People who do right can be as brave as a lion, because they have nothing to hide. This chapter talks a lot about rulers, rich people and poor people. It says it is better to be poor and honest than rich and sneaky, and that God is kind to those who own up to what they did wrong.
Proverbs 28:1
Bad people run away even when nobody is chasing them. People who do right are as brave as a lion.
A wicked person runs away though nobody is chasing him,
Guilt makes its own pursuer. The person who has wronged others expects to be found out or paid back, so he bolts at shadows. The danger is inside him, in his conscience.
but the righteous feel as safe as a young lion.
The contrast: someone with nothing to hide has nothing to run from. A lion does not look over its shoulder, because nothing hunts it. The boldness comes from a clear conscience, not from a loud personality.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked
The word is first a court term: the one in the wrong, the guilty party. That is why he runs. The Hebrew is singular here while 'flee' is plural: each and every one of them.
נוס · nus · run away
To take flight. The same verb comes back in verse 17 for the murderer who is on the run until he dies.
רדף · radaph · chase, hunt
To chase after. Fleeing with no pursuer is one of the covenant curses in Leviticus 26:17 and 26:36.
צדיק · tsaddiq · in the right
The opposite court term: the one found in the right. The plural noun takes a singular verb, so each one of them is as bold as a lion.
בטח · batach · feel safe, trust
The ordinary verb for trusting. It does not mean aggressive; it means feeling secure. Verses 25 and 26 use the same verb to ask what a person trusts in.
כפיר · kephir · young lion
A lion in its first full strength, old enough to hunt for itself. A different word from the lion in verse 15.
Proverbs 28:2
When a country does wrong, its rulers keep changing, one after another. But one leader who understands and knows what is right keeps it steady for a long time.
When a land rebels, it gets many rulers,
A country that breaks faith with God and with what is right pays in instability. 'Many rulers' means either one after another in quick succession (coups, short reigns) or many at once fighting over it. Either way no one governs long enough to do good.
but with a person who understands and knows, order lasts.
The contrast: one person with real discernment can hold a country steady. Stability does not come from the number of officials but from the quality of the one who leads.
פשע · pesha · revolt, breach
Stronger than a mistake. It is the word for a vassal breaking with his king (2 Kings 8:20 uses the verb), so sin seen as rebellion. It returns in verses 13, 21 and 24.
שר · sar · prince, official
A chief or commander, anyone holding authority under or instead of a king.
בין · bin · tell apart
The form is mevin, one who discerns. The same form describes the son in verse 7 and the poor man in verse 11.
ידע · yada · know by experience
In Hebrew this is a second participle, 'knowing', set right beside 'understanding' with no 'and' between them.
ארך · arak · be long, last
To lengthen. The same verb is used in verse 16 of the ruler who lengthens his days.
Israel's own history is the best commentary. The northern kingdom went through nine dynasties and several assassinations in about two hundred years (see 1 Kings 16 and 2 Kings 15), while Judah kept one royal house.
The second line is very compressed: literally 'but by a man understanding, knowing, so it is prolonged'. The small word ken can be 'so, thus' or a noun meaning 'what is right, order'. Versions differ on the details but agree on the sense: discerning leadership makes a state last.
Proverbs 28:3
A poor man who is cruel to people with nothing is like rain so hard that it washes away the food growing in the fields.
A poor man who squeezes the weak
This is the surprise of the verse. You expect the oppressor to be rich. Here it is someone who has known need himself and then, given a little power, grinds those below him. He should know better than anyone what it feels like.
is a rain that washes everything away and leaves no bread.
The comparison. Rain is what a farmer prays for; it should mean food. But a torrent strips the soil and flattens the crop. In the same way, the one from whom the weak might expect sympathy brings ruin instead of help.
רש · rash · poor, having nothing
From a verb meaning to be in want. The full phrase is gever rash; gever is a man viewed in his strength, which sharpens the picture of a poor man throwing his weight around.
עשק · ashaq · extort, squeeze
To wrong someone by force or fraud, especially over wages and debts. The root returns in verses 16 and 17.
דל · dal · weak, thin, poor
From a root meaning to hang low, to be thin. The dal has no weight to push back with.
מטר סחף · matar sochef · sweeping rain
Matar is rain; sochef means sweeping away, laying flat. The verb is rare and appears again in Jeremiah 46:15.
לחם · lechem · bread, food
Bread, and so food in general. Bread comes back in verses 19 and 21.
In the hill country of Israel the soil sits on terraced slopes. Steady rain fills the grain; a violent downpour tears out terraces and carries the topsoil and the seed down the valley.
