Proverbs 29: Good rulers, glad people | Bible study
These sayings show what happens when good people or bad people are in charge, at home and in a whole country. They also say that children need to be taught, that anger makes trouble, and that trusting God keeps you safe.
Proverbs 29:1
Someone who is told again and again that he is wrong, and still will not change, will break all at once. Then nothing can fix him.
A man who has been corrected again and again and still stiffens his neck
The subject is not someone who was never warned. He has had many warnings, and his response each time has been to brace himself against them. The picture is an ox that sets its neck against the yoke.
will be shattered in an instant, with no cure.
The result. Patience has a limit that he cannot see coming. When the break comes it is sudden, and it is final: the time for healing was while the warnings were still being given.
תוכחת · tokachat · correction
Correction that shows you were wrong. The Hebrew is 'a man of corrections', plural: a man whose life is defined by how often he has been told.
קשה ערף · qashah oref · stiffen the neck
Qashah is to make hard; oref is the back of the neck. The same verb described hardening the heart in 28:14. Israel is called stiff-necked in Exodus 32:9.
פתע · peta · in an instant
In a moment, without warning. The irony is that he had nothing but warnings.
שבר · shavar · break, shatter
To smash, as a clay pot is smashed. A neck that will not bend is broken.
מרפא · marpe · healing, cure
From rapha, to heal. The whole second line is word for word the same as 6:15.
A draft ox that stiffened its neck would not turn when the driver pulled or prodded, and so was useless for ploughing. 'Stiff-necked' became the standard Old Testament picture for a person or nation that will not be led.
Proverbs 29:2
When there are lots of people who do right, everyone is glad. When a bad person is in charge, everyone groans.
When the righteous grow strong, the people are glad,
A community does well, and knows it, when people of integrity are numerous and in positions of influence. The gladness is the ordinary relief of living under fair dealing.
but when a wicked man rules, a people sighs.
The contrast: one wicked person in power is enough to make a whole population groan. The groan is the sound of people under a weight they cannot lift. A ruler's character is not a private matter.
צדיק · tsaddiq · in the right
Plural here, set against the single wicked ruler of the second line.
רבה · ravah · become many, great
The verb that closed chapter 28. It can mean grow in number or grow great, that is, come into authority.
שמח · samach · be glad
The common verb for gladness. It comes again in verses 3 and 6.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked
The guilty one, the person in the wrong before God and neighbour.
משל · mashal · rule, govern
To have dominion. This verb is a different root from mashal, a proverb. It returns in verses 12 and 26.
אנח · anach · sigh, groan
To sigh deeply. The verb used of Israel under slavery in Exodus 2:23.
The first line may mean 'when the righteous become many' or 'when the righteous become great', that is, hold power. The second line, about ruling, favours the sense of authority, but the Hebrew allows both. Compare 28:12 and 28:28.
Proverbs 29:3
A son who loves wisdom makes his dad glad. A son who goes after women he should not be with throws his money away.
A man who loves wisdom makes his father glad,
The son in view is grown. His love of wisdom shows in how he lives, and his father's joy is in seeing a life well spent.
but one who keeps company with prostitutes throws away a fortune.
The contrast pairs the father's joy with the family's money. The son who spends his time and desire on prostitutes destroys what his father built. The implied grief of the father is left for the reader to supply.
אהב · ahav · love
To love, to be attached to. Wisdom is treated as someone to love, as in 4:6 and 8:17.
חכמה · chokmah · wisdom, skill
Skill at living. In chapters 1 to 9 Wisdom is a woman to be loved; here she is set against the prostitutes of the second line.
שמח · samach · be glad
The verb of verse 2, here causative: he makes his father glad. Compare 10:1.
רעה · ra'ah · associate with
To keep company with. The same verb as the 'companion of gluttons' in 28:7.
זונה · zonah · prostitute
A woman who sells sex. Proverbs 6:26 says she brings a man down to a loaf of bread.
אבד · abad · perish, ruin
Here causative: he makes the wealth perish. The same verb described the wicked perishing in 28:28.
The fortune was not only the son's. Family property was held across generations, so a son who ran through it ruined his parents' security and his own children's inheritance. Jesus' story of the younger son in Luke 15:13 and 15:30 paints the same scene.
