Proverbs 24:28

The first words of verse 23 are a heading. Proverbs has a long section of sayings of the wise that begins in chapter 22, and this heading adds a second, shorter group to it, which runs to the end of chapter 24. The sayings in it concern right conduct in public life: justice, truthful speech, diligence and the results of the choices people make.

The word for “wise”, châkâm, describes a person who is intelligent and skilful, and in Proverbs that skill always includes moral judgment and upright living. So the heading tells us that what follows belongs to wisdom itself. A wise person is known by fairness and honesty as well as by a good mind.

Favouritism in judgment is wrong because judgment belongs to God, who judges every person alike. Moses told Israel’s judges, “Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s” (Deuteronomy 1:17). The LORD himself regards nobody’s standing and takes no bribe (Deuteronomy 10:17), and Paul says the same of him (Romans 2:11). A judge who favours one side misrepresents the God in whose name he judges.

“Respect of persons” joins two Hebrew words. Nâkar means to look at something closely, and so to recognise, acknowledge or regard it. Pânîym is the word for the face, plural in form but used as a singular, and it also stands for a person or a person’s presence. To respect persons is to regard the face, which means deciding by who someone is: his wealth, his rank, his tribe or his connections. Hebrew has a second idiom for the same fault, “to lift up the face”. Either way the judge has looked at the person when he should have looked at the case.

The law closes off favouritism in both directions: “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour” (Leviticus 19:15). Pity for the poor man and deference to the great man are both forbidden when they bend the verdict.

He loses the respect of everyone who sees it, for “him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him”. Verse 24 pictures someone saying to a wicked person, “Thou art righteous.” The wicked, râshâʻ, is the one who is morally wrong and guilty. The righteous, tsaddîyq, is the one who is just and upright. The speaker may be a judge acquitting the guilty, a leader, or any person who excuses and approves what is evil. In each case he has called evil good. Isaiah pronounces a woe on those who do exactly that (Isaiah 5:20), and another proverb sets the one who justifies the wicked beside the one who condemns the just (Proverbs 17:15). Because the LORD loves righteousness and justice (Psalm 33:5), the offence is against him as well as against the community.

The response comes in two parallel lines. The “people”, ʻam, will “curse” him, and the verb nâqab means to pierce or to specify, so that the offender is marked out by name for scorn. The “nations”, lᵉʼôm, will “abhor” him, and zâʻam is a word for rage and indignation, drawn from the picture of foaming at the mouth. Proverbs knows that ordinary people feel the difference between justice and its corruption. A city is glad when things go well with the righteous and is built up by their blessing (Proverbs 11:10–11).

Verse 25 turns to the opposite kind of person: “But to them that rebuke him shall be delight, and a good blessing shall come upon them.” The “him” is the wicked man of the verse before. The verb yâkach means to decide, to rebuke, to correct, to convince or convict, and to reason a matter through. It belongs to the work of setting things right, in a court or between two people.

Two rewards follow. “Delight” is nâʻêm, to be agreeable, pleasant or sweet. The pleasure lies in the outcome, in justice done and a clear conscience, since confrontation itself is seldom pleasant. The “good blessing” joins ṭôwb to bᵉrâkâh, a word for blessing and for the prosperity that comes with it. Israel understood this blessing broadly, as God’s favour, a good name and well-being in the community. Scripture promises the same elsewhere: there is a reward for the righteous (Psalm 58:11), the man who keeps clear of the counsel of the ungodly prospers like a tree planted by rivers of water (Psalm 1:1–3), and justice gives a land its stability (Proverbs 29:4). The LORD himself is the one who will judge among the nations and rebuke many people (Isaiah 2:4).

It means that the person who gives a right answer is honoured and warmly welcomed. The verb nâshaq is the ordinary word for kissing, and in Israel a kiss was a sign of respect, kinship, reconciliation and blessing as well as affection. Jacob kissed Rachel when he first met her as a kinsman (Genesis 29:11), Esau kissed Jacob when the brothers were reconciled (Genesis 33:4), and Samuel kissed Saul when he anointed him (1 Samuel 10:1). Verse 26 uses that gesture as a picture of how people receive straight, honest words.

“Lips” is sâphâh, the lip, and by extension speech and language. The lips stand for the speaker and his words, so the honour goes to the one from whom the true answer came.

The field comes first because it is what the household will live on. In Israel most families lived from the land, and a field (sâdeh) was the source of their food, their wealth and their security. Verse 27 gives three commands in order. “Prepare” is kûwn, to set up, establish and make firm. “Work” is mᵉlâʼkâh, a person’s occupation or business, and also the property that labour produces. “Make it fit” (ʻâthad) means to make ready. The work “without”, outside in the open, is to be brought to a settled and productive state, “and afterwards” (ʼachar) the house is built.

This is the wisdom of foresight. Jesus speaks of the man who sits down and counts the cost before he builds a tower (Luke 14:28). Proverbs sends the sluggard to the ant, which stores its food in the summer (Proverbs 6:6–8), and warns that the borrower is servant to the lender (Proverbs 22:7). Paul gave the churches the rule that anyone unwilling to work should go without eating (2 Thessalonians 3:10). The saying also prepares for the close of this collection, where the writer walks past the overgrown field of a lazy man and takes the lesson to heart (Proverbs 24:30–34).

