next six verses have all been treated before. For Homiletics on Pro_28:18, see on chaps. Pro_10:9 and Pro_11:3, pages 153 and 195. Pro_28:19 is almost a verbal repetition of chap. Pro_12:11, see page 266. On the main subject of Pro_28:20; Pro_28:22, see on chaps. Pro_13:11 and Pro_21:5, pages 306 and 609. On Pro_28:21 see on chap. Pro_17:23, page 524, and on Pro_28:23 chap. Pro_27:5-6, page 728.

Proverbs 28:24
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_28:24
ROBBING PARENTS
I. A parent’s sacred rights. A father and mother, if they are worthy of the name, have a very strong claim upon their children’s consideration. Their children owe them obedience in their childhood, and reverent and loving regard when they have reached manhood. If their parents are rich, their possessions are to be held as peculiarly sacred. “A feeling,” says Wardlaw, “should attach to it somewhat like that which attaches to holy things—things pertaining to God and His service. The violation of their property should be felt to be a description of sacrilege.” On the other hand, if the parents are poor, their children are certainly bound to help to support them, and so in some measure to repay to them the expenses of their own bringing up. Christ puts this duty to parents before that of giving even to the support of Church ordinances, and severely condemns the Pharisees and Scribes for inculcating opposite teaching (Mar_7:11).
II. The character of the child who violates these rights. There are, alas, many sons and daughters who, instead of rendering more honour to their parents than to other people give them less, and instead of showing more regard to their parents’ rights than to those of a stranger, seem to ignore the fact that they owe anything to them. In the matter of money, those who would not touch the possession of any other person will sometimes appropriate what belongs to their parents, and say, “It is no transgression;” or if they do not go quite so far as this, do not hesitate to live upon them when they ought to be earning their own living, or to incur debts which they know their parents will discharge. He who is guilty of any of these negative or positive transgressions “robs,” his father and mother, and his character is given here. Although he may not be openly a vicious man—although he may seem to be much less blameworthy than the man who openly violates the law of the land, he is here put on a level with him. The sin in the sight of God is as great, and there is in such a man the capability of developing into an open transgressor, for he who can violate such holy demands of duty, and trample upon the rights of such a sacred relationship, only wants the motive and opportunity to commit actions which would at once class him among the criminals of society.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
“But if any widow have children or nephews, let them first learn to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents.” (1Ti_5:4.) It is observable, children’s kindness to their parents is termed piety or godliness, because it is a part thereof, and very acceptable to God. Besides, it is called a requiting them, intimating that it is not an act of grace, but of justice.—Swinnock.
To say that we did not look upon a thing to be a transgression will be no just excuse for any piece of conduct we might have known to be criminal. It will only shew us to be so depraved that even our minds and our consciences are defiled.—Lawson.
For Homiletics on the first clause of Pro_28:25, see on chap. Pro_13:10, page 305.

Proverbs 28:25-26
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_28:26, AND LAST CLAUSE OF Pro_28:25
SELF-CONFIDENCE
I. He that trusts in his own heart is a fool, because he refuses to profit by the experience of others. If a man who has made a perilous voyage declares at the end of it that he has found his compass utterly untrustworthy, we should count him a madman who would set out upon a similar expedition with the same faulty guide; and if he went down in mid-ocean to rise no more, we should certainly say that it was his own fault. To trust to a guide which another man had proved to be unworthy of confidence when so much was at stake, would be universally condemned as obstinate foolhardiness. Yet this is what men do in the voyage of life. The testimony of most men who, rejecting the guidance of a higher wisdom, have shaped their lives according to their own ideas and inclinations, has been at the end that they have trusted a guide that had misled them. Solomon himself steered a good deal of his life by this deceiving compasss, and at the end confessed that he had acted foolishly in so doing (Ecc_1:2). It may be that the words of our text were the expression of his own bitter experience on the subject, and that he is here counselling others to avoid the error into which he had fallen.
II. He is a wise man who seeks guidance from God because he trusts in One who has proved Himself worthy of confidence. He who has declared that the human heart “is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jer_17:9) has offered Himself as the object of man’s trust and as His infallible guide. Millions of the human family have assented to the truth of the Divine statement, and have testified to the blessedness of submission to Divine guidance, and have been manifestly delivered by their submission from the bondage of evil, and elevated into a region of moral purity and freedom to which other men are strangers. They are living proofs that He who exhorts men to trust in Him is not a deceiver, but can justify the demands He makes upon our confidence and submission. Human experience has set its seal to the inspired word:—“Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” (Jer_17:8). Surely, then, he is a wise man who makes the trial for himself.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The heart, indeed, has instrumentality to save us. We must trust everything to that. But it is the heart dwelt in by Christ. He that takes his heart and confides it to the Son of Man, receives for it an altered life, and will be able to trust that heart thus trusted to Christ as the instrument in the battle of deliverance.—Miller.
Though the mariner sees not the pole-star, yet the needle of his compass, which points to it, tells him which way he sails. Thus the heart that is touched with the loadstone of Divine love, trembling with godly fear, and yet still looking towards God with fixed believing, interprets the fear by the love in the fear, and tells the soul that its course is heavenward towards the haven of eternal rest.—Leighton.
Whoever trusts another for his guide must do it upon account of two qualifications to be found in him:—1. That he is able to direct and lead him. 2. That he also faithfully will give the best directions.… There are two things which may make a trust foolish:—1. The value of the thing which we commit to a trust. 2. The undue qualifications of the person to whose trust we commit it. In both respects the confidence reposed by men in their own hearts is exceeding foolish. 1. The honour of God is entrusted. So far as the manifestation of God’s honour depends upon the homage of His obedient creatures, so far is it at the mercy of our actions, which are at the command of the heart, as the motion of the wheels follows the disposition of the spring. God is never disobeyed but He is also dishonoured. II. Man trusts his heart with his happiness in this world, and this is two fold—spiritual and temporal. III. He entrusts his heart with the eternal concernment of his soul hereafter.… The heart of man will also be found to have eminently these two ill qualities utterly unfitted for such a trust. I. It is weak, and so cannot make good a trust. Its weakness is twofold. 1. In point of apprehension it cannot perceive and understand certainly what is good. 2. In point of election, it cannot choose and embrace it. II. The heart is deceitful, and so will not make good its trust.… The delusions of the heart may be reduced to three sorts. 1. Such as relate to the commission of sin. 2. Such as relate to the performance of duty. 3. Such as relate to a man’s conversion, or change of his spiritual estate.… The heart if it does not find sins small, has this notable faculty, that it can make them so … and in duty is willing to take up with the outside and superficies of things, and … it will persuade him that he is converted from a state of sin, when perhaps he is only converted from one sin to another; and that he has changed his heart when he has only changed his vice.—South.
On the subject of Pro_28:27, see on chap. Pro_11:24-26, page 234, and chap. Pro_14:31, page 389. The subject of Pro_28:28 has been treated in chap. Pro_11:10, page 206.

Proverbs 28:1
The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
Christian boldness
In all ages courage has been regarded as a mark of honour and magnanimity, and cowardice has been considered a proof of pusillanimity and baseness. There is something base in cowardice. There is something noble in courage. A name descriptive of a virtue ought never to be applied to what is equivocal or culpable. Yet such is the native dignity of courage, such the value it ever commands, that in its most suspicious forms it possesses a charm which is almost irresistible. On the other hand, it is not for Christian men to judge of timidity as the world judges. There is much that the world accounts cowardly which we regard as noble and magnanimous. The real coward is the slave of his fear, and mankind are right in branding cowardice as vile and contemptible. The brave man is tranquil, firm, concentrated. He is the real master of what belongs to him, because he is master of himself. The text charges cowardice upon sin, and claims for holiness the honours of courage. There is nothing more wonderful in man than the moral faculty which we call conscience. But it may be injured and weakened. There is even the possibility that it may be destroyed. Among the instruments of torture with which conscience afflicts the soul of the sinner is fear. Sin is immediately followed by fear—by the fear of detection, of exposure, of punishment. Under a sense of sin the bravest man becomes a coward. Sin is more especially followed by a fear at the Divine displeasure. Sin is a thing of darkness. It shuns the light. When a man has sinned, his chief care is, that his sin should not be known to others. This becomes a supreme fear. Even when the sinner has no reason to fear man at all, he is not free from feelings of terror. Conscience allows them no peace. They are restless, unsettled, miserable. Changing the picture, the text presents the righteous as “bold as a lion.” The courage of the lion, though by no means a certain thing, has passed into a proverb, and the highest degree of intrepidity is implied by this comparison. We must not forget to make the distinction between physical and moral timidity. There is a timidity which is strictly a bodily infirmity. Where there is uprightness of conduct there is no place for fear. He who has done nothing to be ashamed of cannot dread detection and exposure. He who acts from principle, who does what he does in the fear of God, will not be afraid of the consequences of his actions, because he is well assured that all those consequences are in the hands of the great Disposer. In the discharge of duty “the righteous are bold as a lion.” Theirs is not presumption, for they are trusting on Him who is infinite. It is not desperation, for they can rely on innumerable promises. They present a bold front to the enemy; they feel their superiority. But before Him with whom they have to do, their Father in heaven, there is nought of self-confidence. Trusting in God, they cannot fail. They may bid farewell to doubt and insecurity. Their foundation is a rock; their hope is sure and steadfast. (J. G. Dowling, M.A.)

Sources of courage
The two ingredients that go into the composition of a good soldier are courage and good conduct. Here cowardice and courage are resolved into their first principles. All mankind are distinguished, by their proper characters, into two sorts—wicked and righteous. The wicked are of such base and timorous spirits that they are ready to run away from the least shadow of danger; being haunted with an ill-boding mind, they flee before the spectres of their own fancies. Every wicked man is not actually a coward, for that contradicts experience. There is a sort of valour which naturally springs out of the very temper of men’s bodies, which is nothing else but a certain impetus, or brisk fermentation of the blood and spirits, and this is common to bad men as with good. By the term “righteous” the Scripture is wont to express all good men, because all instances of goodness are acts of righteousness, either to God, or to ourselves, or to our neighbours. Of this sort of men the proper character is “bold as a lion.” At least their righteousness tends to make them so. Illustrate this proposition: that wickedness naturally tends to dishearten and cowardize men, but righteousness and goodness to encourage and embolden them. The things which naturally contribute to make men courageous.

1. That they be free, and within their own command.
2. That they be well hardened to endure difficulties and inconveniences.
3. That they be well satisfied in the nature of their actions and undertakings.
4. That they have a hopeful prospect of being well seconded.
5. That they have a probable security of good success.
6. That they be borne up with the expectation of a glorious reward.
   All these causes of courage are to be found in righteousness, and their direct contraries in a sinful and wicked course of life. (John Scott.)

Moral cowardice
This is a fact that may be accounted for on moral grounds. Conscience is the tormentor of the bad man.

1. Then the finest faculties of men may become terrible scourges.
2. Then no dependence is to be placed on the wicked in the time of danger.
3. Then the wicked are always making fools of themselves.
4. Then the wicked cannot bear the judgment of man; how can they endure the vengeance of God?
5. Then man may come to be regarded as the enemy of man. (J. Parker, D.D.)

The difference between the righteous and the wicked in respect of courage and confidence
Scarcely is there anything more consistent and regular in the course of natural productions than that fear and remorse are the offspring of guilt, and religious courage and undauntedness the attendants of integrity. The most striking instance may be found in the behaviour of our primitive parents.
I. Consider this case with respect to the wicked.

1. One reason why they are so liable to be alarmed and put into disorder is shame. Those who do evil wish to conceal their doings. Darkness is not only the principle from which evil deeds flow, but the proper region and retirement where they strive for ever to conceal them.
2. Another cause is fear. That fear gives wings to the transgressor is observed even to a proverb. They who sin can have no real peace or satisfaction of mind. Fear naturally arises from the apprehension of present or future ill. Some indeed there are who have so effectually dosed and qualified their consciences as to pass over a crime with as much indifference as they before committed it. But there is little tranquillity within, though outwardly they seem so airy and serene.
   II. How the righteous man acquits himself. The upright man wants no refuge: as he is free from guile and deceit, so he is frank and open in his whole conversation. His integrity is dearer to him than the most pompous acquisitions, and the security of his soul than the gain of the universe. Through the perverse opposition of a censorious and malignant world, the most circumspect cannot always escape despiteful usage. But, confident in God, the good man maintains his ground, stands upon his defence, and is no more to be stormed by assault than perverted by interest. Innocence is the best armour he can put on. Since the difference appears so considerable and important, it cannot be a matter of doubt to any one that calls himself rational to which side his choice ought to be determined. (James Roe, M.A.)

Frights and securities

1. What continual frights those are subject to that go on in wicked ways! Guilt in the conscience makes men a terror to themselves, so that they are ready to flee when no man pursueth; like one that absconds for debt, who thinks every one he meets a bailiff. Though they pretend to be easy, there are secret fears which haunt them wherever they go, so that they fear where no present or imminent danger is. Those that have made God their enemy, and know it, cannot but see the whole creation at war with them, and therefore can have no true enjoyment of themselves, no confidence, no courage, but a fearful looking for of judgment. Sin makes men cowards.
2. What a holy security and serenity of mind those enjoy who keep conscience void of offence, and so keep themselves in the love of God. In the greatest dangers the righteous have a God of almighty power to trust to. Whatever difficulties they meet with in the way of their duty, they are not daunted by them. (Matthew Henry.)