Proverbs 29:4
A king who is fair makes his country strong. One who takes money to do wrong tears it down.
By justice a king makes a land stand firm,
A country is held up by fair courts and honest administration more than by armies or wealth. Where people can expect a right verdict, the land 'stands'.
but a man who lives on payments tears it down.
The contrast: the ruler or official whose decisions can be bought, or who bleeds the country with demands, demolishes what justice builds. The verb is the one for pulling down a wall.
מלך · melek · king
The king was the highest court of appeal in Israel, so justice was his first duty (see verse 14).
משפט · mishpat · right verdict
Right decisions in court and the order they produce. It returns in verse 26.
עמד · amad · stand
Here causative: he makes the land stand.
תרומה · terumah · contribution, levy
The Hebrew is 'a man of terumot'. Terumah is normally a contribution lifted off for the sanctuary; here it is used of payments a ruler extracts or accepts.
הרס · haras · tear down
To demolish a building or a wall. The opposite of making stand.
'A man of contributions' is an unusual phrase and is taken two ways: one who accepts gifts, that is, bribes, or one who imposes heavy levies and taxes. In both cases money, not justice, decides what happens.
Proverbs 29:5
If you say nice things you do not mean, to get something from a person, it is like laying a net to catch their feet.
A man who smooth-talks his neighbor
Flattery is praise given for a purpose other than truth: to be liked, to gain an advantage, to steer the other person.
is laying a net at his feet.
The picture explains the harm. A net lies flat and unseen on the path until a foot is in it. The flattered person walks on with a false picture of himself and is caught. The Hebrew leaves open whose feet are meant, and the flatterer may be trapping himself too.
חלק · chalaq · make smooth
To make smooth or slippery. The same verb as 28:23, where the flatterer is compared with the one who corrects.
רע · rea · neighbor, friend
A companion or fellow, anyone you deal with. The word in 'love your neighbor' (Leviticus 19:18).
רשת · reshet · hunter's net
A net laid on the ground to catch birds or animals, as in 1:17.
פרש · paras · spread out
To spread something flat. The normal verb for setting a net.
פעם · pa'am · footstep
A footfall. The net is put exactly where the foot will come down.
'His steps' can be the neighbor's or the flatterer's own. Most take it as the neighbor's, but verse 6, where an evil man is snared by his own offence, shows the second reading is also at home here.
Proverbs 29:6
A bad person gets caught in a trap by the wrong he does. A person who does right is free to sing and be glad.
In an evil man's offence there is a snare,
Wrongdoing carries its own trap inside it. The evil person thinks his act will free him or enrich him, and instead it holds him: by consequences, by lies he must now maintain, by guilt.
but a righteous person sings out and is glad.
The contrast is between being caught and being free. The righteous has nothing closing around him, so he can do what trapped people cannot: sing. His joy is the sign of his freedom.
פשע · pesha · revolt, breach
Deliberate breach, sin seen as rebellion. It returns in verses 16 and 22.
רע · ra · bad, harmful
The broad word for what is bad and does harm.
מוקש · moqesh · snare, bait
A noun in Hebrew: 'in the offence is a snare'. A moqesh is the trigger or lure of a bird trap. It comes back in verse 25.
צדיק · tsaddiq · in the right
The one in the right, who has no trap of his own making to fear.
רנן · ranan · ringing cry
A loud ringing shout of joy, the verb used of Wisdom's cry in 1:20.
שמח · samach · be glad
The third use in six verses.
Proverbs 29:7
A person who does right cares that poor people are treated fairly. A bad person does not see why anyone would care.
A righteous person knows the case of the poor;
'Knows' means he takes the trouble to find out and to care. The 'case' is a legal word: what the poor are entitled to and whether they are getting it. Righteousness here is defined by attention to people who cannot repay it.
a wicked person has no understanding of such knowledge.
The contrast: the wicked does not merely neglect the poor, he cannot see why anyone would bother. That kind of knowing is outside his range. His indifference is a form of blindness.
צדיק · tsaddiq · in the right
Shown here by one concrete trait: he knows what the poor are owed.
ידע · yada · know by experience
To know by involvement, not just to be informed. Knowing includes caring, as in 12:10, where the righteous 'knows' the life of his animal.