Because a poor oppressor is unexpected, some scholars change one letter to read 'a wicked man' (rasha) or read 'a chief' (rosh). The Hebrew text as it stands says poor, and the point may be exactly that the shock is intended.
Proverbs 28:4
People who throw away God's teaching cheer for the bad guys. People who keep God's teaching stand up against them.
People who drop the teaching speak well of the wicked,
Once you abandon God's standard you have no ground left for calling evil evil. You end up admiring whoever is successful, even if he is guilty. Praise for the wicked is the symptom; leaving the Law is the cause.
but people who keep the teaching take them on.
The contrast: keeping the Law is not private piety. Those who hold to it find themselves in conflict with wrongdoers, because the Law gives them a reason and a duty to resist. There is no neutral position between praising and opposing.
עזב · azav · leave, forsake
To leave behind something you once had. In verse 13 the same verb is used in the good sense: forsaking your sins.
תורה · torah · teaching, law
From a root meaning to point the way. It can be a parent's teaching (1:8) or God's law; set beside prayer and abomination in verse 9, God's revealed instruction is in view.
הלל · halal · praise, boast of
The verb in hallelujah. What belongs to God is given to the guilty.
שמר · shamar · guard, watch over
To guard like a watchman. Keeping the Law means protecting it as well as doing it.
גרה · garah · stir up, engage
To stir up a contest, to engage in battle. In verse 25 the same verb is negative: the greedy man stirs up strife. What matters is what the fight is over.
Proverbs 28:5
Bad people do not understand what is fair. People who look to God understand it fully.
Evil people do not grasp what is just,
This is not about intelligence. A person committed to doing harm loses the ability to see what is fair, because seeing it would condemn him. Wrongdoing dulls moral sight.
but those who seek the LORD grasp all of it.
The contrast: moral clarity comes from a relationship, not from study alone. 'Everything' means everything about the matter in hand, justice. Those who want God Himself come to see right and wrong as He does.
רע · ra · bad, harmful
Literally 'men of evil', people who belong to it. The broad word for what is bad and does harm.
בין · bin · tell apart
Used in both lines. To distinguish, to see what is what. The wicked have lost the ability to tell right from wrong.
משפט · mishpat · right verdict
A right judgment, and the order that right judgments create. What each person is owed.
בקש · baqash · look for, pursue
To search for something you want. Seeking the LORD means turning to Him in worship, prayer and obedience.
יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name
God's personal name. The source of understanding is not an idea but this particular God.
Proverbs 28:6
It is better to be poor and honest than to be rich and sneaky.
Better to be poor and live with integrity
A 'better than' saying, which ranks two things most people would rank the other way. Being poor and whole, the same person inside and out, is put above the alternative in the next line.
than to be twisted in your ways, even though rich.
The comparison is completed. Money does not make up for a bent character. The verse does not say poverty is good or wealth is bad; it says integrity is worth more than both.
רש · rash · poor, having nothing
The same word as verse 3. There the poor man was an oppressor; here he is the one with integrity.
הלך · halak · walk, live
Walking is the Hebrew picture for conduct, the way you actually live from day to day.
תם · tom · wholeness
Completeness. Not sinless perfection but being of one piece, with no hidden second self.
עקש · iqqesh · twisted
Bent out of true. The Hebrew adds 'of two ways' (see the translation note).
עשיר · ashir · rich
A wealthy person. He appears again in verse 11, pleased with his own wisdom.
The Hebrew says 'twisted of two ways': the word for ways is in the dual form, which means exactly two. The picture is a man trying to walk two roads at once, a double-dealer. The first line is nearly the same as 19:1.
Proverbs 28:7
A child who keeps God's teaching is wise. A child who makes friends with greedy people brings shame on his dad.
A son who guards the teaching is a son with understanding,
The proof of a discerning child is not cleverness but holding to what he was taught. The verb is 'guards': he protects it from being lost.
but one who keeps company with gluttons brings disgrace on his father.
The contrast is in the company kept. This son's friends are people who live for appetite, and he becomes like them. The shame falls on the father, because in that world a son's conduct was read as the family's.
נצר · natsar · guard, preserve
To watch over, as a guard watches a vineyard. A different verb from 'keep' in verse 4, with the same sense.
תורה · torah · teaching, law
With 'son' and 'father' in the verse, the father's teaching and God's law run together.
בין · bin · tell apart
The form is mevin, as in verse 2. The son who can tell things apart.
רעה · ra'ah · associate with
To keep company with, to make a friend of. The same verb is used in 13:20 and 29:3.