Lion-like boldness of the righteous
The righteous are those who do right. Saxon of righteous is “right wise.” Before man had fallen the righteous were those who were conformed, in all respects, to the known will of God. Now, as fallen creatures, none can claim to be righteous, according to the strict requirements of the law. Some, however, may be spoken of, in a comparative sense, as righteous. The eleventh article says, “We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith.” A certain quality is ascribed to such persons: they are “bold as a lion.” This is a proverbial expression from ancient times.
I. Boldness is indispensable at the very beginning of the Christian course. Does it require no boldness to obey the gospel call? Let those answer who have gone through with the painful struggle which it costs before the mind can be brought to a decided stand.
II. Boldness is required in the discharge of the duties which must be met day by day. What bright examples of courage have been placed before us in the lives of the saints of God—Moses, Caleb and Joshua, David, Elijah, etc.; and in the history of the martyrs and confessors of the Church—e.g., Athanasius, Ridley, and Latimer. Those brave souls are now acting the same noble part who, in these days of blasphemy and rebuke, are not afraid to show favour to God’s children who may be under a cloud of reproach and trodden underfoot by the mighty. In more ordinary matters, the same boldness is indispensable.
III. the boldness of the righteous is manifested at the approach of death. There is something in human nature which instinctively shrinks back at the thought of dissolution. But when the righteous man actually draws near the border-line, the fear of death is gone. Then let us all cultivate the decision, the boldness, and the endurance, which our profession demands. (John N. Norton.)

Conscience
Pursuit and flight are in nature correlatives, and constitute an inseparable pair. A swift foot does not avail the man who is fleeing from himself. When they escape from man, God is the pursuer of the guilty. A reflector fixed in the human constitution points ever to its author, as the magnet points to its pole, whatever the windings of life may be. In effect, God is present in every human breast. Conscience within a man is one extremity of an electric wire whose other extremity is fastened to the judgment-seat. This apparatus brings the Judge and the criminal terribly near to each other. Conscience is in many respects the most wonderful element in the constitution of man. It is the point of closest contact and most intimate communion between us and the Father of our spirits. Thereby chiefly God apprehends us, thereby chiefly we apprehend God. Who shall settle the controversy between an unclean conscience and a just God? The question points, as John did, to the Lamb of God who taketh sin away. There is one Mediator between God and man. Terrors are sent as messages of mercy to arouse loiterers, and compel them to flee. It is better to be roughly awakened to safety than to perish asleep. (W. Arnot, D.D.)

Proverbs 28:6
Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.
Christianity, the health of a people
The poor man who walks in his integrity, must be supposed to possess that practical wisdom so much spoken of in this book. The rich man who is perverse in his ways is destitute of this wisdom. The presumed difference between the poor man and the rich is in the possession of true religious principle.
I. The influence which true religion exerts in reference to the duties of life. There has been a tendency to speak of useful knowledge as if it did not include religious knowledge. Useful knowledge must be that which equips man for immortality. If a man is imbued with the fear of God, he has a principle which must accompany him into all the intercourse of life, and exert an influence over each portion of his conduct.
II. The influence which true religion exerts in reference to the trials of life. The poor cottager finds in the promises of Scripture a mighty counterpoise to all the troubles by which he is oppressed. Christianity does not diminish labour or prevent sorrow or death, but it does give strength, and cheer, and hope. Religion has such a power of softening what is rugged, enlightening what is dark, sustaining under the heaviest pressure, and encouraging in the most perplexed circumstances, that as nothing can supply its place, so its possession more than compensates every other want. (H. Melvill, B.D.)

Proverbs 28:8
He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.
Dishonesty
A matter-of-fact Englishman, writing about the uselessness of abstract preaching, says that, during ten years’ residence in a country parish, he became well acquainted with the characteristic temptations, failings, tricks and vices, and crimes of the people, and he longed to hear something from the pulpit calculated to meet the emergencies of the case. Ten long years the drowsy pulpit poured forth its dull platitudes; the clergyman never coming down from the clouds long enough to let the dishonest, the cruel, and the dissipated understand that they know nothing practically concerning the imitation of Christ until they have asked themselves how He would have acted if He had vegetables to sell or horses to drive. Wealth, in days of undefiled English, meant well-being, and is now used to describe money—money more than all beside; and worth, or worthiness, has degenerated into a term to express how much of “filthy lucre” that one has contrived to get hold of. The cool contempt of money which some old cynics and philosophers expressed was little more than affectation. Had they been lucky enough to have any, their estimate of it might have been different. A man of wealth, who behaves himself properly, and puts on no airs, is as much to be respected as his poorest neighbours. Let this be remembered, however, it must be wealth honestly come by. When greed of gain has secured a lodgment in the heart, it imperiously demands satisfaction. In countries where civilisation is unknown it turns freebooter, and leagues with bands of kindred spirits; while in Christian lands it puts on more respectable shapes, not so shocking to the casual observer. The rude robber stops his victim on the highway, and holds midnight revels on the spoil; and the cunning accountant defrauds his creditors, and rides in his carriage. Does a just God see much difference between them? Christian integrity will, in the end, always receive its merited reward. Instead of worldly maxims, based on low and unworthy principles, let the solemn question of our Lord keep us from evil ways—“What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” (John N. Norton.)

Usury
Usury is here to be understood of every description of oppressive, unrighteous, and rigorous exaction. The providence of a just and merciful God is evidently here referred to. That providence transfers wealth from the hand of grasping and griping selfishness to that of humanity and generous kindness, to that of the man who “pities the poor.” Men may not mark the Divine hand in occurrences of this kind; and it is always a delicate matter for us—one to which we are hardly equal—to interpret providence judicially. But there are cases at times in which the transference is so striking that it would be impiety not to see and own God in it. (R. Wardlaw, D.D.)

Proverbs 28:9
He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination.
The prayer of the disobedient
The duty of rendering his best obedience to the Divine precepts is one which man has perpetually been called to recognise, under both dispensations. Man, as a fallen being, with alienated affections, debased tendencies, and distorted views, required precise directions as to his future course. The Divine claims to obedience were in no way relaxed; but the power of exhibiting that obedience, and even an adequate knowledge of its requirements, were wanting. If we are dependent creatures—unable to support ourselves, it is manifestly the part of wisdom to secure the continual support of Him who has promised that the rays of His favour shall evermore be reflected on His followers. Be careful to take a sufficiently comprehensive view of the demands thus made upon you. You are not to imagine that by scrupulous attention to one department of Christian duty you may obtain a virtual absolution for the neglect of another. It is not through the regular use of words of supplication or thanksgiving that everything can be accomplished. In what spirit have they prostrated themselves before the Divine footstool? Has it been with the sincere resolution of striving, in all time to come, to do the will of their Father which is in heaven? Has it been with the determination of henceforward applying themselves with all diligence to ascertain and observe His sacred statutes? The reason for not receiving gracious answers to prayer may be that the heart has never been surrendered to God; there has been a lamentable and utter absence of true faith and love. The object of the inspired writer, in our text, is to set forth, in the most striking point of view, the heinousness and dire consequences of neglecting practically to honour the Divine statutes. There are those who, while with their lips they show forth God’s praise, are yet statedly and deliberately neglecting some duty, indulging in some sin, pursuing some course of which the “end is death.” If you would profit by His clemency, you must strive to obey His laws. If you would obtain His blessings, you must zealously and perseveringly devote yourselves to His service. (Hugh B. Moffat, M.A.)

Conditions of communion with God

1. It is by the Word of God and prayer that our communion with God is kept up. God speaks to us by His law, and expects we should hear Him and heed Him; we speak to Him by prayer, to which we wait for an answer of peace.
2. If God’s Word be not regarded by us, our prayers shall not only not be acceptable to God, but they shall be an abomination to Him; not only our sacrifices, which were ceremonial appointments, but even our prayers, which are moral duties, and which, when they are put up by the upright, are so much His delight. The sinner whose prayers God is thus angry at is one who wilfully and obstinately refuses to obey God’s commandments, who will not so much as give them the hearing, but causes his ear to decline the law, and refuses when God calls. God will therefore justly refuse him when he calls. (Matthew Henry.)

Proverbs 28:10
Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit.
Opposite characters and opposite destinies
I. Here are the opposite characters—the perverse and the upright.

1. Notice the perverse. Who are the perverse? “Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way.” Two things are observable here.
   (1) A sad possibility that the righteous should “go astray.” This possibility is implied in moral responsibility. Were it impossible for the righteous to go astray, they would be mere machines, not moral agents; there would be no virtue in their obedience, no guilt in their transgression. Moral beings are like planets, bound ever to roll in the orbits in which they were first placed, and move with the same speed and regularity; they can bound into another, and move at what rate they please. This possibility is demonstrated in facts. Righteous angels have fallen. Righteous men have fallen (Adam, Lot, David, Peter). This possibility is assumed in the appeals of Scripture.
   (2) An infernal attempt. The attempt is to “cause the righteous to go astray.” Wicked men are constantly making the attempt in a thousand different ways. By suggesting doubts as to the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, the truth of the Bible, etc., etc.; and by insidious but potent appeals to those elements of depravity which linger to a greater or less degree in the souls of even the best men to the end of life. Society abounds with tempters.
2. The upright. The upright here stand in contrast to those who tempt the righteous to go astray. Who are the upright? The men of incorruptible truth, inflexible rectitude; the men, in one word, who “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God.” Job was an upright man, one that feared God and eschewed evil.
   II. Opposite destinies.
3. The destiny of the one is self-ruin. “Shall fall himself into his own pit.”
4. The destiny of the other is a blessed inheritance. “The upright shall have good things in possession.” (Homilist.)

Proverbs 28:13
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
The danger of covering our sins
I. The danger.

1. In respect of God. Sin cannot be covered, cannot admit of excuse. So far as sin may be covered or excused, so far it is not sin, at least not liable to punishment. Notice the difference betwixt moral and commercial laws. Ceremonies are arbitrary; laws, as a rule of life, are real and eternal. Those sins which break moral laws receive no cover or palliation. To imagine that God will admit of excuse for the breach of such law as is eternal were to turn His justice into iniquity, and His wisdom into folly. The two attributes of God, His wisdom and His power, are the highest attributes which He hath. God is more jealous of His wisdom than of His power. He that committeth sin dallieth with His power; but he that covereth and palliateth sin playeth with His wisdom. God forgiveth the greatest sins when they are laid open and confessed, but casteth an angry look and layeth a heavy hand upon those sins which would hide and cover themselves with excuses. What a dangerous thing it is to study to cover a sin! “That must needs be the greatest sin which maketh every sin greater.” In denial and concealment, though we deny the fact, yet we acknowledge it to be evil.
2. In respect of ourselves. There is no sin to which our nature more strongly inclineth us than this of covering and excusing our sin. It is the very nature of sin, not only to infect the soul, but to bewitch it, that it shall either not feel it or not be willing to evaporate and expel it. Though God hath set up a tribunal in our hearts, and made every man a judge of his own actions, yet there is no tribunal on earth so much corrupted and swayed from its power and jurisdiction as this. No man is so well pleased with any cheat as that which he putteth upon himself. Our conscience checketh us, and we silence it; sin appeareth, and we cover it. This covering of sin is more natural than any sin beside. We cannot name any that agreeth with all natures and complexions as this doth. Excuse, as a servant, waiteth upon all, and is officious to offer attendance on the foulest. God hath imprinted upon man a natural shame of sin. God left this impression of shame upon us to keep us within compass, that we should not commit sin. But, too often, what was made as a means to prevent sin is made a cloak to cover it. Shame is a good buckler to oppose against sin.
   II. The remedy. Penitential confession reaching even to the mercy-seat. Sin is never less deformed in the eye of God than when it is in its own shape. Sin is never more sin, hath never more in it, than when it is covered. He that confesseth his sin hath found a plaster for it. (A. Farindon, B.D.)

Covering sins
Men’s sins are often well known, when they flatter themselves that they are unknown, and the attempt to conceal deceives none but themselves. Sin is in itself too odious to appear without some disguise, and most men wish to be thought better than they are; but the policy is both weak and dangerous. To attempt to hide our sins from the eye of God is atheistical and vain. The mantle of Divine love is sufficient to cover all iniquity, and the interposing blood of atonement to secure from the inflictions of eternal wrath. There is also a love among brethren which covers a multitude of sins, and forms an amiable part of the Christian character. A truly good man will be tender towards every one’s failings but his own. The charity we exercise towards others is, however, very different from those excuses which we are too apt to form for ourselves.
I. Who are they who may be said to cover their sins?

1. Those who endeavour to conceal themselves under falsehood, as did the servant of Elisha.
2. Those who palliate and excuse themselves in sin, by endeavouring to shift the blame on others, belong to the same class.
3. The attempt to dissemble and disguise sin, by specious pretences, is another way of covering it.
4. There are some who even justify and plead for sin, and these certainly can need but little disguise.
5. Sin is sometimes covered by vain and ineffectual endeavour to satisfy and atone for it.
   II. Consider the folly and danger of every false disguise. “Shall not prosper.”
6. His hopes shall be disappointed, and the end he had in view defeated. It is of no use to deny, to palliate, or in any other way to hide our sins, for God hath set them all in the light of His countenance.
7. Artifice and disguise shall not prosper, even as to our temporal interests.
8. Those who indulge in any manner of deceit shall be utter strangers to spiritual prosperity. Sin is the distemper of the soul; and covering it with false disguises only tends to increase the evil, and make it more dangerous.
9. A course of dissimulation will end in utter ruin and despair. God will neither be deceived nor mocked. Learn—
   (1) How carefully we should avoid what will be attended with such tremendous consequences.
   (2) As we are not to cover our own sins, so neither should we cover the sins of others, any farther than prudence directs or Christian charity allows.
   (3) That we may not be tempted to use any other coverings, let us seek after those which are recommended to us in the gospel. (B. Beddome, M.A.)

Covering sin
Certain great iron castings have been ordered for a railway-bridge. The thickness has been calculated according to the extent of the span and the weight of the load. The contractor constructs his moulds according to the specification, and when all is ready, pours in the molten metal. In the process of casting, through some defect in the mould, portions of air lurk in the heart of the iron, and cavities like those of a honeycomb are formed in the interior of the beam; but all defects are hid, and flaws are effectually concealed. The artisan has covered his fault, but he will not prosper. As soon as it is subjected to a strain the beam gives way. Sin covered becomes a rotten hollow in a human soul, and when the strain comes the false gives way. (W. Arnot, D.D.)