דין · din · legal case, claim
A lawsuit, a legal claim, the judgment due. The word is used the same way in 31:5, 31:8 and 31:9.
דל · dal · weak, thin, poor
From a root meaning to hang low, to be thin. People with no weight to push their own case.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked
The guilty one. His guilt here is a failure to know.
דעת · da'at · knowledge
The noun from yada in the first line. Literally 'does not understand knowledge': the wordplay is that the righteous knows and the wicked cannot grasp knowing.
The second line is literally 'the wicked does not understand knowledge'. It may mean he does not understand that kind of concern, as the NASB takes it, or more generally that he has no real knowledge at all.
Proverbs 29:8
People who make fun of everyone can set a whole town on fire with anger. Wise people cool the anger down.
Mockers set a town ablaze,
People who sneer at everything, at authority, at restraint, at each other, raise the temperature of a whole community. The picture is blowing on embers until they flare.
but the wise turn anger back.
The contrast: wise people do the opposite job. When a crowd or a quarrel is heating up they cool it, by a soft answer, by patience, by refusing to pass the provocation on.
אנשי לצון · anshei latson · men of mockery
Latson is scoffing, from the same root as lets, the mocker of 1:22. Isaiah 28:14 uses the same phrase for Jerusalem's cynical leaders.
פוח · puach · blow, fan
To blow or breathe out. Here, to blow on a fire so that it spreads.
קריה · qiryah · town, city
A town. The harm done by mockers is public, not just personal.
שוב · shuv · turn back
Here causative: they make anger turn around and go back. The same expression is in 15:1, where a gentle answer turns back fury.
אף · aph · nose, anger
Literally the nose, where anger shows in hard breathing and flaring nostrils.
Proverbs 29:9
When a wise person tries to sort things out with a fool, the fool only shouts or laughs. Nothing gets settled.
When a wise man goes to court against a stubborn fool,
The setting is a formal dispute, which should be the place where a matter is settled by reason and evidence.
there is raging and there is laughing, and no peace.
The result. The fool does not argue the case; he swings between fury and ridicule. Neither can be answered, so nothing is settled. The lesson is about what to expect: you cannot count on a reasonable outcome with an unreasonable person.
חכם · chakam · wise, skilled
The adjective from chokmah. Even his skill cannot bring this dispute to a close.
שפט · shaphat · judge, go to law
The verb to judge, in a form that means to enter into judgment with someone, to have a legal dispute.
אויל · evil · stubborn fool
The fool who has decided not to be taught (1:7). A different word from the fool in verses 11 and 20.
רגז · ragaz · shake, be agitated
To quake or tremble, here with rage.
שחק · sachaq · laugh, mock
To laugh, often in scorn.
נחת · nachat · quiet, rest
Calm, settledness. From the root nuach, to rest, which appears in verse 17.
Hebrew does not say who rages and laughs. The NASB makes it the fool. It could also be the wise man: whether he gets angry or laughs it off, he gets no peace. In both readings the dispute is never resolved.
Proverbs 29:10
People who want to hurt others hate an honest person. People who do right try to keep him safe.
Men of blood hate a person of integrity,
Violent people cannot stand someone whose life is whole. His existence is a rebuke to theirs and an obstacle to their plans.
but the upright seek his life.
As the NASB reads it, this is the contrast: where killers want the blameless person gone, upright people look out for him and try to keep him alive. A person of integrity will have both enemies and protectors, and you can tell people by which they are.
דם · dam · blood, bloodshed
The Hebrew is 'men of bloods', plural. The plural of blood regularly means blood that has been shed.
שנא · sane · hate
Active hostility. It appears again in verse 24.
תם · tam · whole, of integrity
Complete, of one piece. The word used to describe Job in Job 1:1.
ישר · yashar · straight
Straight, level. The same word describes the upright person in verse 27.
נפש · nephesh · life, self
The whole living person. The Hebrew phrase is 'they seek his nephesh'.
This is a real difficulty. 'To seek someone's life' everywhere else in the Old Testament means to try to kill them. So some read the line as continuing the first: 'and as for the upright, they seek his life'. Others, like the NASB, take 'seek' in a caring sense that is unique to this verse. The first line is clear either way.