זלל · zalal · squander, gorge
The root means to be cheap or worthless, then to be wasteful with food and money. Proverbs 23:20-21 warns that such people end up in rags.
כלם · kalam · put to shame
To humiliate publicly. Stronger than embarrass.
'Glutton' was a legal word. In Deuteronomy 21:18-21 parents bring an incorrigible son to the elders at the gate with the charge that he is 'a glutton and a drunkard'. A hearer in Israel would catch that echo.
Proverbs 28:8
Someone may get rich by making poor people pay back more than they borrowed. But his money will end up with someone who is kind to the poor.
Whoever builds up his fortune by charging interest of one kind or another
The lender in view makes money from people who borrow because they are desperate. In Israel that was forbidden: you were to lend to a poor neighbour without profit.
is only piling it up for someone who will be kind to the poor.
The result. The money will not stay with him. In God's ordering it ends up in the hands of a generous person who gives it back to the very class it was squeezed from. The lender is an unwitting collector for the poor.
הון · hon · wealth, goods
Property, means. It returns in verse 22.
נשך · neshek · interest, a bite
From the verb to bite, used of a snake. Interest is what the loan bites out of the borrower.
קבץ · qavats · gather
To gather together. He thinks he gathers for himself.
חנן · chanan · show favor
To show kindness that is not owed. The root of chen, grace.
דל · dal · weak, thin, poor
The weak of verse 3. The ones bitten are the ones who finally benefit.
The Law forbade taking interest from a fellow Israelite who had fallen into need (Exodus 22:25; Leviticus 25:35-37; Deuteronomy 23:19-20). Loans in that setting were not business investments but help for a neighbour whose harvest had failed.
The Hebrew has two nouns, neshek and tarbit, which the NASB folds into 'interest of any kind'. Neshek is the 'bite'; tarbit is 'increase'. The same pair stands in Leviticus 25:36. They may be two forms of interest (taken off the loan at the start, or added at repayment) or simply two words for the same thing.
Proverbs 28:9
If someone will not listen to God's teaching, God hates even his prayers.
If someone turns his ear away so as not to hear the teaching,
This is a deliberate act, not ignorance. He could hear God's instruction and chooses not to.
even his prayer is disgusting.
The consequence matches the offence. He will not listen to God, yet he expects God to listen to him. 'Even' marks prayer as the last thing you would expect to be rejected. Religion used as a substitute for obedience is offensive to God.
סור · sur · turn aside, remove
Here in the causative: he makes his ear turn aside. It is something he does, not something that happens to him.
שמע · shama · hear and heed
Hebrew does not separate hearing from obeying. Refusing to hear is refusing to obey.
תורה · torah · teaching, law
The fourth use in six verses. God speaks in torah; man speaks in prayer.
תפלה · tefillah · prayer
The standard word for prayer, used in the headings of several psalms.
תועבה · to'evah · something detestable
The strongest Hebrew word for what God finds repulsive, used of idolatry and of false weights. See 15:8, where the sacrifice of the wicked is called the same thing.
Proverbs 28:10
Anyone who leads good people into doing wrong will fall into his own trap. But those who keep doing right will be given good things.
Whoever misleads upright people onto a bad road
The offender here is not content to do wrong himself. He works to pull good people off course, whether into sin or into harm.
will fall into the pit he dug himself,
The result is the boomerang that Proverbs describes often: the trap catches the trapper. What he planned for others becomes his own end.
but people of integrity will come into good.
The third line gives the other outcome. Those he tried to ruin are not ruined. They receive good as a settled possession, the way an heir receives an estate.
ישר · yashar · straight
Straight, level. People whose course does not bend.
שגה · shagah · wander, stray
To go astray, like a sheep leaving the flock. Here causative: he makes them stray. Deuteronomy 27:18 curses the one who does this to a blind man on the road.
דרך · derek · road, way of life
A road, and so a course of life.
שחות · shechut · pit
A pit dug as a trap. This form of the word occurs only here; the usual word is shachat, as in 26:27.
תמים · tamim · whole, sound
Complete, without defect, from the same root as integrity (tom) in verse 6.
נחל · nachal · receive as a share
To receive a permanent family holding. The good is not a wage; it is a lasting portion.
Hunters dug pits on animal trails and covered them with branches. The pit-digger who falls in his own pit is a stock picture in the Old Testament (Proverbs 26:27; Psalm 7:15; Ecclesiastes 10:8).
Proverbs 28:11
A rich person may think he is very wise. But a poor person who understands can see what he is really like.