A false covering and a safe refuge
I. The false and deceptive refuge. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper.”

1. This is the course which men usually adopt when they enter on a course of sin. They are conscious that they are doing wrong, and they try to cover and conceal what they are doing. They resort to a variety of expedients. Some flatly deny them. Others cover their sins by evasion, or they shift the blame off upon others. Some plead their weakness, and the circumstances in which they were placed. Many plead the practice of others. It is the custom of the trade. The vilest class attempt to cover their sins by glorying in them.
2. Note the folly of such conduct. Such a man shall not succeed in the attempt to cover his sins. And he shall not escape from the consequences of his sins, however he attempts to conceal them. Sin brings its own punishments to the man who commits it.
   II. The more excellent way which is here commended.
3. The condition of forgiveness. We must confess our sins. We must forsake them.
4. These conditions are not the only ground of forgiveness. In God there is not only provision made for forgiveness, but also for our help to resist sin, and escape from it. (A.Clark.)

The consequences of covering sin
I. In reference to others. He who covers sin is a hypocrite, who always wears a mask. He conceals bad principles under an avowed zeal for good ones; bad purposes under a noisy reprobation of such purposes; and a bad system of iniquity under the mask of extraordinary purity and piety.
II. In reference to ourselves. Man possesses the astonishing, but awful power of practising deceit upon himself, and concealing his sins from his own view. This he does—

1. By decreasing their number. This is done by rejecting the Divine law as the standard, and by adopting as the standard the lax notions of worldly and irreligious men.
2. By diminishing their enormity. This is done by pleading the impetuosity of the passions; the strength of temptation; as a set-off against bad works the multitude of good ones. But he who hides his sins from others shall not eventually prosper. And he who hides his sins from himself cannot prosper.
   Now, consider the nature and advantage of confessing and forsaking sin.
3. Our confession must be spiritual.
4. Our sin must be confessed as a great evil.
5. Our sin must be confessed as deserving special punishment.
   From hence we learn that the prospect of those who cover their sins, either from themselves or others, is most appalling; that no sinner, however guilty, and depraved, and miserable, need despair, for he may yet be saved. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)

Sin covered or confessed
I. Covered sin and no prosperity.

1. What is the meaning of covering sin?
2. How do men cover sin?
   (1) By palliation.
   (2) By dissembling.
   (3) By practising sin in secret.
   (4) By self-righteousness.
3. Covered sin a failure. Shall not prosper. This does not refer to temporal, but spiritual prosperity. This is not an arbitrary arrangement. The same power by which night and day succeed each other has promulgated, and will enforce the law that says, “Bad lives, unpardoned, shall be punished.” Sin cannot be successfully cloaked, but will be discovered and punished.
   II. Confessed and forsaken sin and mercy.
4. “Whoso confesseth and forsaketh them.” Prompt confession, followed by prompt forgiveness. Confession involving forsaking. Profession attended with consistent practice. The reform of the outward life, and the healing of the soul.
5. “Shall have mercy.” This is not a subject of doubt. It was the experience of the psalmist (Psa_32:5). The apostle believed and taught it (Rom_4:5). John has put it beyond speculation (1Jn_1:8-9). Mercy is yours if you will fulfil the conditions. (J. E. Hargreaves.)

Man’s treatment of his own sins

1. All men have sins.
2. All men have something to do with their sins.
3. All men deal with their sins either foolishly or wisely.
   I. The foolish treatment of our sins. “He that covereth his sins.”
4. By denying them. Thus Cain, Rachel, Joseph’s brethren, Peter, Ananias and Sapphira, endeavoured to hide their sin.
5. By extenuating them. Men plead excuses.
6. By forgetting them. They endeavour to sweep them from the memory by revelry, by sensuality, worldliness, and intemperance. Sins must reveal themselves sooner or later.
   II. The wise treatment of our sins. “Whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” (D. Thomas, D.D.)

A serious contrast
I. Man’s covering, and its failure. There are many ways in which men try to cover their sins. Excuse-making is the commonest trade under heaven. Some cover by secrecy and some by falsehood. Some think their sin has been hidden away by lapse of time.
II. God’s covering, and its success. By the atoning sacrifice which was presented by the Lord Jesus. Before God covers sins He unveils them. The covering is as broad as the sin; it completely covers, and for ever covers. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Proverbs 28:14
Happy is the man that feareth always.
The happiness of fearing alway
He who sincerely confesses and forsakes his sins will be afraid of sin for the future, having felt the smart of it.
I. What is the fear that men ought to maintain alway? It is a fear of God for Himself, and a fear of other things for God, or in reference to Him. We ought to entertain—

1. A filial and reverential fear of God. Slavish fear will never make a man happy. Slavish fear is mixed with hatred of God; filial fear with love to Him.
2. We must entertain a fear of jealousy over ourselves.
3. A fear of caution and circumspection. This makes a man walk warily.
   II. Some things in relation to which we should entertain this holy fear.
4. With respect to himself. Happy is the man who keeps a jealous eye over himself. Be jealous over your principles, your hearts, your tongues, and your senses.
5. With respect to our lusts and corruptions. He is happy who can say he fears nothing so much as sin. Fear the sin of your nature; sins by which you have been formerly led astray. These forsaken lovers will again make suit to you, and will get in upon you, if you grow secure. Fear little sins. There is no sin really little, but many most dangerous ones that are little in man’s esteem.
6. With respect to our graces. Grace is a gift to be stirred up. It is in hazard of decay, though not of death. The way to keep the treasure is to fear.
7. With respect to our duties. The whole worship and service of God is called fear; so necessary is our fear in approaching Him.
8. With respect to our attainments. They are in hazard of being lost.
   III. The necessary qualification of this duty. “Alway.” This fear must be our habitual and constant work. This fear should season all we do, and be with us at all times, cases, conditions, places, and companies. Because—
9. We have always the enemy within our walls. While a body of sin remains within us, temptations will always be presenting themselves.
10. Because there are snares for us in all places and in all circumstances. There are snares in our lawful enjoyments; snares at home, in the field, waking, and at table. Many ditches are in our way, and many of these are so concealed that we may fall completely into them before we are aware. At all times we are beset.
    IV. The advantage attending this duty. “Happy.” For—
11. This prevents much sin, and advanceth holiness of heart and life. He that fears to offend God is most likely to keep His way.
12. It prevents strokes from the Lord’s hand. Where sin dines judgment will sup. Holy fear prevents falls.
13. This fear carries the soul out of itself to the Lord Jesus Christ, the fountain of light, life, and strength. Improvement:
    (1) You who are in a joyful frame, join trembling with your mirth.
    (2) You that are in a mourning frame, fear alway.
    (3) You that have not met with Christ; what shall I say to you?
    Fear lest your sharing in Christian privileges leave your affections more deadened, and your consciences more seared. To all of you I say, “Fear alway.” (T. Boston, D.D.)

A holy fear
What is this Bible-enjoined fearing? It is not the paralysis of terror, the shrinking and subsiding into nothingness of the craven spirit within. It is the ballast of the soul. Calm cautiousness. It is our Scotch maxim, “Ca’ canny!” Retrospective, introspective, perspective, circumspective. Nervousness of experience, caution, cannyness of reflection, the fearing here embodies.
I. The action. “Feareth.” It is evangelical fear, for only the gospel can bring it. It is three-faced. The first outlook of it is towards God. The fear of God is not that turbulent tornado of terror that tears up and destroys; it is the gentle fall of the summer rain on the thirsty soil; it is the soft dew-descent of the Holy Ghost; it is the fear of God for himself. It is the holy hush in His almighty presence, the calm instinct of regeneration that gives sympathetic dignity to the soul. It is the “strength of the Lord.” Another outlook of this fear is towards yourself. Your worst enemy is your next-door neighbour, and on his gate is your own name. He is yourself. To draw illustration from mining, your heart is full of inflammable gas. Sin fills every chink, and it is all ready for the tempting flame. Another outlook of this fear is towards your surroundings. Look up, look in, but also look round. The world is an intertwined network of devildom. Take care, beware!
II. The time for this action. The longest day has a nightfall. In this activity of the soul no swinging bell heralds a release; without a break or gap the night-shift succeeds to day, and the day-shift to night, and the same worker is in both. “Happy is the man that feareth alway.” At all times, in all circumstances, in all companies, you are in danger of going to the bottom. Alway fearing is alway safe.
III. The consequence of it. “Happy is the man.” Because for time and eternity he is ready. It is never waste of wind or time to keep to the path, even though it wind and wind like an eternal corkscrew. He is happy because this fear saves him from the fear of man. That fear ever bringeth a snare. The Christian filled with the gospel fear of God is happy, too, because it empties the soul. You and I are unblessed to-day because we are too full. (John Robertson.)

The happy influence of fear
He is not an unhappy man whose heart is continually governed by this fear. It has a happy influence upon his soul, to guard it from the temptations of Satan and the world, and to keep it close to the Redeemer. It tends not to obstruct but to promote the exercise of faith and hope and joy in the Lord. Thus fear is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, and a blessed means of establishing the heart in the love of God. It is a happy sign of an interest in the everlasting covenant of mercy, and in that special favour of God which is the source of all our joys. But wretched is the man who is not afraid to sin against his Maker and Judge. His heart is hard as the nether millstone. (George Lawson, D.D.)

Holy fear
Holy fear is a searching the camp that there be no enemy within our bosom to betray us, and seeing that all be fast and sure. For I see many leaky vessels fair before the wind, and professors who take their conversion upon trust, and they go on securely, and see not the under water till a storm sink them. (H. G. Salter.)

But he that hardeneth his heart shall fan into mischief.
Hardening the heart
The whole system of moral and religious duty is expressed as the “fear of God.” The religion which makes fear the great principle of action, implicitly condemns all self-confidence, all presumptuous security; and enjoins a constant state of vigilance and caution, a perpetual distrust of our own hearts, a full conviction of our natural weakness, and an earnest solicitude for Divine assistance.
I. What he is to fear, whose fear will make him happy. The primary object of fear is sin. The dread of sin produces the dread of temptation. The continual recurrence of temptation and the imbecility of nature make many doubtful of the possibility of salvation. In fear many have fled from possibilities of temptation into deserts and monasteries. But this is not the worthy way of meeting fear. And in cloisters men do not escape from themselves. True fear is a constant sense of the Divine presence, and dread of the Divine displeasure. True fear inspires prayer.
II. What is meant by hardness of heart. Hardness of heart is a thoughtless neglect of the Divine law: such an acquiescence in the pleasures of sense, and such delight in the pride of life, as leaves no place in the mind for meditation on higher things. To such men Providence is seldom wholly inattentive. They are often called to the remembrance of their Creator, both by blessings and afflictions; by recoveries from sickness, by deliverances from danger, by loss of friends, and by miscarriage of transactions. As these calls are neglected, the hardness is increased, and there is danger lest He whom they have refused to hear should call them no more. This state of dereliction is the highest degree of misery.
III. How, or by what causes, the heart is hardened. The most dangerous hardness proceeds from some enormous wickedness, of which the criminal dreads the recollection, and finding a temporal ease in negligence and forgetfulness, by degrees confirms himself in stubborn impenitence. A less dangerous hardness consists, not in the perversion of the will, but in the alienation of the thoughts: by such hearts God is not defied; He is only forgotten. Of this forgetfulness the general causes are worldly cares and sensual pleasures. Such men are usually either stupidly or profanely negligent of these external duties of religion, which are instituted to excite and preserve the fear of God. A great part of them whose hearts are thus hardened may justly impute that insensibility to the violation of the Sabbath. Many enjoyments, innocent in themselves, may become dangerous by too much frequency. Whatever tends to diminish the fear of God, or abate the tenderness of conscience, must be diligently avoided.
IV. The consequence of hardness of heart. “Shall fall into mischief”—both into wickedness and misery. He that hardeneth his heart shall surely become both wicked and miserable. (S. Johnson, LL.D.)

Proverbs 28:20
He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.
Haste to be rich
Nowhere does the Bible denounce riches. It tells men very plainly what the dangers are. It denounces very strongly the conduct of rich men. But the motive to good conduct, in the Old Testament period, was the promise of secular prosperity—abundance. The Bible asserts that riches are a great blessing; and poverty a great misfortune. It is the method of God’s development and education of the race to bring men up to higher levels by those processes by which men develop larger means, various riches, and the comforts of life, and give to the household broader foundations, ampler powers. It goes against the educated religious feeling of men for one to say that the way of riches was meant to be the way of religion; yet it is true. All barbarous nations are poor. The Bible speaks the sentiment of universal mankind when it regards riches held in the hand of virtue as being an eminent blessing from God.
I. Riches may either be produced or collected. The foundation of all prosperity is production. He increases the riches of a society that applies his reason and skill to the raw material of the globe, or that brings it from inertness to positive service, and gives to matter the power of serving man. He produces wealth. Then comes the man who utilises it; creates it into garments, houses, utensils, etc. The foundation of all value is not what a thing costs in making it, but what is inherent in it of thought and skill. What part of man was used in producing it; and to what part of a man is such properly addressed? The man who produces wealth is the foundation man. It is the law of the production of wealth that a man should render an equivalent for every stage of value. Sudden wealth is not hasty wealth, necessarily.
II. The production of wealth connects itself with benevolence, with sympathy. The man who is developing property, as distinguished from money, is actually increasing the common wealth. It is a sad thing, but in the main true, that the producers of wealth are obliged to eat up the larger part of their product in order to have strength to work. But every man that is developing or producing riches is, at the same time, educating himself in morals, or should be. Patience is a moral quality; another name for self-control. The man who gets wealth legitimately is usually himself built up in inward riches fully as much as he builds up his estate in outward wealth.
III. Haste to be rich is a great danger to men, because it tempts them to employ illegitimate means. Sleights, crafts, disingenuous ways, greed, violations of honesty. Haste runs along the edge of so many dangers, that a man’s head must be peculiarly well set on his shoulders, and his brain must be very solid and sober, if he does not topple over into them. A man that is making haste to be rich is tempted to ostentation. But ostentation is expensive, and men are easily tempted to devise schemes to maintain it. Men having sudden wealth are apt to become cruel through indifference to other men’s rights. Haste is apt to change into idolatry. (H. W. Beecher.)

