Proverbs 28:15

“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” To cover, kâçâh, is the ordinary word for covering something, with clothing or in secret, and here it means hiding one’s sins on purpose. People do it by denying what they did, making excuses, blaming others, making the sin seem small, or refusing to admit it even to themselves or to God. Shame, pride, fear of what will follow and the wish to keep a good name all drive it. The sins being hidden are peshaʻ, transgressions, acts by which a person defies an authority, here the authority of God. The plural counts them one by one.

Such a man “shall not prosper”. The verb tsâlach means to push forward, to succeed or flourish. Whatever he gains, he makes no progress in what matters most: peace with God, a free heart and honest dealings with others. Hidden sin festers. It hardens the conscience, breaks trust, and keeps a person from the forgiveness God gives. David describes it from the inside: “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long” (Psalm 32:3–4). Hiding also fails in the end, for Moses warned Israel, “be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). In Israel sin was rarely a private matter, as Achan showed when the plunder he hid in his tent brought defeat on the whole nation (Joshua 7).

“Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.” Happy, ʼesher, means happiness or blessedness, and in Hebrew it is an exclamation: “how happy!” It describes someone who is fortunate and blessed by God. A psalm opens the same way: “Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments” (Psalm 112:1), and the blessings Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount are sayings of this kind.

The verb for fear is pâchad, to be startled, to fear, to stand in awe, and “alway” makes it constant. Set against the hard heart in the second half, this is a heart that stays tender before God, mindful of his holiness, power and authority and quick to turn from sin. It is the fear of the LORD that is “the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10, Psalm 111:10). This fear is reverent awe, the humble respect of someone who knows how holy and how good God is, and it leads to obedience, trust and wisdom. A person who lives this way is kept from much harm, because the fear of God steers him away from sin.

“As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people.” Lions and bears were the most feared predators in the land of Israel. The lion, ʼărîy, is “roaring”, nâham, a word for growling or roaring, the sound a lion makes as it asserts itself and attacks. The bear, dôb, is “ranging”, shâqaq, roaming restlessly after prey. Putting the two beasts together makes the danger greater: a ruler who terrifies and devours, and who prowls without rest. Ezekiel uses the same picture for Israel’s false prophets, “like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls” (Ezekiel 22:25).

The ruler, from mâshal, to rule or have dominion, is wicked, râshâʻ, and the harm lies in that pairing of a bad man with power over others. His victims are “the poor people”, dal and ʻam. Dal means poor, weak, thin or low, and Strong’s explains it as properly “dangling”, from dâlal. ʻAm means a people. These are the people with no land, money or influence, who depend on the justice of those over them and have nothing to defend themselves with.

God’s concern for them runs all through Scripture. Israel’s law made provision for the poor (Deuteronomy 15), Amos denounced those who sold the poor and trampled them (Amos 2), and Isaiah called, “Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:17). The prayer for the king in Psalm 72 asks for the very opposite of this ruler: “He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor” (Psalm 72:4). That king delivers the needy when they cry, and “precious shall their blood be in his sight” (Psalm 72:12–14). God’s leaders are meant to be shepherds, and he pronounced woe on the shepherds of Israel who fed themselves and left the flock weak and scattered (Ezekiel 34:2–4). Micah pictures Israel’s rulers as men who pluck the skin and flesh off the people (Micah 3:1–3).

The next proverb names the root of such rule. “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor.” The prince is a nâgîyd, a person in high authority, a commander who stands at the front. A king in Israel was charged to write out God’s law, keep it with him and read it all his days, so that he would rule rightly (Deuteronomy 17:18–20), and wisdom says, “By me kings reign, and princes decree justice” (Proverbs 8:15–16). This prince “wanteth”, châçêr, lacks or is void of, understanding, tâbûwn. That is practical discernment and moral insight, the ability to judge rightly and to see what the people truly need. In Proverbs such a lack is a failure of character as well as of skill. So the prince becomes a “great” oppressor, rab, great in scale, and his rule becomes oppression, maʻăshaqqâh, through unjust taxes, forced labour and arbitrary decrees. Paul says a ruler is “the minister of God to thee for good”, a terror to evil works (Romans 13:3–4), and this prince turns that calling upside down.

“But he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days.” To hate, sânêʼ, is to turn from something with real aversion. Covetousness, betsaʻ, is gain, and usually unjust gain: plunder, dishonest profit, money taken by fraud or force. It tempts those in power above all, because it promises quick wealth. Proverbs says of the greedy that it “taketh away the life of the owners thereof” (Proverbs 1:19), and Paul warns that “the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:9–10). The man who hates it “shall prolong his days”, ʼârak and yôwm, he will stay long in his days. The first half speaks of a prince, and this promise is open to anyone of any station who turns from ill-gotten gain. A later proverb sums up the difference a ruler makes: “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn” (Proverbs 29:2).