A rich man is wise in his own opinion,
Success makes him assume he must be clever. People around him agree with him because of his money, so no one tells him otherwise. His wisdom exists 'in his own eyes' and nowhere else.
but a poor man with discernment sees right through him.
The contrast: the poor man has no reason to flatter and nothing to lose, and if he has understanding he reads the rich man accurately. Insight is not handed out according to income.
עשיר · ashir · rich
The rich man of verse 6. There he was crooked; here he is self-deceived.
חכם · chakam · wise, skilled
The adjective from chokmah. Being wise 'in your own eyes' is one of the worst conditions in Proverbs (3:7; 26:12).
דל · dal · weak, thin, poor
The person with no social weight. His judgment carries no weight with others, but it is correct.
בין · bin · tell apart
Mevin again, as in verses 2 and 7.
חקר · chaqar · search out, probe
To examine thoroughly, to get to the bottom of something. The poor man investigates him and finds him out.
Proverbs 28:12
When people who do right win, everyone is glad and proud. When bad people take charge, everyone hides.
When the righteous celebrate, there is great splendor,
When people of integrity are winning, the whole community shines. Public life becomes something to be proud of and people come out to enjoy it.
but when the wicked rise to power, people have to be searched for.
The contrast: under bad rulers everyone keeps their head down. Streets empty, people stay out of sight, because being noticed is dangerous. You can tell who is in charge by whether ordinary people are visible.
צדיק · tsaddiq · in the right
Those in the right with God and neighbour.
עלץ · alats · exult, rejoice
To exult. The word is about joy more than conquest; it is the gladness of people whose side has prevailed (11:10).
תפארת · tif'eret · beauty, splendor
Beauty, ornament, honour. Used of the high priest's garments in Exodus 28:2.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked
The guilty of verse 1, now in power.
קום · qum · stand up, arise
To get up, and so to come to power. The same phrase opens verse 28.
חפש · chaphas · search for
The verb means to search. The form is passive: people 'are searched for', that is, you would have to hunt to find them.
The last phrase is literally 'a man is searched for'. Most versions give the result, that people hide. Verse 28 says the same thing with the plain verb for hiding.
Proverbs 28:13
If you hide the wrong things you have done, it will not go well for you. If you own up and stop doing them, God will be kind to you.
Whoever covers up his offences will get nowhere,
Concealing your sins, by denial, excuses or silence, does not make them go away. The cover-up blocks the one thing that could help. 'Will not succeed' is deliberately broad: nothing built on hidden guilt goes well.
but whoever admits them and gives them up will be shown mercy.
The contrast, and one of the clearest statements of repentance in the Old Testament. Two steps are named: saying it openly, and stopping. Confession without change is not what is meant. The result is not a bargain earned but mercy received.
כסה · kasah · cover
To cover over. Psalm 32:1 uses the same verb for sin that God covers. Either you cover it and it stays, or you uncover it and He covers it.
פשע · pesha · revolt, breach
The rebellion word of verse 2, here in the plural: specific acts.
צלח · tsalach · succeed, advance
To push forward, to get through. He stays stuck.
ידה · yadah · acknowledge openly
To declare aloud. The same verb means to give thanks or praise; confession is saying openly what is true, whether about God or about yourself.
עזב · azav · leave, forsake
The verb of verse 4. There people forsook the Law; here a person forsakes his sins.
רחם · racham · have mercy
Related to the word for womb: the tender feeling of a parent for a child. The passive form leaves the giver unnamed, but it is God who shows it.
Psalm 32:3-5 describes the same experience from the inside: while David kept silent his strength drained away, and when he acknowledged his sin he was forgiven. In the New Testament 1 John 1:9 says the same thing.
Proverbs 28:14
Happy is the person who is always careful not to do wrong. But someone who makes his heart hard and will not listen falls into big trouble.
Happy is the person who is always afraid of doing wrong,
This is not a blessing on anxiety. Coming right after verse 13, the fear is a tender conscience: a steady awareness that sin has consequences and that you answer to God. Such a person stays alert and so stays out of trouble.
but the one who makes his heart hard will fall into disaster.
The contrast: the person who has toughened himself against warning, conscience and correction feels no fear at all, and for that reason walks straight into ruin. The lack of fear is the danger.
אשרי · ashrei · happy, to be envied
An exclamation: 'O the happiness of'. It describes a person whose life is in a good place. The first word of Psalm 1.
פחד · pachad · dread, tremble
Not the usual word for the fear of the LORD (yir'ah) but the word for dread. Elsewhere it is something to be free of (1:33; 3:25); only here is it commended.
