Proverbs 16:13

These verses stand in the long collection of Solomon’s proverbs that runs from Proverbs 10:1–22:16, in a chapter that keeps returning to the LORD’s rule over human plans. It opens with that rule (Proverbs 16:1), comes back to it in Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps”, and closes with the lot, whose decision is the LORD’s (Proverbs 16:33). Right after verse 9 the sayings turn to the man with more power than anyone else in the land, and every verse of the passage except verse 11 names the king. Even a king’s words and judgments are under God’s direction, for Proverbs says elsewhere that the king’s heart is in the LORD’s hand (Proverbs 21:1). The chapter then goes on to the worth of wisdom itself (Proverbs 16:16).

In Israel the king was the nation’s ruler, its military leader and its highest judge. He settled disputes and issued decrees, his word was law, and his judgments could mean life or death. The nations around Israel often treated their kings as gods or as the gods’ representatives. Israel’s king was the LORD’s servant, bound to rule by God’s covenant and laws, and Moses set out the king’s duties under that law (Deuteronomy 17:18–20). So these verses describe the king as God intends him to be, and they also teach the people who stand before him: those who speak to him, those who face his anger and those who live in his favour.

“A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment.” The words “divine sentence” translate qeçem, which usually means divination or an oracle. Elsewhere in the Old Testament it is often used of forbidden practices, and here it is used in a good sense, of a decision that carries God’s authority. A king who rules in obedience to the LORD gives judgments so wise and just that they sound like a word from God, and his decisions agree with God’s will.

The word for king, melek, is the ordinary word for a king, and here it means the man who holds the highest power and the heaviest responsibility in the land. His “lips” and “mouth” are his speech, his public rulings and his decrees. The word for “judgment”, mishpâṭ, covers a verdict, a sentence, a decree, justice itself, and a person’s right. To transgress in judgment is to turn aside from what is right when giving a verdict, and this king keeps to what is right.

Solomon is the picture of such a king. He asked God for an understanding heart to judge the people (1 Kings 3:9), and his wisdom was God’s gift. A psalm asks God to make the king righteous in his rule (Psalm 72:1–4), and other proverbs describe the king who scatters evil from before his throne of judgment (Proverbs 20:8) and who establishes the land by judgment (Proverbs 29:4). Behind every just verdict stands the LORD, who is his people’s judge, lawgiver and king (Isaiah 33:22).

“A just weight and balance are the LORD’S: all the weights of the bag are his work.” In Israel’s markets, goods and precious metals were weighed on scales. A merchant carried a bag of stones or metal pieces as his weights, and a cheat could use false weights to rob his customers. The law of Moses commanded honest weights and measures (Leviticus 19:36, Deuteronomy 25:13–16), and Proverbs calls a false balance an abomination to the LORD (Proverbs 11:1). This verse grounds those laws in the LORD himself, because the honest scale is his.

The word “balance”, môʼzên, is always dual in form and means a pair of scales, the instrument of weighing itself. The word “just” here is mishpâṭ, the same word that stands for the king’s “judgment” in verse 10. So the merchant’s scale and the king’s verdict answer to one standard, and it belongs to God. The word “work”, maʻăseh, means a deed, a piece of work or workmanship. Calling every weight in the bag his work puts even the smallest tool of trade under God’s eye, so that cheating with a false weight is an offence against the LORD as well as against the buyer.

Fairness comes from God and reflects his own righteous and truthful character, and he cares about the plain details of buying and selling as truly as he cares about worship. Micah names justice first among the things the LORD requires of his people (Micah 6:8), and Paul tells believers to do whatever they do heartily, as to the Lord (Colossians 3:23). That includes the weighing.

“It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness.” “Abomination”, tôwʻêbah, means something detestable and utterly wrong. It is a strong word, used elsewhere for idolatry, for sexual sin and for the false balance of Proverbs 11:1, and Proverbs also calls the sacrifice of the wicked an abomination to the LORD (Proverbs 15:8). Here a king who reflects God’s character finds it detestable to commit wickedness, resha, which covers moral wrong, injustice and guilt. His hatred of injustice and corruption runs as deep as a moral revulsion.

The reason follows. The “throne”, kisseʼ, is the seat of the king’s authority and judgment, and it stands for his whole reign. “Established” is kûwn, a verb whose root sense is to stand upright, and which means to set up, to fix firmly and to make sure. “Righteousness”, tsᵉdâqâh, is rightness in the widest sense: uprightness in the king himself, justice in his dealings, virtue in his conduct, and the prosperity that follows from them. A reign built on righteousness stands firm and lasts, and one founded on deceit and oppression falls. Proverbs says the same when it sets the king who judges justly beside the one who takes bribes and overthrows the land (Proverbs 29:4).

This is how God’s own throne stands, for the psalms say that righteousness and judgment are its foundation (Psalm 89:14, Psalm 97:2). A king’s hatred of wickedness mirrors God’s. Paul teaches that the powers that be are ordained of God and serve him (Romans 13:1–7), so every ruler is accountable to him. The proverb speaks of kings, and its principle holds wherever there is authority. A government, a business, a church or a family stands firm when it is built on what is right.

“Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaketh right.” A king’s court was the centre of power and decision, and often of intrigue. Flattery, deceit and self-serving advice were constant dangers, because the counsel a king received shaped the whole kingdom. A king who cares about justice wants advisers who tell him the truth.

“Righteous” is tsedeq, rightness and justice in conduct, in judgment, in speech, and in honest weights. Righteous lips speak what is true and just. “Delight” is râtsôwn, pleasure, favour and acceptance, especially as shown by someone in authority, so righteous speech wins the king’s approval and gives him real satisfaction. In the second line his favour passes from the words to the speaker. “Love” is ʼâhab, to love and to have affection for, and “right” is yâshâr, straight or upright. The man who speaks right is the one whose words run straight and true, and the king trusts him and grows fond of him.

The king who hates wickedness in his own conduct (verse 12) loves rightness in the people who speak to him. Another proverb says that the king will be the friend of the man who loves pureness of heart and has grace on his lips (Proverbs 22:11), and Proverbs teaches that death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21).

The word “kings” names the highest authority in Israel, and what the verse says holds for anyone who leads. A wise leader values honest counsel, and a person who wants a leader’s trust earns it by speaking the truth. The New Testament asks the same of every believer’s speech, that it build others up (Ephesians 4:29) and be always with grace, seasoned with salt (Colossians 4:6).

“The wrath of a king is as messengers of death: but a wise man will pacify it.” Right after the king’s delight comes his anger. “Wrath” is chêmâh, which means heat, rage, and also poison, a burning anger that can do deadly harm. A king held the power of life and death, his decrees were final, and his displeasure could bring swift punishment that could be undone by nobody. Another proverb speaks of the terror a king’s anger brings (Proverbs 20:2), and the courtiers and common people of a kingdom lived with that danger.

“In the light of the king’s countenance is life; and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain.” “Light” is ʼôwr, illumination or brightness, and “countenance” is pânîym, the face, a word plural in form and always used as a singular, which also carries the sense of presence. A king’s face showed his mind. A bright face meant favour, and a darkened face meant displeasure or wrath. When the king looks on someone with pleasure, that person has “life”, chay, living in the full sense of well-being, security and flourishing that Proverbs promises to those who keep wisdom’s teaching (Proverbs 3:1–2). The king’s goodwill reaches his people through his decisions and his rule, and it can make the difference between hardship and plenty.

“Favour” is râtsôwn, the same word translated “delight” in verse 13, and the king’s favour is like rain. The “latter rain”, malqôwsh, fell in spring, around March and April, and gave the grain the last moisture it needed to ripen. When it came on time the harvest was full, and when it failed there was famine. A cloud of the latter rain was a welcome sight and a promise of life. God promised Israel the rain of their land in its season (Deuteronomy 11:14), and Hosea says the LORD will come to his people like the latter and former rain (Hosea 6:3).

This verse answers verse 14. The king’s anger sends death, and his favour brings life. Behind both stands a greater King. The priests blessed Israel with the words “The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee” (Numbers 6:25), and the psalmist prays, “LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us” (Psalm 4:6). The favour of an earthly king is a small likeness of God’s favour, which is the source of all true life.

Every human king falls short of these verses, and Jesus Christ fulfils them perfectly. He is the Word who was with God and was God (John 1:1), so a divine sentence is truly in his lips. Isaiah foretold the King on whom the Spirit of the LORD would rest, whose judgment would be righteous and true (Isaiah 11:3–4), and the Father has given the Son authority to execute judgment (John 5:27).

Christ came to fulfil the law and the prophets (Matthew 5:17), and he drove the money changers out of the temple, which they had turned from a house of prayer into a place of robbery (Matthew 21:12–13). He hated wickedness and “did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). His throne is for ever (Hebrews 1:8), his government is upheld with judgment and justice for ever (Isaiah 9:7), and his kingdom is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17).

He always spoke the truth (John 8:45–46), and the Father said of him, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17, Matthew 17:5). Peter knew that he had the words of eternal life (John 6:68), and those who follow him learn to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).

Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24, 1:30). The wise man of verse 14 covers a king’s anger, and Christ by his death turned away the righteous wrath of God against our sin. God set him forth as a propitiation (Romans 3:25), we are saved from wrath through him (Romans 5:9), and through the blood of his cross God has made peace and reconciled all things to himself (Colossians 1:19–20). He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

The light of his face is life. He is the light of the world (John 8:12), he came that we might have life more abundantly (John 10:10), and he is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). He is King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16), and he judges and makes war in righteousness (Revelation 19:11).

These verses show that the LORD cares about the courtroom and the marketplace alike, down to the stones in a trader’s bag. Justice in a king’s verdict and honesty in a merchant’s scale come from the same God and answer to the same standard. They give everyone who holds authority, in a nation, a business, a church or a home, a clear picture of what that authority is for. They give the rest of us reason to pray for our leaders and to speak the truth to them, and they teach that a wise word at the right moment can turn away anger and save a life.

Above all they show us the King we have in Christ. His judgments are always right, his throne stands on righteousness for ever, he loves the truth, and the wrath we deserved has been turned away through his cross. Where earthly judgment falls short, his stands true, and the light of his face is life, as welcome as the rain before harvest.