Proverbs 28:22
He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.
Haste to be rich
Nowhere does the Bible denounce riches. It tells men very plainly what the dangers are. It denounces very strongly the conduct of rich men. But the motive to good conduct, in the Old Testament period, was the promise of secular prosperity—abundance. The Bible asserts that riches are a great blessing; and poverty a great misfortune. It is the method of God’s development and education of the race to bring men up to higher levels by those processes by which men develop larger means, various riches, and the comforts of life, and give to the household broader foundations, ampler powers. It goes against the educated religious feeling of men for one to say that the way of riches was meant to be the way of religion; yet it is true. All barbarous nations are poor. The Bible speaks the sentiment of universal mankind when it regards riches held in the hand of virtue as being an eminent blessing from God.
I. Riches may either be produced or collected. The foundation of all prosperity is production. He increases the riches of a society that applies his reason and skill to the raw material of the globe, or that brings it from inertness to positive service, and gives to matter the power of serving man. He produces wealth. Then comes the man who utilises it; creates it into garments, houses, utensils, etc. The foundation of all value is not what a thing costs in making it, but what is inherent in it of thought and skill. What part of man was used in producing it; and to what part of a man is such properly addressed? The man who produces wealth is the foundation man. It is the law of the production of wealth that a man should render an equivalent for every stage of value. Sudden wealth is not hasty wealth, necessarily.
II. The production of wealth connects itself with benevolence, with sympathy. The man who is developing property, as distinguished from money, is actually increasing the common wealth. It is a sad thing, but in the main true, that the producers of wealth are obliged to eat up the larger part of their product in order to have strength to work. But every man that is developing or producing riches is, at the same time, educating himself in morals, or should be. Patience is a moral quality; another name for self-control. The man who gets wealth legitimately is usually himself built up in inward riches fully as much as he builds up his estate in outward wealth.
III. Haste to be rich is a great danger to men, because it tempts them to employ illegitimate means. Sleights, crafts, disingenuous ways, greed, violations of honesty. Haste runs along the edge of so many dangers, that a man’s head must be peculiarly well set on his shoulders, and his brain must be very solid and sober, if he does not topple over into them. A man that is making haste to be rich is tempted to ostentation. But ostentation is expensive, and men are easily tempted to devise schemes to maintain it. Men having sudden wealth are apt to become cruel through indifference to other men’s rights. Haste is apt to change into idolatry. (H. W. Beecher.)

Proverbs 28:23
He that rebuketh a man.
Reproof
I. Regard reproof as a duty.

1. Speaking generally, we may be bound to administer reproof out of regard to the individuals to whom we may address ourselves. An obligation rests upon us to love our neighbours as ourselves. This obligation requires us, of course, to study to promote their welfare. If we saw a man thoughtlessly going near the heel of a horse that was likely to kick at him, and to imperil his life, we should instinctively caution him to avoid the danger. If we knew a friend about to take in hand a business which, from our knowledge and experience, we were quite sure would prove his ruin, we should certainly give him the benefit of our opinion. Much more, therefore, when we see him doing anything or neglecting to do anything to the injury of his character, his usefulness, his happiness, or his eternal well-being, shall we go and faithfully acquaint him with our opinion of his conduct.
2. Another reason why we should give reproof may be the regard we have, not simply to the individuals to whom we may address ourselves, but to the interests of society.
3. There is only one other reason which we would touch upon—we mean, the mind of God upon the matter, as it is revealed in Holy Scripture (Lev_19:17). Let us now notice some particular classes of persons upon whom this duty devolves.
   (1) First, upon ministers.
   (2) The same duty rests upon masters. They are monarchs in the small kingdom of the household, and are bound to see that nothing is allowed therein that is in any way to be condemned.
   (3) It rests also upon parents.
   II. The spirit and manner in which reproof ought to be administered.
4. It should be given in a spirit of prayer. There are differences of natural constitution, and differences of natural judgment, which may affect a person’s fitness to discharge the duty; but no man ought to set about such a work without lifting up his heart to God, that his words may be uttered with wisdom, that the opening of his lips may be with grace.
5. A spirit of love ought, also, to influence us. We should be most watchful lest a feeling of anger, wrath, or malice should prompt us, and the hatred of the offence should be lost in the indulgence of our ill-temper and pride.
6. Our reproof, also, should vary in its mode, according to the disposition of the person to be reproved.
7. Reproofs, though deserved, should be administered with a sparing hand. Incessant finding fault defeats its own end. It only irritates the reproved.
8. In rebuking, take care not to overstate the fault. The offender is generally prejudiced in his own favour. He will be apt to think that even a fair statement is excessive; much more will he detect injustice, if he be unfairly charged.
   III. The effects which reproof is calculated to produce. It should produce, of course, always the fruit of righteousness. The life of the reproved ought to be amended; the good advice ought to be taken in a thankful and obedient spirit. This is not unfrequently the case, but oftentimes it is the contrary.
9. Some men are scornful, and obstinately wicked. It is likely to prove discouraging, to use no stronger word, to attempt to bring them out of their faults and errors. There is little good to be got by reproving the confirmed sinner. Your reward will be, probably, that he will hatch up some slanderous report to blacken or blot your character.
10. We may indulge a hope, however, although this be so in bad and extreme cases, that a happier consequence may oftentimes be looked for. This our text encourages us to expect. It is written, “He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with his tongue.” Even men who are wise and good may be irritated, annoyed, and for a season be offended with us; but, when the disturbance in the atmosphere shall have subsided, it shall be more clear and healthy than it was before. The man’s good-sense, assisted or produced by the Holy Spirit of God will triumph over his passion; and he will feel no disposition to complain of the bitter medicine that was administered to him. The reproof which has been given him will send him to his knees. It will lead him to pray that he may see his errors, and that he may have grace to overcome them. (
    T. W. Thompson, M.A.)

Proverbs 28:26
He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.
The folly of trusting in our own hearts
I. What is meant by a man trusting his heart. It is—

1. To commit and resign up the entire conduct of his life and actions to the directions of it, as of a guide. A guide should be able to lead and direct him; and a guide should faithfully give the best directions.
   II. Wherein the foolishness of it consists. Two things render a trust foolish.
2. The thing which we commit to a trust. We commit three things to the mercy of this trust—the honour of God; our own felicity here; the eternal concernments of our soul hereafter. The honour of God as Creator, Governor, Saviour, and gracious Father; our happiness in this world, both temporal and spiritual. Is the heart worthy of such trust? Nay, it is weak, and so cannot make good a trust. In point of apprehension, it cannot perceive and understand certainly what is good. In point of election, it cannot choose and embrace it. Moreover, it is deceitful, and so will not make good a trust. The delusions of the heart relate to the commission of sin; the performance of duty; a man’s conversion or change of his spiritual estate. The heart of man will draw him on to sin by persuading him he can keep it in bounds; by leading him into occasions of sin; by lessening and extenuating it in his esteem. A man’s heart will persuade him that a cessation from sin is a plenary conquest and mortification of sin. (R. South.)

Strange self-deception
By what sophistry, what perversity of the understanding, what negligence it is, that the tremendous prospect of eternity and judgment has really so little to do with the formation of our opinions, and the regulation of our conduct. Two propositions may be established by this inquiry.

1. From the deficient practice of those calling themselves Christians, we are by no means justified in the inference that their judgments are not therefore convinced of the truth of the doctrines they profess to believe.
2. If, in defiance of incalculable hopes and terrors of another world, man is still unable to keep that guard over the inclinations of his heart which may secure his innocence, the entire removal of so potent a check could surely have no other tendency than to complete the degradation of his nature, and to dislocate the whole fabric of society.
   With regard to the question before us—
3. Although the highest achievement of a course of moral and religious discipline be, to subject our every thought and action to the control of conscience and religion only, yet in every stage short of this highest exaltation of character it is to far inferior impulses that even our most plausible actions owe their birth. In his natural state passion, not principle, forms the mainspring of action. As moral education advances, impulses ripen into knowledge. Where he once only felt, he now reasons. But it will be long ere his original constitution will change its bias. In this intermediate state of moral improvement our conviction may indeed be sincere, but our conduct will still be defective. With the greater part of mankind action almost invariably outruns reflection. If the want of union between reason and appetite be the first source of sin, our amendment must depend upon establishing their connection. One cause of that strange indifference on the subject of religion manifested by many may be traced to that callousness of mind, that apathy arising from satiety, which all of us have felt when our minds for a long period together have been occupied with one predominant idea, however originally interesting. The only remedy we can apply is still the same calculating and systematic counteraction produced by habitual meditation and discipline which we have already recommended. A last inducement to sin is that natural tendency of our constitution, whether intellectual or physical, to adapt itself to the medium in which it is placed, and to vary its own habits and propensities and feelings according to the accidental association of external circumstances. (P. N. Shuttleworth, D.D.)

The height of folly
Let me ask you to look at the closing clause of the previous verse, for it appears to me to have a very immediate relation to our text. “He that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” On the one hand is Jehovah, all strong, all wise; and on the other one’s evilly disposed, vacillating heart. In whom dost thou trust? Those who trust Jehovah become fat and flourishing; He honours their faith, He prospers the work of their hands; but leanness of soul and lack of real blessing must be the result of trusting to one’s inner consciousness, or past experience, or anything of self.
I. “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool,” because of the divine verdict on the human heart. It is not as though we were left to our own estimate of the natural heart. If we were, since it is natural to us to think well of ourselves, we could hardly be called fools for trusting in these hearts of ours. We have a higher verdict; One who knows, far better than we can, has published the innate character of the human heart. We need not be in ignorance as to what God thinks of us. He is the authority on this matter. He made the heart. True, He did not make it sinful or foolish; He made it pure and holy, prepared for every good word and work. But, knowing as He does how beautiful it was at the outset, He can best judge of the marring of it. He knows, too, that the more beautiful and glorious it was at first, the greater is its wreck and ruin. We are aware of the fact that those things which are most finely constructed, when they do suffer damage suffer very materially. The wreck is all the greater, and repair is more difficult because of the delicacy of construction. Well, God knew how pure the human heart was made, what capabilities it possessed, what possibilities lay latent there. He knows, too, the damage sin has done. God does not look upon the fall as a slight accident which could be easily remedied. What does He say of the human heart as it is, by reason of its sin? He says, “Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Moreover, God in another place has plainly written, “The heart of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Have you forgotten that striking word from Jeremiah, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked”? Well may we say, with the writer of this proverb, “He theft trusteth in his own heart is a fool,” for he is trusting a deceiver; nay, he is trusting the arch-deceiver, the very chief among the deceivers. Are you going to trust in this heart of yours? Your feelings, your capabilities, your faculties—everything that you like to include in this comprehensive word, are all affected, more or less, by the fall, and yet you are prepared to trust in this rotten reed, this broken staff. When I hear some excuse themselves or their fellows by saying, “Oh, well you know, but they are good at heart,” I feel like saying, “Wherever else they are good, they are not good there, for God Himself declares, ‘There is none righteous, no, not one.’” So, then, we have got God’s verdict concerning the human heart, and it is so emphatic, and so unflattering, that we say with the author of the proverb, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.”
II. Secondly, experience warns us in the same direction. We can see for ourselves, if we open our eyes, that those who trust their own hearts are fools. Should we not learn lessons from the falls and follies of others? Let me ask you who have been vigilant, Have you noticed the result of self-confidence in others? Whether it be in business matters, or social affairs, or political questions, or spiritual concerns, to what has unbounded self-confidence led men? They may have run well for awhile. It proved to be only a nine-day’s wonder. It was as the crackling of thorns under a pot: there was great flare and flame, but it ended in smoke and ashes. I have met with instances, not a few, in which men have thus overrun themselves, and become filled with their own ways. It seems to me as if a Nemesis followed them. God virtually says to them, “Well, you believe in yourself; I will leave you to yourself; you trust your own heart, you can do without Me; you ask for independence—you shall have it.” These men have not succeeded—they have come to grief; their supposed righteousness and self-merit did not provide them with shelter in the day of storm; it was a refuge of lies. Are you going to follow their example? Are you likely to succeed where they have failed? Such matters are influenced by certain inexorable laws. A Nemesis pursues those who proudly trust their native strength. Besides, you have had some experience of your own, have you not? Is there anybody here who has not had a try at trusting his own heart?
III. I must point out to you that self-trust is quite unnecessary. I can conceive that, if we were shut up to trusting our own hearts, we might be excused for doing it. God knows we must trust somebody or something! Is there not in us all the clinging tendency, a desire to get hold of somebody or something, a craving for sympathy? If there were no outside helper, stronger than ourselves, what else could we rely on but our experiences and our feelings? But there is something else infinitely better to trust to. We have no excuse for such folly as this; we are not shut up to self-confidence; there is an alternative. If I saw one on the shore launching a leaky boat upon a troubled sea, I should say to him, “Fool that thou art, to go to sea in such a sieve as that!” “Well, but,” says he, “I must go to sea, necessity is laid upon me—and there is no boat but this.” In that case I could only pity him: if he must embark, what can the poor fellow do but take his chance in the leaky cockleshell? Ah, but this is not our case at all. You must go to sea, and it is stormy, too, but you need not embark in this leaky craft of your own heart. God’s own lifeboat stands alongside you; nay, it is already launched. You have but to leap into it; it will outride the roughest sea, and weather every storm. I do not know how it is that some people will not trust God till they are obliged to. You who have not yet got rid of sin and of its condemnation, why not trust Jehovah? Why not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved? I know you are trusting to your own heart. You say to yourself, “I do not think it is so bad after all. Sometimes it is really first-rate.” Another says, “Well, my heart is not up to the mark, I know, but it is better than it was! “Well, really, friend, I am glad to hear that; but when it is at its best it is, by no means, reliable. I pray you do not say, “I think it will come all right at last.” It is folly thus to talk. Look away to Jesus; trust not your own heart, but in the living God. And you, who have been brought out of darkness into His marvellous light, surely you are not going to play the fool by trusting your own heart. You, you of all men, ought to know better. You are going back to where you were at first, to self-righteousness, and self-trust! Well, I leave this question with you; are you able, despite all the experience you have had, to steer your craft across life’s trackless sea, and how can you hope to outride the breakers of judgment that break upon the further shore? (
Thomas Spurgeon.)