תמיד · tamid · continually
Continually, without a break. The word for the daily offerings and the lamp kept always burning in the tabernacle.
קשה · qashah · make hard, stiff
To make stiff or stubborn. The verb used of Pharaoh in Exodus 7:3, and of the stiff neck in Proverbs 29:1.
לב · lev · mind and will
The centre of thought and decision, not only of feeling. It returns in verse 26.
רעה · ra'ah · evil, calamity
The noun from ra. It covers both moral evil and the trouble that follows from it.
The Hebrew does not say what is feared. Some versions supply 'the LORD'. The word chosen is pachad, dread, and the setting between verses 13 and 14b points to dread of sinning and of its results.
Proverbs 28:15
A bad ruler over poor, helpless people is like a roaring lion or a bear rushing at them.
A growling lion and a charging bear:
Two of the most dangerous animals a person could meet in ancient Israel, both pictured in the moment of attack. The lion's roar is the sound it makes over prey.
that is a wicked ruler over a people with nothing.
The comparison is explained. A ruler ought to be a shepherd who protects. This one treats his people as food. The people are called poor: they have no defences, so he meets no resistance.
נהם · naham · growl
The low growl of a lion that has prey. In 19:12 the same sound describes a king's anger.
ארי · ari · lion
The common word for a full-grown lion. In verse 1 the lion stood for a clear conscience; here it stands for a predator.
דב · dov · bear
The Syrian brown bear, proverbial for fury (17:12).
שקק · shaqaq · rush, range about
To rush about or to roam hungrily. Either charging or prowling for food.
משל · mashal · rule, govern
The form is moshel, one who rules. This verb is a different root from the noun mashal, a proverb, though the letters are the same.
דל · dal · weak, thin, poor
Used of a whole people: a nation too weak to resist.
Lions and bears lived in the land of Israel through the whole Old Testament period. David fought both while guarding sheep (1 Samuel 17:34-37). Kings in the ancient Near East called themselves shepherds, which is why a ruler who behaves like the predator is such a reversal.
Proverbs 28:16
A ruler who is cruel to his people has no sense. But one who hates getting money by cheating will rule for a long time.
A leader short on understanding is long on extortion,
Oppression is called stupid as well as wrong. A ruler who squeezes his people is destroying the thing his own position rests on. He lacks the sense to see it.
but one who hates dishonest profit will have a long life.
The contrast: the ruler who refuses to enrich himself at others' expense lasts. 'Hates' is strong; it is not enough to avoid corrupt gain, he detests it. His rule and his life are extended because no one has reason to bring him down.
נגיד · nagid · leader, prince
One set in front. The title given to Saul and David when they were appointed over Israel (1 Samuel 9:16; 13:14).
מעשקות · ma'ashaqqot · acts of extortion
A noun from ashaq, the verb of verse 3: things wrung out of people. Literally he is 'great in extortions'.
תבונה · tevunah · understanding
From bin, the verb that runs through this chapter. The Hebrew is plural, as if to say he lacks it in every form.
שנא · sane · hate
Active rejection. Exodus 18:21 lists 'hating dishonest gain' as a qualification for judges.
בצע · betsa · a cut, a rip-off
From a root meaning to cut off. Profit torn from someone else, as in 1:19.
ארך · arak · be long, last
The verb of verse 2. The land lasts under an understanding man; the ruler lasts if he hates graft.
The first line has no verb in Hebrew: 'a leader lacking understandings and great in extortions'. It can be read as a description (he is both) or as cause and result (lacking sense, he multiplies extortion).
Proverbs 28:17
A person who has killed someone will keep running until he dies, because what he did weighs on him. Nobody should help him get away.
A person weighed down by the blood of a life he has taken
The subject is a murderer. He is described as 'oppressed' by the blood: the guilt presses on him and hunts him. The oppressor has become the oppressed, by his own deed.
will be on the run until the grave; let no one hold him up.
The result and a command. He will never be at rest; he runs until he dies. And no one is to shelter him or help him escape justice. Mercy to a murderer that blocks justice is not mercy.
עשק · ashaq · oppress, press down
The oppression verb of verse 3, in the passive. The blood he shed now oppresses him.
דם · dam · blood, bloodshed
Blood, standing for a life violently taken. The phrase is 'blood of a nephesh', a person's life-blood.
נוס · nus · run away
The verb of verse 1. There the wicked ran with no one chasing; here is the extreme case.
בור · bor · pit, grave
Literally 'the pit', a cistern cut in rock and so a picture of the grave (1:12).
תמך · tamak · hold up, grasp
To take hold of and hold up, as Aaron and Hur held up Moses' hands (Exodus 17:12).
