Proverbs 28:20

Proverbs 28 belongs to the proverbs of Solomon that the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied out (chapters 25–29). Most of its sayings are built from two lines that pull against each other, so that each way of living is seen beside its opposite and its end. The chapter keeps returning to justice, rulers, wealth and integrity, and the verse just before our passage has already said that the one who walks blamelessly will be saved (Proverbs 28:18). Three of the proverbs here, verses 19, 20 and 22, deal with how a person comes by bread and money.

“To have respect of persons is not good: for for a piece of bread that man will transgress.” To have respect of persons is to treat someone according to who he is, his rank, his wealth, his family or his influence, when the matter ought to be settled on the truth of the case. The Hebrew speaks of faces. The verb nâkar means to look closely at something and so to recognise or acknowledge it, and pânîym is the word for face, plural in form and always used as a singular. The partial judge recognises the face in front of him and rules for it.

In Israel judges and elders were charged to judge as God judges. Moses told them, “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 law forbids partiality in court (Leviticus 19:15), forbids the perverting of justice (Deuteronomy 16:19), and forbids favouring a poor man in his cause as firmly as favouring a great one (Exodus 23:3). Behind all of it stands God himself, who shows no partiality and takes no bribe (Deuteronomy 10:17, Romans 2:11).

The verdict “not good” is lo-ṭôwb in the Hebrew, where ṭôwb is the common word for good, and it is a restrained way of saying something hard. Partiality is wrong in God’s sight, and it harms everyone who depends on fair dealing. The second line gives the reason. A “piece of bread” is path lechem, a morsel of food, the smallest gain there is. The man is a geber, a word that can mean a strong or valiant man as well as simply a man. To transgress is pâshaʻ, to break away from rightful authority, to rebel. Once a person has begun to weigh faces, his price falls very low, and even a strong man will do wrong for a crust. Corruption usually starts with a small concession like that one.

The same concern runs through Scripture. Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD (Proverbs 11:1), and Amos calls for judgment to run down as waters (Amos 5:24). James applies it to the church: “But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors” (James 2:9). Paul says simply, “God accepteth no man’s person” (Galatians 2:6). The proverb began in the courtroom, and it holds in business, in the congregation and in every place where one person has something another person wants.

“He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue.” To rebuke here is yâkach, which means to decide, to correct, to convince or convict, and to reason with someone. It is correction with a purpose, aimed at setting a person right. To flatter is châlaq, to be smooth, and the lâshôwn, the tongue, is its instrument. Flattery is smooth speech that tells a person what he wants to hear, usually to avoid a hard moment or to gain something from him.

The proverb turns on the word ʼachar, “afterwards”. At the time, the rebuke stings and the flattery pleases. Later the one who was corrected sees who cared enough to tell him the truth, and the honest friend finds chên, favour, a real and lasting regard. The flatterer’s smooth words wear thin, and trust in him goes with them. In the close community life of Israel, the giving and taking of counsel held families and towns together, and flattery was most dangerous near those who held authority, since it could lead a ruler astray.

Solomon has said this before: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Proverbs 27:6). David welcomes the blow of a righteous man (Psalm 141:5), Proverbs 29:5 warns of the danger in flattery, and “Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight” (Proverbs 12:22). God deals with his own people in this way. His prophets rebuked Israel, and the Holy Spirit convicts of sin, always for the good of those he corrects. The proverb also speaks to the one being corrected, since favour can only grow where a rebuke is received with humility.

“Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer.” Earlier in the chapter the subject was the oppressive ruler (Proverbs 28:16) and the partial judge, and here the same wrong is found at home. The verb is gâzal, to pluck off, to strip, to rob, a word for taking by force or by pressure. It covers outright theft from parents, and with it defrauding them, playing on the trust of an ageing father or mother, and living off their goods while leaving them uncared for.