Folly of self-confidence
I. The evil the text refers to. The heart here signifies the whole soul. Trusting in it means to rest on its sufficiency; to depend upon it in the various circumstances in which we may be placed. It includes—

1. A reliance upon our own wisdom in the concerns of life.
2. To adopt our own schemes of religion. By affirming the sufficiency of nature and reason. By admitting into his creed nothing but what his imperfect mind can understand. By placing all his hopes on excited feelings and warm emotions. By adding to, or diminishing from, Christ’s holy doctrines, ordinances, or commands.
3. To confide in the moral goodness of our own hearts. The Christian also trusts in his own heart when—
4. He relies upon his own skill or power in temptation and trouble.
   II. The declaration made concerning this evil. “Is a fool.” This is obvious—
5. If we appeal to reason.
6. To the heart itself.
7. To examples.
8. To our own experience. (J. Burns, D.D.)

Self-sufficiency and godly confidence
I. Self-sufficiency. Seen as pride, and as self-trust. Two things indicated. It is mischievous. It is foolish.
II. Godly confidence. Trust in God implies a knowledge of Him, an appreciation of His transcendent excellences, and a consciousness of His willingness and ability to sustain us. This trust leads to prosperity. (Homilist.)

The folly of self-trust

1. This maxim is justified by the description which Jeremiah gives: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?” For if it be indeed such as it is there represented, assuredly the heart cannot be trustworthy. And that the prophet’s description is but too correct must appear abundantly evident to all who have ever sincerely and seriously engaged in the difficult task of self-examination. The very difficulty of the task proves how full the heart which is the subject of it must be of treachery and of secret vice.
2. This maxim is also abundantly justified and confirmed by universal experience, and may be illustrated experimentally.
   I. One striking proof we have in our proneness to relapse into sins of which we fancied, perhaps, that we had long ago fairly repented. He makes at once his prompt yet firm choice between God and the world. But soon his evil heart of unbelief tempts him again to depart from the living God.
   II. Another practical and experimental proof of the wise man’s assertion we have in the various turns of the believer’s struggle with indwelling sin.
   III. We pass from the Christian’s continual struggle with the sin that dwelleth in him to the resolute stand which he is called upon to make against the evil that is in the world. Confessing that our corrupt inclinations still long for certain forbidden indulgences, we yet heedlessly loiter still within sight and within reach of the glittering prize, though we feel our longing becoming daily more intense, and our power to resist it daily giving way.
   IV. One other instance of this folly we may mention: our proneness to rely on the amount of our attainments, the sufficiency and the stability of our own conscious and confirmed integrity. We easily forget the imperfection which adheres to our best services and our best qualities, and please ourselves with the idea that some one favourite Christian virtue, at least, is now strong enough for any emergency. And from the very instant in which such an idea begins to prevail between us, that particular virtue may be pronounced the feeblest and most precarious of all that we have. A slight change of circumstances—some very trifling accident, unforeseen and unexpected—a new temptation suddenly assailing us—may lay the proud structure in the dust, and teach us how vain it is to trust in any degree of excellence, in any height of Christian perfection. (R. S. Candlish, D.D.)

Self-deceit
Whosoever trusts his own heart as his light, adviser, and guide, in the complex ways and actings of life, is a fool. Half the wisdom of the wise is in the choice of their advisers. Wise men discern wisdom in others, and call them to council; the wisest man is he who least trusts himself alone. He knows the difficulties of life and its intricacies, and gathers all the lights he can and casts them upon his own case. He must in the end act on his own responsibility; but he seeks all counsellors, the experienced and impartial, sometimes the opposed and unfriendly, that he may be aware on all sides; for “in the multitude of counsellors is safety.” But it may be asked, Is not the heart God’s creation and God’s gift? Did He not plant eyes in it, and give to it light and discernment to guide our ways? Is it not our truest personal guide, given to each one of us by God Himself? Why must a man who trusts his own heart be a fool?

1. Because our hearts—that is, we ourselves—are ignorant of ourselves. If we knew ourselves, we should not trust ourselves; we do so because we do not know what we are. We are by nature, and still more by personal act, sinners. And sin blinds the heart: so that the more sinful the less it knows its sinfulness; for like death, which is most evidently perceived by the living, not at all by the dead, and by the dying only in the measure in which their living consciousness is still retained, so it is with sin dwelling in us. Where is the worldly man who in matters of honour and dishonour, right and wrong, sin and duty, wisdom and folly, religion and faith, death and judgment, heaven and hell, does not with confident assurance trust his own heart? But in the sight of God such a man is a “fool.”
2. Not only is the heart ignorant of itself, but it deceives itself. Of course these cannot be altogether separated. Every one who is ignorant is, in one sense, a self-deceiver; and yet it may not be with any laboured illusion. Ignorance is absence of light; self-deceivers have light, and visions in that light; but those visions are illusions. Ignorance is the danger of unawakened minds; self-deceit of the awakened.
   (1) What is more common than to see men characteristically marked by one sin which they pointedly censure in others, and from which they believe themselves to be absolutely free? These unsuspected sins are almost universally the faults of childhood and early youth, which have become habitual and unconscious; for instance, personal vanity, selfishness, a difficult and disputatious temper, impatience, resentment, unreality, or the like. And they who have these faults in them by long habit generally excuse themselves by ascribing the same to others on whom they have inflicted them; as if the wind should chide the roughness of the sea for disturbing its repose, all the while believing itself to be at rest.
   (2) The same effect which appears in casual temptations is more dangerously produced in deliberate motives and lines of conduct. An early habit of personal vanity, or desire of wealth, sometimes unconsciously governs a person’s whole life. The same is true of worse passions, such as jealousy, envy, resentment, etc.
   (3) The gravest part still remains; I mean the deceit we practise upon ourselves as to our state before God. The same unconsciousness which conceals from us our habitual sins, such as anger or envy, conceals also the impatience and stiffness of our will towards God, and our want of gratitude and love, our undevotion and sluggishness in the spiritual life. All these, having been upon us from our earliest memory, have become our natural, our normal state. Such a heart becomes, at last swathed in its own self-trust; and we watch it as we do the rash motions of a man who walks blindfold, reeling in the midst of dangers, which might sometimes for a moment provoke our mirth, if it did not always excite alarm.
3. Another reason why to trust our own hearts is a note of folly is because they flatter us. How long have we gone on persuading ourselves that we are meek, poor in spirit, makers of peace, merciful, patient, and the like, because we assent in desire and will to the Beatitudes, and would fain share in their benedictions! How long have we persuaded ourselves that we pray both often and enough, earnestly, and with devotion; that we love God above all, and above all desire so to love Him; that our life is, on the whole, not unlike the great Example of humility; and that we know our own hearts better than any one can tell us! And yet what does this last persuasion show? Why are we so sensitive under a reproof? Why do we accuse ourselves freely of all faults but the one imputed? Why are we never guilty in the point suspected? Why do we wholly guide ourselves, and feel so great security in our own direction? but because we trust our own hearts. Out of this proceeds our visions of devotion, our imaginations of sanctity. It is a forge never cold, always at work, forming and fashioning devices which please us by their fair and shapely forms, and flatter us because they are a homage to ourselves.
   Lessons:
4. The greatest security against deceiving ourselves by trusting our own hearts is a careful information of conscience. But this plainly runs beyond the period of our responsibility into the account of those to whom our childhood was subject. Our chief difficulty is in the attempt to analyse the confused and hardened mass of self, neglected for twenty, thirty, half a hundred years; to unravel a world of knots and entanglements; to find the beginning of the clue. Self-examination begun late in life must remand the chief part of its discoveries to the day of judgment.
5. The other security is the only one which remains to those who have never enjoyed the first; and that is to take the judgment of some other persons instead of trusting in themselves. It will be, no doubt, painful and distressing; it will bring shame and burning of face. But is not the stake worth the cost? (Archdeacon Manning.).

Proverbs 28:2
a man] This is better taken collectively, and rendered men, as in R.V. text.
the state thereof] i.e. its stability. This rendering is retained in R.V. Others render (taking the word state in its more usual sense as an adverb) so, on that condition, sc. of its possessing men of understanding and knowledge, it (the land) shall be continued. But there seems hardly sufficient reason for laying such stress upon the condition, nor is there much force in saying the land shall continue.
The proverb is abundantly illustrated by the history of Israel. See, for example, 1Ki_16:8-28.

Proverbs 28:3
a poor man] Better, with R.V., a needy man, the Hebrew word being different from that rendered poor immediately after.
The proverb has commonly been held to refer to official oppression. “A man in authority is implied. In many Eastern countries the offices of government are frequently sold to needy men, who use their power to reimburse themselves by oppressing others,” Rel. Tr. Soc. Comm. But the scope of the proverb must not be restricted to this. It is quite general, and is verified in the exactions of the needy employer, or owner, or creditor among ourselves, as well as in the oppression of Oriental misrule.
“The hungry contractor undertakes the job at the lowest possible price, and secures his profit by getting hungrier and weaker creatures than himself to do the work at a price lower than possible, literally at starvation wages.” Horton.
leaveth no food] Heb. without food; Vulg. in quo paratur fames; which, instead of bringing fruitful seasons (Act_14:17; Isa_30:23), takes away man’s food by uprooting the herbs of the field and washing the seed corn out of the earth.

Proverbs 28:4
the law] not in its Jewish form, “The Law,” sc. of Moses, but in its wider sense; and so in Pro_28:7; Pro_28:9, below. See Introd. p. 13.

Proverbs 28:5
The intellectual condition depends upon the moral and spiritual. “Obedience is the organ of spiritual knowledge.” Comp. Joh_7:17.

Proverbs 28:6
The first half of the proverb occurs in Pro_19:1.
perverse in his ways] Lit. perverse of two ways: i.e. in double-dealing. Comp. “Woe … to the sinner that goeth two ways!” Sir_2:12; ἀνὴρ δίψυχος ἀκατάστατος ἐν πάσαις ταις ὁδοῖς αὐτοῦ, Jas_1:8.

Proverbs 28:7
riotous] Rather, gluttonous. See Pro_23:20, note.

Proverbs 28:8
unjust gain] Rather, increase, as A.V. marg. and R.V. text, μετὰ τόκων καὶ πλεονασμῶν, LXX. Comp. Lev_25:36-37.
The idea of its being “unjust” is implied by the word “usury” with which it is associated. The R.V. gives augmenteth, instead of increaseth, in the former part of the verse, as the Heb. word is not the same, as it there renders increase.

Proverbs 28:9
abomination] Comp. ch. Pro_15:8.

Proverbs 28:10
the upright &c.] Better, with R.V., the perfect shall inherit good.

Proverbs 28:11
searcheth him out] sees through him, as we should say, “Bene novit, neutiquam, ut Euripidis utamur dicto, τὸν εὐτυχοῦντα πάντʼ ἐπίστασθαι καλῶς,” Maurer.

Proverbs 28:12
a man is hidden] Rather, men hide themselves, R.V. “Heb. must be searched for,” marg. Comp. Pro_28:28.

Proverbs 28:14
feareth] i.e. to do wrong, with a wise and godly caution. ὂς καταπτήσσει πάντα διʼ εὐλάβειαν, LXX. Comp. the N.T. use of εὐλάβεια and its cognates, Heb_5:7; Heb_11:7.
mischief] “Or, calamity,” R.V. marg.

Proverbs 28:15
ranging] i.e. with a view to satisfy its hunger. The word is used in its secondary sense, hungry, Psa_107:9. Comp. 1Pe_5:8. λέων πεινῶν καὶ λύκος διψῶν, LXX., ursus esuriens, Vulg.

Proverbs 28:16
The prince &c.] Lit. A prince that lacketh understanding and a great oppressor! i.e. the two are identical. There is no particle of connection or contrast between the two clauses of the verse, and R.V. marg. adopts the view that the whole verse is a continuous address or admonition: O prince that lackest understanding and art a great oppressor, he that, &c.

Proverbs 28:17
doeth violence to] Rather, is laden with, R.V. See Gen_9:6.

Proverbs 28:18
that is perverse in his ways] Or, walketh (understood from the first clause of the verse) perversely in two ways. “Heb. perverse of two ways.” R.V. marg. See Pro_28:6, note.
at once] Some commentators render, not very happily, in one of them, i.e. of the two ways mentioned in the first clause of the verse.

Proverbs 28:19
Comp. Pro_12:11.

Proverbs 28:20
faithful] i.e., as the second clause shews, one who puts fidelity above gain. Comp. Psa_15:4.
innocent] Rather, unpunished, A.V. marg. and R.V. οὐκ ἀτιμώρητος ἔσται, LXX.