In Israel's law a person who killed by accident could flee to a city of refuge, but a deliberate murderer was to be handed over even from there (Numbers 35:9-34; Deuteronomy 19:11-13). Genesis 4:12-14 shows the first murderer, Cain, as a restless wanderer.
The Hebrew is abrupt and versions differ. 'Until the pit he flees' can mean he will be a fugitive till death, or that he is rushing toward the grave. The last clause can be a command (do not help him) or a statement (no one will).
Proverbs 28:18
A person who lives honestly will be kept safe. A sneaky person will fall down all of a sudden.
Whoever lives with integrity will be kept safe,
The person whose life is of one piece is rescued when trouble comes. The verb is passive: the help comes from outside him, and the implied helper is God.
but whoever twists between two roads will go down in a single moment.
The contrast: the double-dealer has no stable footing. He may keep his balance for years, but when he falls it is sudden and complete, with no gradual decline and no chance to recover.
הלך · halak · walk, live
The picture of verse 6: conduct as a walk.
תמים · tamim · whole, sound
The word of verse 10. Whole, not perfect: a life with no second, hidden road.
ישע · yasha · save, deliver
The main Old Testament verb for saving. The names Joshua and Isaiah are built on it.
עקש · aqash · twist
The verb behind the adjective in verse 6, again with the dual 'two ways'.
נפל · naphal · fall
The same verb as in verses 10 and 14. Three different people fall in this chapter: the one who misleads, the hard-hearted and the crooked.
'All at once' is literally 'in one'. It may mean in one stroke, or 'in one of them', that is, in one of the two roads he is trying to walk. Some follow the ancient Syriac version and read 'into a pit', which differs by one letter.
Proverbs 28:19
If you work on your farm, you will have plenty of food. If you chase after silly dreams, you will have plenty of nothing.
Whoever works his ground will have his fill of bread,
Ordinary, steady, unglamorous labour on what is yours produces enough. The promise is not riches but a full stomach.
but whoever runs after empty things will have his fill of poverty.
The contrast, with a bite. The same verb is used in both lines: one is filled with bread, the other is 'filled' with want. Chasing schemes, shortcuts and worthless company feels like activity but yields nothing.
עבד · avad · work, serve
To labour, to serve. The task given to the first man in Genesis 2:15.
אדמה · adamah · ground, soil
The soil a farmer tills. Related to adam, humankind, who was taken from it.
שבע · saba · be filled, have enough
To eat until satisfied. The verb stands in both lines, so the second is ironic: a bellyful of poverty.
ריק · req · empty, worthless
A plural adjective, 'empty ones'. It can mean empty things (fantasies, schemes) or empty people, as in Judges 9:4.
ריש · rish · poverty
The noun from the same root as rash, the poor person of verses 3, 6 and 27.
This verse is almost the same as 12:11. There the one who chases empty things 'lacks sense'; here he gets his fill of poverty, which sharpens the wordplay on being filled.
Proverbs 28:20
A person others can count on will get lots of good things. But someone in a hurry to get rich will be punished.
A dependable person will have blessings in plenty,
The person who can be relied on, who does what he said, year after year, ends up rich in the things that matter: good from God and goodwill from people.
but the one in a rush to get rich will not get off clean.
The contrast is between steadiness and hurry. Haste for wealth almost always means cutting corners, and so guilt. The line does not say he fails to get rich; it says he will not escape the consequences of how he did it.
אמונה · emunah · steadiness, reliability
From the root of amen: firm, dependable. The Hebrew is plural, 'a man of faithfulnesses', reliable in one thing after another.
ברכה · berakah · blessing
Good bestowed by God, and the good words of others.
אוץ · uts · press, hurry
To press on, to be in a hurry. Proverbs is consistently wary of haste (19:2; 21:5; 29:20).
עשר · ashar · grow rich
The verb behind ashir, the rich man of verses 6 and 11.
נקה · naqah · be clear, acquitted
To be clean, to be let off. Related to naqi, innocent (1:11). He will not be held innocent.
Proverbs 28:21
It is not good to take sides unfairly. Yet some people will do wrong for just a piece of bread.
Playing favorites is not good;
'Not good' is an understatement for 'very bad'. The setting is first of all the court: a judge or witness who decides by who the person is rather than by what the facts are.
yet a man will commit an offence for a scrap of bread.
This line explains how cheaply it happens. It does not take a large bribe to bend someone's judgment. People sell out fairness for almost nothing, which is why the warning is needed.