Proverbs 29:11
A fool lets all his anger out. A wise person holds it in and calms it down.
A dull fool lets out all his temper,
Whatever he feels comes straight out, all of it. He treats venting as honesty. Hebrew says he brings out 'all his spirit': nothing is kept back.
but a wise person quiets it and keeps it back.
The contrast is not that the wise person feels nothing. He has the same surge and stills it, the way a storm is stilled. Self-control, not the absence of feeling, is the mark of wisdom.
כסיל · kesil · dull, thick fool
The thick, self-confident fool, a different word from the fool in verse 9.
יצא · yatsa · go out, bring out
Here causative: he makes it go out. He does not so much lose his temper as release it.
רוח · ruach · breath, wind, spirit
Breath, wind, spirit. Here the inner surge of feeling, especially anger. The same word is used for the 'spirit' of the humble in verse 23.
חכם · chakam · wise, skilled
The skilled person. His skill here is over himself.
שבח · shavach · still, calm
To still or soothe. The verb used of God stilling the roaring sea in Psalm 65:7 and Psalm 89:9.
The Hebrew adds a word meaning 'back' or 'afterward': the wise person stills it 'backward'. It may mean he holds it back, or that he calms it in the end. Versions also differ on whether ruach here is anger specifically or everything on his mind.
Proverbs 29:12
If a ruler listens to lies, all his helpers turn bad.
When a ruler listens to lies,
The ruler in view does not necessarily lie himself. He gives his attention to false reports, flattery and slander, and acts on them.
all his officials turn wicked.
The result. Staff learn quickly what the boss rewards. If lies are what he listens to, lies are what they bring, and honest people are pushed out or corrupted. The character of a whole administration follows the ear of the man at the top.
משל · mashal · rule, govern
The form is moshel, one who rules, from the verb in verse 2.
קשב · qashav · listen closely
To prick up the ears, to listen with interest. He is not merely exposed to lies; he attends to them.
שקר · sheqer · lie, deception
A lie, something with nothing behind it. The Hebrew is 'a word of sheqer'.
שרת · sharat · serve, attend
To serve in a personal or official capacity. The form here means his attendants, his court staff.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked
The usual word for the guilty. Here it is something a whole staff becomes.
Proverbs 29:13
A poor person and the one who is cruel to him are alike in one way. God gives both of them eyes that see. He gives life to both.
A poor man and a man who oppresses meet each other:
The two stand at opposite ends of power, and they do meet, often with one squeezing the other. The line prepares for what they share in spite of that.
the LORD is the one who lights the eyes of them both.
What they share is life itself, given by the same God. Light in the eyes is being alive. This puts the oppressor in his place, since he owes his breath to the one who also made his victim, and it tells the poor man he is not forgotten. Both answer to the same giver.
רש · rash · poor, having nothing
From a verb meaning to be in want. The person with nothing.
תך · tok · oppression
The Hebrew is 'a man of oppressions', using a rare noun for injury and extortion. Psalm 72:14 says the true king redeems the needy from it.
פגש · pagash · meet, encounter
To meet face to face. The Hebrew simply says they 'meet'; what they have in common is given in the second line.
אור · or · give light
To make shine. Lighting the eyes is giving or restoring life, as in Psalm 13:3.
עין · ayin · eye
Bright eyes are the sign of a living person; dim eyes of one near death.
יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name
Placed last in the Hebrew line for weight: of both of them, the LORD.
This verse is a twin of 22:2, where the rich and the poor meet and the LORD is the maker of them all. Here 'rich' is replaced by 'oppressor', which makes the point harder: even the man who abuses his power lives by God's gift.
Proverbs 29:14
If a king is fair to poor people, he will stay king for a very long time.
A king who judges the weak truthfully,
The test of a king's justice is the case where there is nothing to gain: a poor person who cannot pay, flatter or retaliate. 'Truthfully' means according to the facts, without tilting toward the stronger party.
his throne will stand firm for good.
The result. This is what makes a reign last, not force or alliances. A government trusted by its weakest people is secure, and behind that stands God, who upholds such a throne.
מלך · melek · king
As in verse 4, the king is seen as the land's chief judge.