Christ is the ruler these two proverbs long for. He is the good shepherd who “giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). He told his disciples that the rulers of the Gentiles exercise lordship over their people, and that whoever would be great among them must serve, “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:42–45). He pronounced blessing on the poor in spirit, the meek and the persecuted (Matthew 5:3–10), and began his ministry by announcing good news to the poor and liberty to the bruised (Luke 4:18–19).

Where the prince of verse 16 lacks understanding, Christ is “the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24). Where that prince grasps, Christ emptied himself and took the form of a servant (Philippians 2:5–8). Isaiah says of his kingdom that it is ordered and established “with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever” (Isaiah 9:6–7). And his days are prolonged for ever, for he “continueth ever” and “ever liveth to make intercession” for those who come to God by him (Hebrews 7:24–25). All who follow him in hating greed share in that life.

“A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; let no man stay him.” To do violence, ʻâshaq, is to oppress, defraud or wrong, and blood, dâm, is blood in Strong’s words “as that which when shed causes death”. The phrase means taking a human life by wrongful violence, which is murder.

Human life is precious because God made man in his own image (Genesis 1:27). The law said, “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13), and before the law God told Noah, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Genesis 9:6). Israel was to take no ransom for the life of a murderer (Numbers 35:31), because shed blood defiles the land (Numbers 35:33): “the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it” (Numbers 35:33–34).

The murderer “shall flee to the pit”. The verb is nûwç, to flee, and it pictures a man running from guilt, from fear and from the avenger of blood, with no lasting peace anywhere. The pit, bôwr, is a hole in the ground, a cistern or a prison, and it pictures the grave and destruction. Here it stands for the end he will meet, whether through the courts, a violent death or the judgment of God. After Cain killed Abel he was told, “a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth” (Genesis 4:12). Proverbs says elsewhere, “The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him”, and “As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more” (Proverbs 10:24–25).

“Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved: but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once.” To walk, hâlak, is Scripture’s picture for a whole manner of life, and ways, derek, are the roads a person habitually takes, his settled patterns of conduct. Uprightly, tâmîym, means complete, whole, sound or without blemish, and of people blameless or upright. Such a person “shall be saved”, yâshaʻ, kept safe, delivered, preserved from the ruin that catches the wicked. Proverbs says the same in other words: “He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known” (Proverbs 10:9), and “The integrity of the upright shall guide them” (Proverbs 11:3).

The perverse man, ʻâqash, is twisted or crooked, and his ways go crooked with him into deceit and dishonest dealing. He “shall fall”, nâphal, collapse into ruin, “at once”, ʼechâd, literally “in one”. His downfall comes suddenly and completely, often without warning and with no chance to recover. Shortcuts and crooked dealing may bring a passing advantage, and this is how they end. The psalmist, troubled by the prosperity of the wicked, saw their end when he went into the sanctuary: “How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment!” (Psalm 73:18–19). “For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish” (Psalm 1:6), and Jesus speaks of the broad way that leads to destruction and the narrow way that leads to life (Matthew 7:13–14).

Proverbs 28 belongs to the collection of Solomon’s proverbs in chapters 25–29, and like much of the book it sets the righteous beside the wicked so that we see where each road ends. The chapter opens, “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1), and near its end it promises, “He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack” (Proverbs 28:27). Both assume a life lived honestly before God, which is where these six verses begin. The verse after them turns to the reward of diligent work (Proverbs 28:19).

Each of these sayings comes back to the heart before God. If there is sin you have been covering, the way out is the one verse 13 gives: name it to God, turn from it, and receive the mercy he has promised in Christ. It takes courage and humility, and what waits on the other side is freedom. A tender heart that fears to grieve him is a happy thing to have, and he gives a heart of flesh to those who ask.

Whatever authority you hold, in a home, a church, a business or a nation, it is given for the good of the weak. The one who serves them and hates crooked gain walks in the steps of the King who gave his life for his sheep, and we can pray for those who rule us, that God would give them understanding. These proverbs also comfort the poor and the wronged. God sees the lion and the bear, the blood of the needy is precious in his sight, and the crooked fall in his time. Integrity, where what we are inside matches what we show outside, is the safe road, because the God who keeps the upright walks it with us.