נכר פנים · nakar panim · recognise faces
Literally to recognise a face: to notice who someone is and let that decide. The Law uses this phrase for judges in Deuteronomy 1:17 and 16:19.
פת לחם · pat lechem · a scrap of bread
Pat is a bit broken off a loaf. The smallest payment imaginable.
גבר · gever · man, strong man
A man in his strength. The irony is that the strong man gives way for a crust.
פשע · pasha · rebel, transgress
The verb of the noun pesha in verses 2, 13 and 24. Bending justice is called a revolt, not a slip.
The first line repeats 24:23 almost word for word. The second line can mean the judge is bought for a trifle, or more broadly that a person will go wrong for the smallest gain.
Proverbs 28:22
A greedy person rushes to get rich. He does not know that he is going to end up poor.
A stingy man is frantic to get wealth
The 'evil eye' is the eye that looks at others' need and others' goods with grudging greed. Such a person is always rushing, even panicking, after money.
and has no idea that want is coming for him.
The result is the opposite of what he is chasing. The thing he fears most, not having enough, is what arrives. Proverbs does not say how; verses 8, 20 and 27 give the reasons: God's ordering, guilt, and the curses of those he ignored.
רע עין · ra ayin · grudging, stingy
Literally 'bad of eye'. In Hebrew idiom this is the miser, as in 23:6. The opposite, the 'good eye' of 22:9, is the generous person.
בהל · bahal · be in a panic, rush
To be alarmed, and so to hurry in agitation. A different and stronger word than 'hurries' in verse 20.
הון · hon · wealth, goods
The word of verse 8.
ידע · yada · know by experience
The rich man of verse 11 thought himself wise; this one simply does not know what is ahead.
חסר · cheser · lack, want
A shortage, a going without. From the same root as 'lack' in verse 27.
The 'evil eye' here has nothing to do with casting spells. In the Bible the eye stands for how you look at people and possessions, so a bad eye is a stingy, envious disposition. Jesus uses the same idiom in Matthew 6:23 and 20:15.
Proverbs 28:23
Tell someone kindly when they are wrong. Later they will thank you more than the person who only said nice things that were not true.
Whoever corrects someone will in the end win more goodwill
Honest correction is unwelcome at the moment it is given. But later, when the person sees it was true and meant for his good, he values the one who gave it. The key word is 'afterward': the reward is delayed.
than whoever makes his tongue smooth.
The comparison. Flattery pleases now and is despised later, when the person realises he was told what he wanted to hear. The two speakers are judged by the long-term result, not the first reaction.
יכח · yakach · correct, set right
To show someone where they are wrong. The verb behind tokachat, the correction of chapter 1 and of 29:1.
אחר · achar · after, later
The word that carries the verse. The Hebrew form here is unusual, but the sense 'later on' is clear.
חן · chen · grace, goodwill
Being looked on with approval. The noun from chanan, to be gracious, in verse 8.
חלק · chalaq · make smooth
To make smooth or slippery. Flattery in Hebrew is smooth talk; the same verb is used in 29:5.
לשון · lashon · tongue
The organ of speech, and so speech itself.
Proverbs 28:24
Someone who steals from his mum or dad and says, It's not wrong, is just as bad as a person who smashes things up.
Whoever robs his father or his mother
The robbery may be outright theft or helping yourself to the family's property and your parents' support as if it were already yours.
and says, It is no crime,
The excuse is what makes it worse. He reasons that it is all in the family, it will be his one day anyway. He has redefined the offence out of existence.
is partner to a man who wrecks things.
The verdict. However he describes it, he belongs in the same class as a destroyer, someone who tears down for gain. Stealing from parents attacks the household that everything else in society is built on.
גזל · gazal · seize, rob
To take by force, to tear away. Stronger than quiet theft.
פשע · pesha · revolt, breach
The word of verses 2 and 13. In verse 13 the remedy for pesha was to confess it; this man denies there is any.
חבר · chaver · associate, partner
One joined to another, a member of the same band.
שחת · shachat · ruin, destroy
To ruin or lay waste. The form is mashchit, a destroyer, used in 18:9 of the one whose slackness makes him brother to a destroyer.
Grown children were responsible for supporting their parents, and the family land and goods were held together. Jesus condemns a religious form of the same excuse in Mark 7:9-13, where money owed to parents is declared an offering instead.
Proverbs 28:25
A greedy person who always wants more starts fights. But the person who trusts God will do well.
A person with a wide-open appetite stirs up quarrels,
The one who always wants more, more money, more room, more recognition, collides with everyone. His wanting pushes into what belongs to others, and conflict follows him.
but whoever trusts in the LORD will be well fed.