Proverbs 28:21
For … that man will transgress] Or, Neither that a man should transgress, R.V. The rendering of A.V., however, which is retained substantially in R.V. marg., has the support both of LXX. and Vulg.
a piece of bread] Dean Plumptre, in Speaker’s Comm., and others quote the words of Cato with reference to M. Cœlius, “frusto panis conduci potest, vel uti taceat, vel uti loquatur,” A. Gell., Noct. Att. i. 15.
transgress] i.e., as the former clause indicates, pervert justice by shewing partiality.

Proverbs 28:22
He that hasteth &c. The order of subject and predicate should be reversed as in A.V. marg. and R.V.: He that hath an evil eye hasteth after riches. After the manner of this Collection, we have three proverbs (Pro_28:20-21) on the same subject brought together. Covetousness is a characteristic of a man who is untrustworthy, Pro_28:20, partial, Pro_28:21, and mean and grudging, Pro_28:22.
poverty] Or, want, R.V. Because it is “the liberal soul” that “shall be made fat,” Pro_11:25. Comp. Isa_32:8.

Proverbs 28:24
a destroyer] “That is the deliberate villain who is prepared for any crime. Comp. Mat_15:4; Mat_15:6.” Rel. Tr. Soc. Comm. Comp. Pro_18:9.

Proverbs 28:25
of a proud heart] Lit. wide of soul. This may mean having his soul enlarged, either by the elation of pride, as A.V. (comp. wide of heart, Pro_21:4; Psa_101:5), or by the desire of gain, He that is of a greedy spirit, R.V. The expression breadth or width of heart is used in a good sense, 1Ki_4:29 [Heb_5:9]. Comp. Psa_119:32; Isa_60:5; 2Co_6:11.

Proverbs 28:27
hideth his eyes] in neglect or disgust. Comp. Isa_1:15; and see Sir_4:5-6.

Proverbs 28:1-28
The following commentary covers Chapters 10 through 31.
In chapter 10 begin the details which teach those who give ear how to avoid the snares into which the simple might fall, the path to be followed in many cases, and the consequences of men’s actions: in short, that which characterises wisdom in detail, what may be prudence for man, divine discretion for the children of God; and also, the result of God’s government, whatever appearances may be for awhile. It is well to observe, that there is no question of redemption or propitiation in this book; it proposes a walk according to the wisdom of God’s government.
In the final chapter we have the character of a king according to wisdom, and that of the woman in her own house-the king who does not allow himself that which, by darkening his moral discernment through the indulgence of his lusts, would make him unfit to govern. In the woman we see the persevering and devoted industry which fills the house with riches, brings honour to its inhabitants, and removes all the cares and anxieties produced by sloth. The typical application of these two specific characters is too evident to need explanation. The example of the woman is very useful, as to the spirit of the thing, to one who labours in the assembly.
Although in this book the wisdom produced by the fear of Jehovah is only applied to this world, it is on that very account of great use to the Christian, who, in view of his heavenly privileges, might, more or less, forget the continual government of God. It is very important for the Christian to remember the fear of the Lord, and the effect of God’s presence on the details of his conduct; and I repeat that which I said at the beginning, that it is great grace which deigns to apply divine wisdom to all the details of the life of man in the midst of the confusion brought in by sin. Occupied with heavenly things, the Christian is less in the way of discovering, by his own experience, the clue to the labyrinth of evil through which he is passing. God has considered this, and He has laid down this first principle, “wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.” Thus the Christian may be ignorant of evil (if a worldling were so, he would fall into it), and yet avoid it through his knowledge of good. The wisdom of God gives him the latter; the government of God provides for all the rest. Now, in the Proverbs, we have these things in principle and in detail. I have not dwelt on the figurative character of the forms of evil. They are rather principles than figures. But the violent man of the last days is continually found in the Psalms; and Babylon is the full accomplishment of the woman who takes the simple in her snares and leads them down to death; just as Christ is the perfect wisdom of God which leads to life. But these two things which manifest evil proceed from the heart of man at all times since the fall: only we have seen that there is an active development of the wiles of the evil woman, who has her own house and her own arrangements. It is not simply the principle of corruption, but an organised system, as is that of sovereign wisdom.

Proverbs 28:1-28
Proverbs 28 – The Blessings and the Courage of Wisdom
Pro_28:1
The wicked flee when no one pursues,
But the righteous are bold as a lion.
a. The wicked flee when no one pursues: This speaks of a confusion and fear that properly belong to the wicked, not to the godly and wise. This is both because they are under God’s displeasure and because they lack the strength and courage of the Holy Spirit.
i. “The proverb implies that the wicked, prompted by a guilty conscience or a fear of judgment, become fearful and suspicious of everyone.” (Ross)
ii. “God sends a faintness into the hearts of the wicked, and the sound of a shaken leaf frightens them. In arithmetic, of nothing comes nothing, yet they fear where no fear is.” (Trapp)
b. The righteous are bold as a lion: God’s righteous ones stand even when one comes against them, and with God’s strength they are bold as a lion.
i. The righteous: “The straightforward man, like the lion, has no need to look over his shoulder. What is at his heels is not his past (Num_32:23) but his rearguard: God’s goodness and mercy (Psa_23:6).” (Kidner)
ii. “Adam knew no fear until he became a guilty creature. But if guilt brings fear, the removal of guilt gives confidence.” (Bridges)
iii. “Both psychologies are grounded in objective reality. God guarantees the safety of the righteous and dooms the wicked to punishment and disaster.” (Waltke)
Pro_28:2
Because of the transgression of a land, many are its princes;
But by a man of understanding and knowledge
Right will be prolonged.
a. Because of the transgression of a land, many are its princes: To have many princes – rulers, officials – is not seen as a blessing. This speaks of how a large, complex, and multi-layered government can be a curse to a people, sent because of the transgression of a land.
i. “As a result of the land’s total break with the Lord they need a large bureaucracy to keep an eye on one another and/or none survives…. An Arabic curse says, ‘May God make your sheiks many.’” (Waltke)
b. By a man of understanding and knowledge right will be prolonged: Instead of many…princes, God blesses a land with a man of understanding and knowledge. Great and godly leaders can be a wonderful blessing to a nation.
Pro_28:3
A poor man who oppresses the poor
Is like a driving rain which leaves no food.
a. A poor man who oppresses the poor: One might think that a poor man would have great sympathy for others who are poor, but this is not always the case. There are the poor who oppress the poor.
i. “Our Lord illustrates this proverb most beautifully, by the parable of the two debtors, Mat_18:23, etc.… Here the poor oppressed the poor; and what was the consequence? The oppressing poor was delivered to the tormentors; and the forgiven debt charged to his amount, because he showed no mercy. The comparatively poor are often shockingly uncharitable and unfeeling towards the real poor.” (Clarke)
b. Like a driving rain which leaves no food: This destructive rain leaves the people hungry and without hope. So is the effect of a poor man who oppresses the poor.
i. “Put an unprincipled spendthrift in power, and he will be like a destructive flood.” (Bridges)
Pro_28:4
Those who forsake the law praise the wicked,
But such as keep the law contend with them.
a. Those who forsake the law praise the wicked: When the fundamental principles of justice are forsaken, it doesn’t benefit the righteous. It gives benefit and praise to the wicked.
i. Those who forsake the law: “Without revelation, all is soon relative; and with moral relativity, nothing quite merits attack. So, e.g., the tyrant is accepted because he gets things done; and the pervert, because his condition is interesting.” (Kidner)
ii. Praise the wicked: “Praising the wicked may mean calling them good, i.e., no longer able to discern good from evil” (Ross). “As Machiavel doth Caesar Borgia, that bipedum nequissimum, proposing him for a pattern to all Christian princes” (Trapp).
iii. “It is fearful to sin; more fearful to delight in sin; yet more to defend it.” (Bishop Hall, cited in Bridges)
b. Such as keep the law contend with them: Those who do honor and promote the rule of law will resist and oppose the wicked. They understand the principle the Apostle Paul would later explain in Rom_13:1-7, that one reason God gives law and government to men is to restrain the wicked, to contend with them.
i. This proverb presents only two paths: forsake the law or keep the law. “The line dividing humanity is not racial, political or even religious, but spiritual. That line runs through every human heart.” (Waltke)
ii. John Trapp used the phrase contend with them to remember the combative nature of Martin Luther: “It was the speech of blessed Luther, who though he was very earnest to have the communion administered in both kinds, contrary to the doctrine and custom of Rome, yet if the Pope, saith he, as pope, commanded me to receive it in both kinds, I would but receive it in one kind; since to obey what he commands as pope, is a receiving of the mark of the beast.”
Pro_28:5
Evil men do not understand justice,
But those who seek the Lord understand all.
a. Evil men do not understand justice: There are those who are fundamentally evil or wicked, and simply do not understand justice. They do not understand the principles of justice and how they apply to themselves.
i. Do not understand justice: “Because their minds are naturally blind, and are further blinded by their own prejudices and passions, and by the god of this world, who rules in and over them.” (Poole)
ii. “There are always those who believe justice is that which benefits them—otherwise it is not justice.” (Ross)
b. But those who seek the Lord understand all: The godly understand justice and much more. They seek the Lord, fear the Lord, and have His wisdom.
i. “Many things, dark to human reason, are simplified by humility.” (Bridges)
Pro_28:6
Better is the poor who walks in his integrity
Than one perverse in his ways, though he be rich.
a. Better is the poor who walks in his integrity: There are worse things than poverty, and to be a wicked man or woman who does not live in integrity is worse. This is an encouragement to the poor who often are despised.
i. “The verse only contrasts a poor man with integrity and a perverse rich man (see Pro_19:1)—there are rich people with integrity, and there are poor people who are perverse.” (Ross)
b. Than one perverse in his ways, though he be rich: A rich man or woman who is twisted in their life before God or man is worse off than the godly poor person. We are defined more by our character than by our bank account or financial worth.
i. Perverse in his ways: “Hebrew, in two ways; halting between two ways, pretending to virtue, but practising vice; or covering his wicked designs with good pretences; or sometimes erring on one hand, and sometimes on the other, as wicked men commonly do.” (Poole)
ii. “The double dealing rich person first defrauds the poor and the humble and then covers his wrongdoing over by making himself appear righteous.” (Waltke)
iii. “Many will wish that they had lived and died in obscure poverty rather than having been entrusted with riches, which only made them boldly sin with a high hand against God and their own souls.” (Bridges)
Pro_28:7
Whoever keeps the law is a discerning son,
But a companion of gluttons shames his father.
a. Whoever keeps the law is a discerning son: Obedience is a proof of wisdom. Those who claim to be discerning or wise yet live in fundamental disobedience show their folly.
b. A companion of gluttons shames his father: One does not have to be given over to ruinous appetites themselves to be a shame to their family; simply being a companion of such can embarrass the family.
i. “By identifying himself with those who squander all that is precious,—life, food and instruction—the foolish puts to public shame (see 25:8) his father.” (Waltke)
Pro_28:8
One who increases his possessions by usury and extortion
Gathers it for him who will pity the poor.
a. One who increases his possessions by usury and extortion: There are some who become rich through economic violence. They charge high and unfair interest (usury) or they use their power to cheat and steal (extortion).
i. “In the Bible nesek [usury] occurs ten times and refers to the charge for borrowed money, which practice in Biblical times came to about 30% of the amount borrowed.” (Waltke)
ii. Usury: “…the Mosaic law shows that the legitimacy of it depends on its context: what was quite proper in terms of economics (Deu_23:20) was pronounced improper in terms of family care (Deu_23:19).” (Kidner)
iii. Adam Clarke pronounced a sharp curse against those who took advantage of their brothers’ need with usury and extortion: “O that the names of all those unfeeling, hard-hearted, consummate villains in the nation, who thus take advantage of their neighbour”s necessities to enrich themselves, were published at every market cross; and then the delinquents all sent to their brother savages in New Zealand. It would be a happy riddance to the country.”
b. Gathers it for him who will pity the poor: God will not allow these oppressive criminals to have the last word. In the resolution of God’s judgment, the wealth of the wicked is simply gathered for those who have love and pity for the poor.
Pro_28:9
One who turns away his ear from hearing the law,
Even his prayer is an abomination.
a. One who turns away his ear from hearing the law: God wants us to always have an open and attentive ear towards His word (the law). To have no hunger for God’s word or to give it no attention is a sign of spiritual sickness in the child of God.
i. “Many suppose, if they do not know their duty, they shall not be accountable for their transgressions; and therefore avoid every thing that is calculated to enlighten them…. But this pretense will avail them nothing; as he that might have known his master”s will, but would not, shall be treated as he shall be who
did know it, and disobeyed it.” (Clarke)
b. Even his prayer is an abomination: God is not bound to hear or honor the one who neglects His word. Before we would speak to God in prayer we must humbly and attentively listen to His word, or our prayers may be an arrogant abomination.
i. “The prayer certainly will not be a proper prayer; someone who refuses to obey God will not pray according to God’s will—he will pray for some physical thing, perhaps even making demands on God.” (Ross)
Pro_28:10
Whoever causes the upright to go astray in an evil way,
He himself will fall into his own pit;
But the blameless will inherit good.
a. Whoever causes the upright to go astray in an evil way: There are those who take pleasure in causing the godly to go astray. It makes them feel better and perhaps superior to those who are upright.
i. Causes the upright to go astray: “This attracted some of Christ’s strongest words: see Mat_5:19; Mat_18:6; Mat_23:15.” (Kidner)
b. He himself will fall into his own pit: God has a way of protecting His upright, even if they seem to, or actually do, go astray for a time. God knows how to put the wicked in their place (his own pit) and He knows how to make sure that the blameless will inherit good. God does not leave the final word to the wicked man with his evil plans.
i. “He who strives to pervert one really converted to God, in order that he may pour contempt on religion, shall fall into that hell to which he has endeavoured to lead the other.” (Clarke)
ii. “The line shows that the wicked will be caught in their own devices; but it also shows that the righteous are corruptible—they can be led into morally bad conduct.” (Ross)
Pro_28:11
The rich man is wise in his own eyes,
But the poor who has understanding searches him out.
a. The rich man is wise in his own eyes: It is not unusual for a rich man to be proud, and to think himself wise. Other proverbs explain that wisdom often leads to wealth, but not every rich man has gained his wealth through wisdom.
i. “Although riches do not always bring wisdom, the rich man often pretends to have it and ascribes his success to his own sagacity, though he may be manifestly simple and foolish.” (Bridges)
b. The poor man who has understanding searches him out: The poor man with wisdom stands above the rich man with a fool’s pride. That wise poor man may examine the rich man (searches him out), not the other way around.
i. The poor who has understanding: There are some lessons only poverty can teach, and one should never forget those lessons, even if they become wealthy.
ii. “Yet the universe does not possess a more dignified character than the poor man who has discernment. Did not the incarnate Lord honor this station supremely by taking it on himself? To walk in his footsteps, in his spirit, is wisdom, honor, and happiness infinitely beyond what this poor world of vanity can afford.” (Bridges)
iii. Searches him out: “Knoweth him better than he knoweth himself; and, looking through all his pomp and vain show, he sees him to be what indeed he is, a foolish and miserable man, notwithstanding all his riches, and discovers the folly of his words and actions.” (Poole)
Pro_28:12
When the righteous rejoice, there is great glory;
But when the wicked arise, men hide themselves.
a. When the righteous rejoice, there is great glory: When those who live with wisdom and righteousness rejoice because of the condition of their community, it is good for everyone. There is great glory.
b. When the wicked arise, men hide themselves: Even wicked men don’t want to be ruled by other wicked men. A culture may live off the inheritance of a previous righteous generation, but when the wicked arise those benefits and the freedoms righteousness brings will slowly diminish.
i. “Thus the man Moses fled and hid himself from Pharaoh, David from Saul, Elijah from Ahab, Obadiah’s clients from Jezebel, Jeremiah from Jehoiakim, Joseph and the child Jesus from Herod.” (Trapp)
ii. Men hide themselves: “The state of that nation is so shameful and dangerous, that wise and good men, who only are worthy of the name of men, withdraw themselves, or run into corners and obscure places; partly out of grief and shame to behold the wickedness which is publicly and impudently committed; and partly to avoid the rage and injuries of wicked oppressors.” (Poole)
iii. The righteous rejoice…the wicked arise: “The first was the case in this country, in the days of Edward VI; the second in the days of his successor, Mary I. Popery, cruelty, and knavery, under her, nearly destroyed the Church and the State in these islands.” (Clarke)
Pro_28:13
He who covers his sins will not prosper,
But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
a. He who covers his sins will not prosper: Since Adam and Eve, human instinct leads us to cover our sins. Our conscience makes us ashamed of our sin and we don’t want others to see it. We even think we can hide it from God. Yet, this natural instinct to cover sin doesn’t benefit us. It prevents us from being real about our condition before God.
i. In a sermon on this proverb, Charles Spurgeon described some of the many ways men attempt to cover their sin – all of them in vain.