שפט · shaphat · judge, decide
To decide a case, and more widely to govern. The same verb as the lawsuit in verse 9.
דל · dal · weak, thin, poor
The weak of verse 7. There the righteous knew their case; here the king decides it.
אמת · emet · truth, reliability
What is firm and can be relied on. From the same root as amen.
כסא · kisse · seat, throne
The royal seat, standing for the reign and the dynasty.
כון · kun · be firm, fixed
To be set firm. The verb in 16:12, where a throne is made firm by righteousness.
Ordinary people could bring a case directly to the king, as the two mothers did before Solomon in 1 Kings 3:16-28. Psalm 72 prays for a king who will do exactly this: judge the poor rightly and save the children of the needy.
Proverbs 29:15
Being told you are wrong, and being punished when you need it, makes you wise. A child who always gets his own way brings shame on his mum.
A rod and correction give wisdom,
Two things are named: physical discipline and spoken correction. Together they produce wisdom in a child, because a child learns where the limits are and why.
but a child left to himself brings shame on his mother.
The contrast is with a child who is 'let loose', given no limits at all. The outcome is not freedom but disgrace, and it lands on the mother. Leaving a child alone is itself a decision, with a result.
שבט · shevet · rod, staff
A stick: the shepherd's staff of Psalm 23:4 and the ruler's sceptre are the same word. In Proverbs it stands for corrective discipline (13:24; 22:15).
תוכחת · tokachat · correction
The verbal correction of verse 1. The verse joins it to the rod: discipline is meant to come with explanation.
חכמה · chokmah · wisdom, skill
Skill at living. It is the aim of the discipline, not obedience for its own sake.
נער · na'ar · young person
A boy or youth, anyone not yet settled as an adult.
שלח · shalach · send off, let loose
To send away or let go. The form here is passive: a child who has been let loose, left to go where he likes.
בוש · bosh · be ashamed
Here causative: he puts her to shame. The mother is named, as in 10:1, though both parents are meant.
The rod belongs to the world of the shepherd and the ox-driver, who used it to guide and check as well as to strike. Proverbs takes for granted that parents use physical correction, and it sets limits on it: it is for the child's good and is joined to teaching (19:18; 23:13-14).
Proverbs 29:16
When there are more bad people, more wrong things are done. But people who do right will see the bad ones fall.
When the wicked multiply, offences multiply,
The same verb is used twice. More wicked people, or wicked people with more power, means more crime and more rebellion against God. Evil is not static; it grows with those who practise it.
but the righteous will watch them fall.
The step further. The growth does not go on for ever. The righteous may be outnumbered for a time, but they will be there at the end to see the collapse. The line is a promise to hold on.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked
The refrain that marks this part of the book: 28:12, 28:28, 29:2 and here.
רבה · ravah · become many, great
The verb of verse 2. There the righteous increased; here the wicked do, and offences with them.
פשע · pesha · revolt, breach
The word of verse 6: deliberate rebellion.
צדיק · tsaddiq · in the right
The ones in the right, who outlast the wicked.
ראה · ra'ah · see, look on
To see, with the sense of looking on at something as a witness. Compare Psalm 37:34.
מפלת · mappelet · a fall, ruin
From naphal, to fall. Used of a fallen tree trunk in Ezekiel 31:13.
Proverbs 29:17
Teach your child right from wrong, and you will be able to rest. Your child will make your heart glad.
Discipline your son and he will give you rest;
A command with a promise. The effort of correcting a child is repaid later in peace of mind: you will not lie awake over what he is doing.
he will bring delight to your very self.
A step beyond rest. A well-raised son does more than cause no trouble; he becomes a positive pleasure. The word is the one for fine food, so he is pictured as a treat to his parents.
יסר · yasar · discipline, train
The verb behind musar, discipline. It covers instruction, warning and punishment. It returns in verse 19.
נוח · nuach · rest
Here causative: he will give you rest. Related to nachat, the rest that was missing in verse 9.
מעדנים · ma'adannim · delicacies
Dainties, choice foods, from the root of the name Eden. The same word is used of royal delicacies in Genesis 49:20.
נפש · nephesh · self, appetite
The self, and also the throat and appetite, which fits the food picture.
Proverbs 29:18
When people have no word from God to guide them, they run wild. But happy is the person who keeps God's teaching.