In Israel the family was where a person worked, worshipped and belonged, and God had put the honouring of parents into the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:12). That honour included respect, care and material support when parents grew old and weak. The law speaks with great severity of those who curse or dishonour father or mother (Exodus 21:17, Deuteronomy 27:16), and Jesus rebuked those who used a religious vow to keep back what they owed their parents (Matthew 15:4–6). Since God set parents over their children, a child who rebels against them is rebelling against the one who gave them that place (Romans 13:1–2).

The second line makes the wrong worse. The son says, “It is no transgression”. The noun is peshaʻ, transgression or rebellion, an act that defies an authority, and like the verb in verse 21 it speaks of revolt. He looks at an act of revolt and declares it innocent. As long as he says so, repentance is shut out, and the wrong goes on. This is the deceitful heart of Jeremiah 17:9 at work, and it is the opposite of the man in verse 23 who is able to hear a rebuke.

The verdict is that he is “the companion of a destroyer”. A companion is a châbêr, an associate or fellow, and “destroyer” comes from shâchath, to decay or ruin, and so to corrupt. Whatever he thinks of himself, he belongs with those who tear down. Paul’s warning that bad company corrupts good character (1 Corinthians 15:33) is here turned around, because this man is the bad company.

Verses 25 and 26 stand together and share the English word “trust”. One trust rests on the LORD and the other on self.

“He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat.” The word for proud is râchâb, broad or wide, a picture of a swollen sense of self. To stir up is gârâh, to grate, and so to provoke, and what is provoked is mâdôwn, strife. A proud person refuses to admit a fault, has to win the argument and brushes aside what others say, so quarrels follow him wherever he goes. Pride goes before destruction (Proverbs 16:18), “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:6), and the Lord’s blessing rests on the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9).

Over against him stands the one who trusts in the LORD, the person Jeremiah calls blessed (Jeremiah 17:7), who leans on God with all his heart as Proverbs 3:5–6 teaches. He “shall be made fat”. The verb dâshên means to be fat and, as a figure, to satisfy.

“He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse.” The verb nâthan is the Bible’s broad, everyday word for giving, and the poor are rûwsh, the destitute. The giver’s reward is that he shall be kept from machçôwr, deficiency or want. He meets the lack of others, and God sees to his.

Care for the poor was written into Israel’s law as part of belonging to the LORD. Farmers left the edges of their fields and the fallen grapes for the poor and the stranger (Leviticus 19:9–10). A tithe was set aside for the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow (Deuteronomy 14:28–29). The poor man’s cause was protected in court (Exodus 23:6), and Israel was told to open the hand wide to a needy brother (Deuteronomy 15:7–8). The LORD hears the poor man when he cries (Psalm 34:6), so to neglect the poor is to slight God himself. Proverbs goes as far as to say that giving to the poor is lending to the LORD (Proverbs 19:17), and that the generous person is the one who prospers (Proverbs 11:24–25).

The other man “hideth his eyes”. The verb is ʻâlam, to veil from sight or conceal, and the eye is ʻayin, the same word as in the evil eye of verse 22. There the eye grudged, and here it is covered so that it need see no one’s need. People do this by walking past, by turning from news of suffering, or by reasoning a need away to spare themselves cost and trouble. The proverb treats that turning away as a choice, and its end is “many a curse”. The noun is mᵉʼêrâh, a curse, which in Scripture means God’s disfavour and the hardship that comes with it. “Many” is rab, the same word that gave the faithful man his many blessings in verse 20.

“When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase.” The chapter ends by widening the view from one person to a whole society. The wicked are râshâʻ, the morally wrong and guilty, and their rising is their coming to power. In Israel the ruler was expected to uphold justice, and a nation did well or badly with his character. Wicked rulers governed by bribery, extortion, arbitrary decree and violence, and ordinary people, ʼâdâm, kept themselves and their goods out of sight to escape unjust taxes, forced labour and punishment at a whim. The verb is çâthar, to hide or conceal. The chapter has said so already: when the wicked rise, a man is hidden (Proverbs 28:12), and a wicked ruler over a poor people is like a roaring lion (Proverbs 28:15). The next chapter adds, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn” (Proverbs 29:2).