• Excuses and justifications.
• Secrecy.
• Lies.
• Schemes to evade responsibility.
• Time.
• Tears.
• Ceremonies or sacraments.
  ii. He who covers his sins: “Out of his sinful pride he pretends before God and people that he has no need to confess; instead, he seeks to deceive.” (Waltke)
  iii. “Sin and shifting came into the world together. Sin and Satan are alike in this, they cannot abide to appear in their own colour.” (Trapp)
  iv. “God and man each conceal sin—God in free unbounded grace, man in shame and hypocrisy.” (Bridges)
  b. But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy: The path to receiving God’s mercy is to confess and repent (forsake) our sin. This is the way to prosper spiritually and in life in general and receive God’s mercy.
  i. “Confession is to take God”s side against sin. It is the lifting out of one thing after another from heart and life, and holding them for a moment before God, with the acknowledgment that it is our fault, our grievous fault.” (Meyer)
  ii. The Biblical practice of confessing sin can free us from the heavy burdens (spiritual and physical, as in Jas_5:16) of unresolved sin, and it can remove hindrances to the work of the Holy Spirit. It is a tragedy when the confession of sin is neglected or ignored among believers, and a cause of much spiritual weakness and hypocrisy.
  iii. “Confess the debt, and God will cross the book; he will draw the red lines of Christ’s blood over the black lines of our sins, and cancel the handwriting that was against us.” (Trapp)
  iv. In his commentary on James, Moffatt described how this was practiced in the early church: “Now, in the primitive church this was openly done as a rule, before the congregation. The earliest manual of the church practice prescribes: ‘you must confess your sins in church, and not betake yourself to prayer with a bad conscience’ (Didache iv.).” (Moffatt)
  v. According to Moffatt, the English Prayer Book instructs that the minister is to give this invitation before the communion service: “Let him come to me or to some other discreet and learned minister of God’s Word, and open his grief; that by the ministry of God’s holy Word he may receive the benefit of absolution.” There can be great value to opening one’s grief.
  vi. The great conviction of sin and the subsequent confession of sin are common during times of spiritual awakening. Charles Finney urged and described the confession of sin. In the North China revivals under Jonathan Goforth, confession was almost invariably the prelude to blessing; one writer describing the significant Korean revivals associated with Goforth wrote: “We may have our theories of the desirability or undesirability of public confession of sin. I have had mine, but I know that when the Spirit of God falls upon guilty souls, there will be confession, and no power on earth can stop it.” (from Calling to Remembrance by William Newton Blair)
  vii. Public confession of sin has the potential for great good or bad. Some guiding principles can help.
• Confession should be made to the one sinned against. “Most Christians display a preference for confession in secret before God, even concerning matters which involve other people. To confess to God seems to them to be the easiest way out. If offenders were really conscious of the presence of God, even secret confession of private sin would have a good effect. Alas, most offenders merely commune with themselves instead of making contact with God, who refuses their prayers under certain conditions. In the words of our Lord, it is clear that sin involving another person should be confessed to that person.” (J. Edwin Orr)
• Confession should often be public. Jas_5:16 illustrates this principle. A.T. Robertson, the great Greek scholar, says that in Jas_5:16 the odd tense of the Greek verb “confess” in this verse implies group confession rather than private confession. It is confession “ones to others” not “one to one other.”
• Public confession must be discrete. Often the confession needs to be no more than what is necessary to enlist prayer. It can be enough to say publicly, “Pray for me, I need victory over my besetting sin.” It would be wrong to go into more detail, but saying this much is important. It keeps us from being “let’s pretend Christians” who act as if everything is fine when it isn’t. “Almost all sexual transgressions are either secret or private and should be so confessed. A burden too great to bear may be shared with a pastor or doctor or a friend of the same sex. Scripture discourages even the naming of immorality among believers, and declares that it is a shame even to speak of things done in secret by the immoral.” (Orr)
• Distinguish between secret sins and those which directly affect others. Orr gives a good principle: “If you sin secretly, confess secretly, admitting publicly that you need the victory but keeping details to yourself. If you sin openly confess openly to remove stumbling blocks from those whom you have hindered. If you have sinned spiritually (prayerlessness, lovelessness, and unbelief as well as their offspring, criticism, etc.) then confess to the church that you have been a hindrance.” (J. Edwin Orr)
• Confession is often made to people, but before God. At the same time, we notice that Jas_5:16 says “confess your trespasses to one another.” One of the interesting things about confession of sin as noted in the writings of J. Edwin Orr is that the confessions are almost always addressed to people, not to God. It isn’t that you confess your sin to God and others merely hear. You confess your sin before others and ask them to pray for you to get it right before God.
• Confession should be appropriately specific. When open confession of sin is appropriate – more than the public stating of spiritual need but confessing open sin or sin against the church – it must be specific. “If I made any mistakes, I’m sorry” is no confession of sin at all. You sinned specifically, so confess specifically. “It costs nothing for a church member to admit in a prayer meeting: ‘I am not what I ought to be.’ It costs no more to say: ‘I ought to be a better Christian.’ It costs something to say: ‘I have been a trouble-maker in this church.’ It costs something to say: ‘I have had bitterness of heart towards certain leaders, to whom I shall definitely apologise.’” (Orr, Full Surrender)
• Confession should be thorough. “Some confessions are not thorough. They are too general. They are not made to the persons concerned. They neglect completely the necessary restitution. Or they make no provision for a different course of conduct in which the sin is forsaken. They are endeavours for psychological relief.” (Orr)
• Confession must have honesty and integrity. If we confess with no real intention of battling the sin, our confession isn’t thorough and it mocks God. The story is told of an Irishman who confessed to his priest that he had stolen two bags of potatoes. The priest had heard the gossip around town and said to the man, “Mike, I heard it was only one bag of potatoes stolen from the market.” The Irishman replied, “That’s true Father, but it was so easy that I plan on taking another tomorrow night.” By all means, avoid phony confession – confession without true brokenness or sorrow. If it isn’t deeply real, it isn’t any good.
• One need not fear that public confession of sin will inevitably get out of hand. Orr tells of a time when a woman was overwrought by deep sorrow for sin and became hysterical. He saw the danger immediately and told her, “Quiet, sister. Turn your eyes on Jesus.” She did and the danger of extreme emotion was avoided.
• Those who hear a confession of sin also have a great responsibility. Those who hear the confession should have the proper response: loving, intercessory prayer, and not human wisdom, gossiping, or “sharing” the need with others.
  viii. Real, deep, genuine confession of sin has been a feature of every genuine awakening or revival in the past 250 years. But it isn’t anything new, as demonstrated by the revival in Ephesus recorded in Act_19:17-20. It says, many who believed came confessing and telling their deeds. This was Christians getting right with God, and open confession was part of it.
  ix. “Confession is the soul’s vomit, and those that use it shall not only have ease of conscience, but God’s best comforts and cordials to restore them again.” (Trapp)
  Pro_28:14
  Happy is the man who is always reverent,
  But he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
  a. Happy is the man who is always reverent: Sadly, reverence and happiness are not commonly associated together. The reverent man is often thought to be sour and unpleasant. Nevertheless, to the degree that one can be always reverent, he can be genuinely happy.
  i. Always reverent: “In all times, companies, and conditions; not only in the time of great trouble, when even hypocrites will in some sort be afraid of sinning, but in times of outward peace and prosperity.” (Poole)
  b. He who hardens his heart will fall into calamity: Here, reverence and hardness of heart are set as opposites. A man who hardens his heart will not be a truly reverent man, but he will fall into calamity either in this life or the life to come.
  i. Hardens his heart: “When one hardens his heart his psyche can no longer feel, respond, and opt for a new direction. The hardened heart is fixed in unbelief and unbending defiance to God (Exo_7:3; Psa_95:8); insensible to admonition or reproof it cannot be moved to a new sphere of behavior.” (Waltke)
  ii. “When that fear [reverent] is absent, courage is mere hardening of the heart, recklessness, foolhardiness. The man who shuts his eyes to God, gathers himself up, and desperately plunges forward, is no hero; he is a fool, and without exception sooner or later lands himself in circumstances which break him; and brings those about him into suffering and catastrophe.” (Morgan)
  Pro_28:15-16
  Like a roaring lion and a charging bear
  Is a wicked ruler over poor people.
  A ruler who lacks understanding is a great oppressor,
  But he who hates covetousness will prolong his days.
  a. Like a roaring lion and a charging bear: With these vivid images, Solomon described the effect of a wicked ruler over poor people. The wicked ruler treats those of low standing (poor people) with unpredictable, uncontrollable ferocity. He is dangerous toward them.
  i. “Look how the lion frightens the poor beasts with his roaring, so that they have no power to stir, and then preys upon them with his teeth; and as the bear searches them out and tears them limb from limb: so deal tyrants with their poor subjects.” (Trapp)
  ii. “Because tyrants are like this, animal imagery (beast imagery?) is used in Dan_7:1-8 for the series of ruthless world rulers. The poor crumple under such tyrants because they cannot meet their demands.” (Ross)
  b. A ruler who lacks understanding is a great oppressor: The foolish ruler (the one who lacks understanding) will oppress his people. His reign will be unhappy and insecure because of the foolish way he leads his people.
  i. “The tyranny or oppression of a prince, though by some accounted wisdom, is in truth a manifest act and sign of great folly, because it alienateth from him the hearts of his people, in which his honour, and safety, and riches consist.” (Poole)
  ii. “No sentiment of pity softens his heart. No principle of justice regulates his conduct. Complaint only provokes further exactions. Resistance kindles his unfeeling heart into savage fury. Helpless and miserable indeed are the people whom divine anger has placed under his misrule.” (Paxton, cited in Bridges)
  c. He who hates covetousness will prolong his days: If a man is wise enough to hate covetousness, he will likely be wise in other responsibilities as a ruler. It is likely that his days as a ruler will be prolonged.
  Pro_28:17
  A man burdened with bloodshed will flee into a pit;
  Let no one help him.
  a. A man burdened with bloodshed will flee into a pit: We can suppose this may happen because the man burdened with bloodshed has a guilty, anxious mind that clouds and confuses his thinking, and he ends up in a pit. Or, it may happen because God’s curse is on the man burdened with bloodshed.
  i. “The proverb states that the offender himself (like the smitten Azariah, 2Ch_26:20) hastens to his punishment, once his conscience is awake.” (Kidner)
  ii. Flee into a pit: “Shall speedily be destroyed, being pursued by Divine vengeance, and the horrors of a guilty conscience, and the avengers of blood.” (Poole)
  b. Let no one help him: As the man guilty of bloodshed falls into the consequences of his own actions, let no one help him. Often it is best to let people suffer the consequences of their sins.
  i. Let no one help him: “He who either slays the innocent, or procures his destruction, may flee to hide himself: but let none give him protection. The law demands his life, because he is a murderer; and let none deprive justice of its claim.” (Clarke)
  ii. “Protests against all capital punishment is misnamed philanthropy. Shall man pretend to be more merciful than God? Pity is misplaced here. The murderer, therefore, of his brother is his own murderer. Let God’s law take its course.” (Bridges)
  iii. Charles Bridges was careful to add: “Yet we must not cast out his soul. Visiting the condemned cell is a special exercise of mercy. While we bow to the stern justice of the great Lawgiver, joyous indeed it is to bring to the sinner under the sentence of the law the free forgiveness of the Gospel; not as annulling his sin, but showing the over-abounding of grace beyond the abounding of sin.”
  Pro_28:18
  Whoever walks blamelessly will be saved,
  But he who is perverse in his ways will suddenly fall.
  a. Whoever walks blamelessly will be saved: This proverb probably does not have eternal salvation in mind; instead, the idea is being saved or rescued from the calamities and troubles of life. Especially under the old covenant, God’s blessing and protection was upon those who walk blamelessly.
  b. He who is perverse in his ways will suddenly fall: The one who is twisted and crooked in his dealings can’t expect God’s blessing and protection. That crooked, twisted person should expect to suddenly fall one day.
  Pro_28:19
  He who tills his land will have plenty of bread,
  But he who follows frivolity will have poverty enough!
  a. He who tills his land will have plenty of bread: The reward of work is a harvest. The one who tills his land will enjoy the harvest that comes, and therefore have plenty of bread.
  i. “If we are not to be lazy in business but fervent in spirit, in this world and in all its concerns, how much more we need to be like this in the momentous concerns of eternity!” (Bridges)
  b. But he who follows frivolity will have poverty enough: The one who ignores his work to have a good time (following frivolity) will not enjoy the fruit of the harvest the way the hard-working man will. Instead of plenty of bread, the lazy, frivolous man will have plenty of poverty. The Prodigal Son was a fulfillment of this (Luk_15:13-17).
  i. “There is a meaningful repetition here: the diligent person will have ‘plenty [yisba] of bread,’ but the lazy person will have ‘plenty [
  yisba] of poverty’.” (Ross)
  Pro_28:20
  A faithful man will abound with blessings,
  But he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.
  a. A faithful man will abound with blessings: This is true as a general principle; faithfulness and obedience to God’s law brings blessings. It was especially true under the old covenant, where God promised blessings on the obedient and curses on the disobedient (Deuteronomy 27-28).
  i. The faithful man will abound: “The man who makes fidelity the master principle will be rewarded. He who makes accumulation of wealth the master passion will be punished.” (Morgan)
  b. He who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished: The one who hastens to be rich is almost always willing to cheat or compromise to gain wealth. God promises that this one will be punished, either in this life or the next.
  i. He who hastens to be rich: “While not condemning possessions in themselves, Proverbs always rejects greed. It contrasts financial prudence, diligence, and generosity with the desire for quick and easy money.” (Garrett)
  ii. “Even if no criminal means are resorted to, yet the immoderate desire, the perseverance in every track of Mammon, the laboring night and day for the grand object, and the delight and confidence in the acquisition all prove the idolatrous heart and will not go unpunished.” (Bridges)
  Pro_28:21
  To show partiality is not good,
  Because for a piece of bread a man will transgress.
  a. To show partiality is not good: In the court of law and in our daily dealings with people, we should not show partiality. We should be those who do not favor or condemn others based on their race, class, nationality, or influence.
  b. Because for a piece of bread a man will transgress: Because justice and the opinion of others can be easily bought, we should determine that we will not be bribed for partiality and we should be aware that others may be easily bought.
  i. For a piece of bread: “For a trifle he will transgress, and sell his soul dog cheap for a groat, or less money.” (Trapp)
  ii. “The price can go still lower, to as little as the fancied approval of a stronger personality; and the preacher (Eze_13:19) is as vulnerable as the judge.” (Kidner)
  Pro_28:22
  A man with an evil eye hastens after riches,
  And does not consider that poverty will come upon him.
  a. A man with an evil eye hastens after riches: The stingy, ungenerous man will run after riches with the same energy that he will use to selfishly hold on to what he has.
  b. And does not consider that poverty will come upon him: Because God’s blessing does not rest on the stingy, ungenerous man, poverty will come upon him – and he will not consider or expect it.
  i. “The Lord will see to it that only conscientious and compassionate people finally hold wealth in his kingdom.” (Waltke)
  Pro_28:23
  He who rebukes a man will find more favor afterward
  Than he who flatters with the tongue.
  a. He who rebukes a man will find more favor afterward: It may be necessary to rebuke a man, but it is to invite his displeasure. Still, it should be done in confidence that when done well, the one who rebukes will find more favor afterward.
  b. Than he who flatters with the tongue: The one who rebukes may not be as welcomed as he who flatters, but the sacrificial service of he who rebukes will bring him into more favor than the one who always praises.
  Pro_28:24
  Whoever robs his father or his mother,
  And says, “It is no transgression,”
  The same is companion to a destroyer.
  a. Whoever robs his father or his mother: There are some who have little conscience about stealing from their parents. Out of some sense of entitlement, they rob them and then say, “It is no transgression.”
  i. Robs his father or mother: “As that idolatrous Micah did his mother of her gold; [Jdg_17:2] as Rachel did her father of his gods; as Absalom did David of his crown.” (Trapp)
  ii. “He who robs his parents is worse than a common robber; to the act of dishonesty and rapine he adds ingratitude, cruelty, and disobedience.” (Clarke)
  iii. “He may rationalize, ‘eventually it all comes to me anyway’…or ‘they can no longer manage their finances,’ or ‘as a family we own everything in common,’ etc.” (Waltke)
  b. The same is companion to a destroyer: Despite whatever sense of entitlement the thief may have, they are right next to a destroyer, someone who spreads and even loves destruction.
  i. “The language is strong. The word for ‘robs’ could be rendered ‘plunders.’ ‘Him who destroys’ is someone who causes havoc in society.” (Garrett)
  Pro_28:25
  He who is of a proud heart stirs up strife,
  But he who trusts in the Lord will be prospered.
  a. He who is of a proud heart stirs up strife: A proud man or woman is constantly causing strife because they want the attention and preeminence. That doesn’t agree with most people, so there is strife.
  i. Stirs up strife: “Because he makes it his great business to advance and please himself, and hateth and opposeth all that stand in his way, and despiseth other men, and is very jealous of his honour, and impatient of the least slighting, or affront, or injury, and indulgeth his own passions.” (Poole)
  ii. “The greedy person’s insatiable appetite brings him into conflict with others, for he transgresses social boundaries. Not content with his portion, he becomes disruptive and destructive, and whose person and property he violates fight back.” (Waltke)
  b. He who trusts in the Lord shall be prospered: To trust in the Lord is presented as a contrast to the proud heart. That one should expect to be prospered, as they humbly trust God and forsake pride.
  i. “By contrast, those who trust in Yahweh can wait for their appetites to be satisfied, cause no discord, and in fact will be satisfied.” (Garrett)
  Pro_28:26
  He who trusts in his own heart is a fool,
  But whoever walks wisely will be delivered.
  a. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool: There is a strong urge – promoted to us by the world, the flesh, and the devil – to trust our own heart and to “follow our heart” instead of humbly receiving our values, morals, and wisdom from God’s word. This trusting in our own heart leads one to be a fool. For answers, values, and guidance we should not look within, but look to the Lord.
  i. He who trusts in his own heart: “To trust an impostor who has deceived us a hundred times or a traitor who has proved himself false to our most important interests is surely to deserve the name of fool. This name, therefore, the Scriptures, using great plainness of speech, give to the person who trusts in himself.” (Bridges)
  ii. A fool: “For his heart, which is deceitful and desperately wicked, will infallibly deceive him.” (Clarke)
  b. Whoever walks wisely will be delivered: In contrast to trusting our own heart, we should instead give attention to walking wisely. Instead of operating on the basis of how we feel, we should direct ourselves to wise living in what we do.
  i. Walks wisely: “Distrusting his own judgment, and seeking the advice of others, and especially of God, as all truly wise men do, he shall be delivered from those dangers and mischiefs which fools bring upon themselves; whereby he showeth himself to be a wise man.” (Poole)
  ii. “The teaching here recalls the wise and foolish builders of Mat_7:24-27.” (Garrett)
  Pro_28:27
  He who gives to the poor will not lack,
  But he who hides his eyes will have many curses.
  a. He who gives to the poor will not lack: God promises to bless the generous heart, and one way that generosity should be expressed is to give to the poor.
  i. Will not lack: “Not getting but giving is the way to wealth. God will bless the bountiful man’s stock and store, his barn and his basket; [Deu_15:10] his righteousness and his riches together shall endure for ever. [Psa_112:3].” (Trapp)
  b. He who hides his eyes will have many curses: God will not bless the one who ignores the troubles of the poor and needy.
  i. He who hides his eyes: “Describes an attitude which is very common, though popularly supposed not to be wrong. To hide the eyes means to refuse to see poverty. It is the sin of those who say they are too sensitive to visit the slums.” (Morgan)
  ii. Many curses: “Men shall curse him, and call him a Pamphagus, a churl, a hog in a trough, a fellow of no fashion, etc. God shall also curse him, and set off all hearts from him.” (Trapp)
  Pro_28:28
  When the wicked arise, men hide themselves;
  But when they perish, the righteous increase.
  a. When the wicked arise, men hide themselves: When wicked men come to places of prominence and rule, it is bad for the community. Freedom and blessing to the community are much less present and in response, men hide themselves.
  b. When they perish, the righteous increase: When the wicked and their influence pass, the righteous increase, along with their influence. This is a blessing for a community or a nation.
  i. The righteous increase: “They who were righteous do now again appear in public, and being advanced to that power which the wicked rulers have lost, they use their authority to encourage and promote righteousness, and to punish unrighteousness, whereby the number of wicked men is diminished, and the righteous are multiplied.” (Poole)
  ii. “When the righteous increase in number and power, the people come out of their hiding…. This was the case during the reign of Hezekiah, whose men collected these proverbs (Pro_25:1; 2 Chronicles 29-30, esp. 30:13-27; cf. Est_8:17; Act_12:23-24).” (Waltke)
  iii. “In the early ages of the Christian church, after the death of the persecuting Herod, the Word of God grew and multiplied.” (Bridges)