Where there is no word from God, a people runs loose,
The 'vision' is not a goal or a dream for the future. It is prophetic revelation, God's message through a prophet. Without it a nation has nothing to hold it in line and throws off restraint.
but whoever keeps the teaching is a happy person.
The contrast moves from the nation to the individual. Even when a whole people is running wild, the one person who holds to God's instruction is well off. Revelation has two forms here, prophetic vision and torah, and the second can always be kept.
חזון · chazon · prophetic revelation
What a prophet sees: God's word received and passed on. It is the title word of Isaiah 1:1. In 1 Samuel 3:1 it describes a time when such word was rare.
פרע · para · let loose
To let go, to let hair hang loose, to throw off control. The verb used of Israel at the golden calf in Exodus 32:25, and of neglecting counsel in Proverbs 1:25.
שמר · shamar · guard, watch over
To guard like a watchman. The same phrase as 28:4.
תורה · torah · teaching, law
Teaching, direction. Set beside prophetic vision, it means God's written instruction.
אשרי · ashrei · happy, to be envied
The exclamation that opens Psalm 1. It is singular: happy is he, even if he is the only one.
The scene behind the verb is Exodus 32. Moses was away on the mountain, no word from God was coming, and the people made a calf; when he returned he saw they were 'let loose'. The period of the judges and the days of young Samuel show the same pattern.
The old rendering 'where there is no vision, the people perish' has made this verse a slogan about leadership and long-range goals. Neither word supports that. Chazon is revelation from God, and the verb means to cast off restraint, not to perish.
Proverbs 29:19
Words alone are not enough to teach a servant who will not obey. He understands, but he does not do it.
A servant is not corrected by words only;
The case is a servant who will not take verbal instruction. Telling him is not enough to change what he does.
for he understands and still gives no answer.
The reason. The problem is not that he fails to grasp what was said. He understands perfectly and does not respond, in word or in action. When someone can simply ignore you, words need consequences behind them.
עבד · eved · servant, slave
From avad, to work or serve. It covers everything from a bonded labourer to a king's official.
יסר · yasar · discipline, train
The verb of verse 17. What is said there of a son is said here of a servant.
דבר · davar · word, matter
A word, a thing said. It comes back in the next verse.
בין · bin · tell apart
To discern. He has the understanding; what is missing is the will.
מענה · ma'aneh · answer
A reply, from anah, to answer. Here it includes the answer of obedience.
Israelite households commonly included servants, many of them working off a debt for a fixed term (Exodus 21:2). The proverb describes how things were and gives a householder's observation; it is not a statement about what slavery ought to be. Its lasting point is about people who understand and choose not to respond.
Proverbs 29:20
Do you know someone who talks before he thinks? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Have you noticed a man who is quick with his words?
The question makes you picture someone you know: the person who speaks before thinking, answers before the question is finished, commits before considering.
A dull fool has a better chance than he does.
The verdict, and it is severe, because Proverbs has said very hard things about the fool. The fool might one day be taught. The hasty talker keeps doing damage and making commitments faster than anyone can correct him.
חזה · chazah · see, observe
To look at, to perceive. The verb behind chazon, the vision of verse 18.
אוץ · uts · press, hurry
To press on, to hurry. The same word as the man in a hurry to be rich in 28:20.
דבר · davar · word, matter
It can also mean matters or affairs, so the haste may be in what he does as well as what he says.
תקוה · tiqvah · hope, expectation
Something to look forward to. Related to a word for a stretched cord, hope as a line you hold.
כסיל · kesil · dull, thick fool
The fool of verse 11, who lets out all his temper. The fast talker is ranked below him.
The second line is identical in Hebrew to the second line of 26:12, where the one worse off than a fool is the man who is wise in his own eyes. The two belong together: both are too sure of themselves to stop and listen.
Proverbs 29:21
If you spoil a servant from the time he is young, giving him all he wants, he will bring you trouble in the end.
If someone spoils his servant from his youth,
The servant is indulged from the start: no demands, no correction. This is the servant's version of the child let loose in verse 15.
it will turn out badly in the end.
The result, though the exact word is uncertain (see the translation note). The general sense is clear from the shape of the saying: indulgence early leads to trouble late. What looks like kindness produces someone who does not know his place or his duty.