Then the wicked perish, and the righteous, the tsaddîyq, increase. The verb râbâh means to increase or multiply. Just people grow in number, and they also come into the open, work and trade honestly, and do good without fear, so that a city rejoices (Proverbs 11:10). This is the blessing on obedience that Moses set before the nation in Deuteronomy 28.

Every good line in these proverbs is true of Jesus, and every warning falls on a sin he carried.

He is the faithful worker. His food was to do the will of the Father who sent him (John 4:34), and he “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant”, obedient as far as death on the cross (Philippians 2:7–8). He is “the faithful and true witness” (Revelation 3:14) and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Where others hurry to be rich, “though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). From his work comes the true plenty: he is the bread of life (John 6:35), he gives life in abundance (John 10:10), and in him we have redemption through his blood and every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:7, Ephesians 1:3). By his obedience many are made righteous (Romans 5:19), so the innocence the hasty man loses is given back in him. He taught that we cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24), told us to lay up treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:19–21), and promised that those who seek first the kingdom of God will have what they need (Matthew 6:33).

He showed no partiality. He went to the house of Zacchaeus the tax collector as readily as to anyone of standing (Luke 19:1–10), and in him all are one, whatever their nation, rank or sex (Galatians 3:28). Offered bread in the wilderness at the price of disobedience, he refused it (Matthew 4:1–4).

He is the one who rebukes in love. He spoke woes over the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy (Matthew 23:13–36) and corrected Peter to his face (Mark 8:33), because he is the truth (John 14:6) and the truth makes free (John 8:32). His truth-telling led him to the cross, and there he won for us the greatest favour of all, reconciliation with God (Romans 5:10).

He honoured his Father perfectly, and through him children learn to obey and honour their parents in the Lord (Ephesians 6:1–3). The destroyer of verse 24 has his likeness in the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy, and Jesus stands against him as the giver of life.

He is the humble one who trusted the Father, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) where pride stirs strife. He is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24), made wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption for us (1 Corinthians 1:30). Our deliverance is his doing, for the Father has delivered us from the power of darkness into the kingdom of his Son (Colossians 1:13–14), and we walk wisely now by walking in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16). In him we are filled with the fullness of God and made complete (Ephesians 3:19, Colossians 2:10), which is what being “made fat” finally means.

He never hid his eyes. He saw the crowds, scattered like sheep without a shepherd, and was moved with compassion (Matthew 9:35–36). The curses of verse 27 fell on him: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). He also tells us that what is done for the least of his brethren is done for him (Matthew 25:34–40).

And he is the righteous King. When he rose, people were called out of hiding and into the light (John 3:19–21). On the cross he disarmed the powers of darkness and triumphed over them (Colossians 2:15), and since then the righteous have been increasing, as his disciples go to all nations under his authority (Matthew 28:18–20).

These sayings come one at a time, and together they show a God who is consistent. He made a world in which honest work is answered with bread. He judges without regard to faces and expects the same of us. He corrects those he loves, and he is pleased when one of his people cares enough to do the same for another. He set parents over children and takes their part when they are wronged. He hears the poor, and he counts what is given to them as lent to himself.

The passage also tells the truth about us. Each warning describes something close at hand: the wish for quick gain, the small favour that bends a judgment, the pleasant word in place of the true one, the confident heart that asks no counsel, the eye that looks elsewhere. Against all of these the passage sets one remedy, in verse 25, which is to put our trust in the LORD. A person who trusts him has room to work patiently, to give freely and to hear a rebuke, because his good is in God’s hands.

For anyone living under bad rulers, in a nation or a workplace or a home, the last verse is a promise. The wicked rise for a time, and God, who puts down one and sets up another, has fixed an end to it.