The principle holds for any kind of work. Farmer, craftsman, merchant or modern employee, each is told to secure an honest and lasting means of provision before taking on commitments that depend on it. That is part of the faithful use of what God entrusts to us, as the servants in the parable were called to account for their talents (Matthew 25:14–30).

Verse 28 returns to the court. A witness, ʻêd, is one who gives testimony or evidence. In Israel a case was settled largely by spoken testimony, so a witness could decide a neighbour’s reputation, property, freedom or life. The ninth commandment protects exactly this: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” (Exodus 20:16). False testimony also brings about the very wrong condemned earlier in the passage, where the guilty are cleared and the innocent condemned (Proverbs 17:15).

“Without cause” is chinnâm, which means for nothing, with no reason or ground. It describes an accusation that has no basis in what happened and springs from spite or self-interest. The neighbour (rêaʻ) is any fellow member of the community, the same neighbour the law commands us to love as ourselves (Leviticus 19:18), in the command Jesus named the second great commandment (Matthew 22:39).

The second half widens the saying from the courtroom to all speech: “and deceive not with thy lips.” The verb pâthâh means to open, and from that to entice, persuade or mislead. It takes in the plain lie, the half-truth, the insinuation and the flattery that exploits. Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD (Proverbs 12:22), and the person who may dwell on his holy hill is the one who speaks the truth in his heart and keeps his tongue from slander (Psalm 15:1–3). Paul gives the church the same charge, to put away lying and speak truth each with his neighbour (Ephesians 4:25). The saying applies with full force wherever an unverified report or a baseless charge can be passed on quickly, as it can today in a post or a shared message.

Verse 29 quotes a man who has been wronged and has made up his mind: “I will do so to him as he hath done to me: I will render to the man according to his work.” Wisdom’s reply is two words long in English, “Say not.” The verb ʼâmar is the everyday word for saying, and it is also used of what a person says to himself, so the resolve formed in the heart is ruled out along with the spoken threat. ʻÂsâh, “do”, is the broadest Hebrew word for doing and making, and it covers every form the payback might take. Shûwb, “render”, means to turn back or return, here in the sense of paying a man back.

The man’s words claim a role that belongs to God. Rendering to each person according to his work is what God does (Romans 2:6), and he has said, “To me belongeth vengeance” (Deuteronomy 32:35). Paul builds on that verse when he tells believers to give place to wrath and leave vengeance with the Lord (Romans 12:19), and Peter tells them to return blessing for evil and for insult (1 Peter 3:9). The wise person rules his own spirit, which Proverbs counts greater than taking a city (Proverbs 16:32). He is then free of the grudge and of the endless round of injury answered by injury.

Everything these sayings require is found whole in Jesus. He received sinners and ate with them (Luke 15:1–2), and he was equally unmoved by the standing of the scribes and Pharisees, whom he rebuked to their faces (Matthew 23:1–36). He drove the traders out of the temple (John 2:13–17). He never called evil good. The Father has committed all judgment to the Son (John 5:22), who is ordained to be the Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42, 2 Timothy 4:1), and his judgment will regard nobody’s face. His salvation is offered on the same footing, for in him Jew and Greek, bond and free, male and female are all one (Galatians 3:28).

He is also the right answer in person. The Word who was with God and was God (John 1:1–3) became flesh, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and he told Pilate that he came into the world to bear witness to the truth (John 18:37). The Father honoured him openly: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). To those who believed him he said, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31–32).

Jesus was himself the victim of witnesses without cause. He stood falsely accused as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and he kept the last of these sayings to the end. When he was reviled he did not revile in return, and he committed himself to him who judges righteously (1 Peter 2:23). He taught his disciples to love their enemies and pray for their persecutors (Matthew 5:44), and on the cross he prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

The saying about the field and the house has its counterpart in his teaching too. God sent his Son “when the fulness of the time was come” (Galatians 4:4), in his own right order. Jesus tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33), and he likens the person who hears and does his words to a man who built his house on rock (Matthew 7:24–27). The house that lasts for ever is God’s own household, built together on Christ the chief corner stone (Ephesians 2:19–22).

These seven verses show us who God is. He judges without regard to anyone’s face, he loves righteousness, he hates a lying tongue and he repays every work justly. Each saying asks us to be like him in one ordinary place: when we have to decide between two people, when someone guilty wants our approval, when a hard word of truth is needed, and when we are asked what we saw.

The sayings also give us a great relief. The person who has been wronged is released from the task of evening the score, because God has kept that for himself and will do it perfectly. Those who refuse to call evil good, weighed against the scribes and Pharisees Jesus charged with neglecting judgment, mercy and faith (Matthew 23:23), are promised delight and a good blessing. And when we speak truthfully and deal fairly, we are the salt and light that Jesus says his people are, so that others see it and glorify our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:13–16).