Proverbs 28:1
CONTENTS
The wise man is prosecuting the same subjects in this chapter as in the preceding. By various similitudes he teacheth the blessedness of wisdom’s ways, and the awful termination of a contrary conduct.
Pro_28:1-5 The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion. For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof: but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged. A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food. They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them. Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD understand all things.
The sentiments contained in those verses, are all so plain as to require no comment. And nothing can be more happily chosen than in this way of parable, to shew the life of grace in its consequences, and the life of sin in its eventual ruin. The Reader will not fail, I hope, to perceive that what is said of seeking the Lord, as resulting from an understanding in all things, carries with it a correspondence to the same conduct as the praying seed of Jacob in all ages have adopted in seeking the Lord’s face in the Lord’s strength. Christ is the way, and the truth, and the life. And all his seed seek salvation in this way, and in none other. Psa_27:8; Joh_14:6.

Proverbs 28:6-14
Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich. Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son: but he that is a companion of riotous men shameth his father. He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit: but the upright shall have good things in possession. The rich man is wise in his own conceit; but the poor that hath understanding searcheth him out. When righteous men do rejoice, there is great glory: but when the wicked rise, a man is hidden. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.
I stay not to point out the several very striking testimonies which are contained in these verses. I hope the reader will read them through the medium of the gospel; and then he will discover how sure the promises are, which in Christ Jesus are all yea, and Amen. Who are the poor here spoken of, but the poor in spirit who are rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom? And who is the wise son, but he that keepeth an eye upon Christ the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. In like manner, if the whole be interpreted by the gospel, we shall find much sweetness in every one. Jas_2:5; Rom_10:4

Proverbs 28:15-28
As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people. The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor: but he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days. A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; let no man stay him. Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved: but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once. He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough. A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. To have respect of persons is not good: for for a piece of bread that man will transgress. He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him. He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue. Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer. He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse. When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase.
If the Reader will go diligently over the whole chapter, and read the several parts of it with an eye to Jesus, I venture to assure him that in many places, where he might be at first led to suppose there was least of Christ, he would still find somewhat leading to him. Surely it is blessed to be always upon the look out for him. And if we have but a glimpse of the king in his beauty; if we behold but his shade as he passeth by, it will be an ample recompence to our utmost diligence. Isa_33:17; Pro_8:17.

Proverbs 28:28
REFLECTIONS
READER! I take occasion from the view of this chapter, and the contents of it, to remind your heart, and my own, how truly blessed it must be to find Christ in his hidden word; and what distinguishing tokens of favour it brings with it, when this is the case. And, indeed, may we not suppose, that if some portions of scripture are made more obscure than others, it is with a design to call up the more awakened attention of the Lord’s people; that when Christ is discovered in them, the joy of having found him, may be more blessed. Is not this like the riddle of Samson, Out of the eater cometh forth meat; and out of the strong cometh forth sweetness?
Precious Jesus! may my soul know thee as the way to the Father, the truth, and the life eternal! And may my soul be always found in this way, walking in it, and enjoying all divine comforts in it. Yes, blessed Lord! this is the highway which the Prophet was commanded to tell the church should be thrown open, and which should be called the way of holiness. And while the foolish see it not, and the proud despise it, and the unclean shall not pass over it. T he wayfaring men, though fools, in human sciences, and human knowledge, shall not err therein. Blessed God! do thou strengthen me more and more in this way, that I may walk up and down in thy Name.