The contrast is between grasping and trusting. The one who leaves his needs with God does not have to fight for every scrap, and he is the one who ends up 'made fat', that is, fully supplied. The grasper gets strife; the truster gets plenty.
רחב נפש · rechav nephesh · wide of appetite
Literally 'broad of nephesh'. Nephesh is the throat and so appetite, desire, self. The picture is a throat stretched wide to swallow more.
גרה · garah · stir up, engage
The verb of verse 4. Law-keepers contend with the wicked; the greedy contend with everybody.
מדון · madon · quarrel, contention
From a root meaning to judge or dispute. One of Proverbs' main words for a quarrel.
בטח · batach · feel safe, trust
The verb behind 'bold' in verse 1, now with its object named.
יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name
The right object of trust; the next verse names the wrong one.
דשן · dashen · be made fat
To be made fat, the Hebrew picture of abundance and health. Used the same way in 11:25 and 13:4.
Versions divide between 'arrogant' and 'greedy' for the first phrase. The Hebrew picture, a wide throat, fits greed best, and the second line (being made fat) answers it: the one with the huge appetite is not the one who is filled.
Proverbs 28:26
Anyone who trusts only his own ideas is a fool. Anyone who lives wisely will be kept safe.
Whoever trusts in his own mind is a dull fool,
The 'heart' in Hebrew is the seat of thinking and deciding. To trust it means to treat your own judgment and impulses as a sufficient guide, with no need of God's teaching or anyone's counsel. Proverbs calls that person a fool, however clever he is.
but whoever walks in wisdom will get out safely.
The contrast: wisdom here is something outside yourself that you walk in, learned from God and from others. The one who lives by it escapes the dangers that the self-reliant person walks into.
בטח · batach · feel safe, trust
The same word as verse 25, with the opposite object. The two verses are placed side by side on purpose.
לב · lev · mind and will
Not emotions as against reason, but the whole inner self that thinks and chooses. See 3:5, which forbids leaning on your own understanding.
כסיל · kesil · dull, thick fool
The thick, self-confident fool. His mark throughout Proverbs is that he is sure of himself (14:16).
הלך · halak · walk, live
As in verses 6 and 18: wisdom is a path you actually walk, not a view you hold.
חכמה · chokmah · wisdom, skill
The Hebrew says 'in wisdom', the noun. Wisdom is the road.
מלט · malat · escape, be delivered
To slip away from danger, to be rescued. The passive form means he is brought out safe.
Proverbs 28:27
If you give to poor people, you will have all you need. If you shut your eyes to them, many people will wish bad things on you.
Whoever gives to the poor will not go short,
This runs against simple arithmetic: giving away should leave you with less. The proverb says it does not. The giver is looked after, by God above all.
but whoever hides his eyes will get many a curse.
The contrast: to 'hide the eyes' is to look away on purpose so as not to see the need and feel obliged. The curses come from the poor he ignored, and behind them stands God, who hears them.
נתן · natan · give
The plain verb to give. No amount is named.
רש · rash · poor, having nothing
The word of verses 3 and 6.
מחסור · machsor · want, shortage
From the same root as the 'poverty' that overtakes the miser in verse 22. He keeps and comes to want; the giver gives and has no want.
עלם · alam · hide, conceal
To hide. He hides his eyes, that is, deliberately avoids looking. Compare Deuteronomy 22:1-4, where the same verb forbids 'hiding yourself' from a neighbour's lost animal.
מארה · me'erah · curse
A curse, the opposite of the blessings of verse 20. The same word is used in 3:33 of the LORD's curse on the house of the wicked.
Proverbs 28:28
When bad people take charge, everyone hides. When they are gone, there are more and more people who do right.
When the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding;
This repeats the second half of verse 12 with a plainer verb. Under corrupt power decent people withdraw from public life to survive.
but when the wicked are destroyed, the righteous multiply.
The step forward from verse 12. The rule of the wicked is not permanent. When it ends, the righteous come out of hiding and grow in number and influence. The chapter that opened with the wicked fleeing closes with the wicked gone.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked
The chapter began with this word in verse 1.
קום · qum · stand up, arise
The same phrase as verse 12.
סתר · satar · hide
The ordinary verb for hiding, where verse 12 said people had to be searched for.
אבד · abad · perish, be lost
To be lost, to come to an end. Psalm 1:6 uses it of the way of the wicked.
צדיק · tsaddiq · in the right
The chapter ends as it began, with the righteous secure.
רבה · ravah · become many, great
To become many or great. The next chapter picks the word up at once in 29:2.