פנק · panaq · indulge, spoil
To treat delicately, to pamper. The verb occurs only here in the Old Testament; its meaning is known from later Hebrew and related languages.
עבד · eved · servant, slave
The word of verse 19.
נער · no'ar · youth
The time of being a na'ar, a young person (verse 15).
אחרית · acharit · the after-part, outcome
What comes afterward, the final outcome. Proverbs constantly asks you to judge a course by its acharit (14:12; 23:18).
The last Hebrew word, manon, occurs nowhere else and its meaning is not known. The NASB's 'rebellious' is one proposal. Others are 'a son' or 'heir' (the servant will end up claiming the place of a son), 'grief', and 'ungrateful'. No rendering is certain.
Proverbs 29:22
An angry person starts fights. A person with a hot temper does lots of wrong things.
A man of anger stirs up quarrels,
An angry person does not just have conflicts; he produces them. Where he goes, disputes start.
and a master of rage piles up offences.
A step further. Anger is not one sin but a source of many: harsh words, broken trust, violence, injustice. The hot-tempered person is 'great in offence' because his temper keeps carrying him across lines.
אף · aph · nose, anger
The Hebrew is 'a man of aph', the word of verse 8. Anger is his defining trait.
גרה · garah · stir up, engage
To provoke a contest. The same verb and object as 28:25 and 15:18.
מדון · madon · quarrel, contention
A dispute, from a root meaning to judge or contend.
בעל חמה · ba'al chemah · owner of rage
Ba'al is owner or master; chemah is heat, and so burning rage. He is called the owner of his rage, though in truth it owns him.
פשע · pesha · revolt, breach
The word of verses 6 and 16. Literally he is 'great in pesha'.
Proverbs 29:23
Being proud will bring you down low. But someone who does not think he is the greatest will be honoured.
A person's pride will bring him down low,
Pride aims at height and gets the opposite. The proud person overreaches, refuses advice, makes enemies, and is finally humbled by events or by God.
but the one who is low in spirit will take hold of honor.
The contrast turns on one word. The Hebrew for 'bring low' and for 'humble' is the same root: pride makes you low against your will, while the one who is already low in his own estimate is given the honor the proud man wanted.
גאוה · ga'avah · pride, loftiness
From a root meaning to rise high. The picture of pride is height.
שפל · shaphel · be low, bring down
To be or become low. Here causative: it will lower him.
שפל · shaphal · low, lowly
The adjective from the same root as 'bring low'. The phrase is 'low of spirit', as in 16:19.
רוח · ruach · breath, wind, spirit
The inner disposition. The fool let all his ruach out in verse 11; here it is kept low.
תמך · tamak · grasp, hold up
To take hold of and keep hold of. The same verb is used of the gracious woman who attains honor in 11:16.
כבוד · kavod · weight, honor
From a root meaning heavy. Honor is weight, substance in the eyes of others.
English cannot keep the wordplay. Literally: 'a man's pride will make him low, but the low of spirit will grasp honor'. Jesus states the same reversal in Luke 14:11.
Proverbs 29:24
Anyone who helps a thief is hurting himself. When he is asked to tell the truth, he stays quiet, and so he is in trouble too.
Whoever splits the take with a thief hates his own life;
The partner may not have stolen anything himself. He takes a cut, or receives the goods. The proverb says that in doing so he is acting as his own enemy.
he hears the curse pronounced and does not speak up.
This explains how. When the theft is investigated, a public curse is called down on anyone who knows something and stays silent. He hears it, and because he is involved he cannot testify. So he brings the curse on himself. Sharing in the profit has trapped him between confessing and being cursed.
חלק · chalaq · divide, share
To divide up and take a share, the verb for dividing plunder. It is a different root from the chalaq that means to flatter in verse 5.
גנב · gannav · thief
One who steals in secret, as against a robber who uses force.
שנא · sane · hate
The verb of verse 10. He treats his own self as an enemy would.
נפש · nephesh · life, self
His own self. Compare 1:18-19, where the gang ambushes its own lives.
אלה · alah · curse, adjuration
A spoken curse on whoever is guilty or withholds evidence. The word is used this way in Leviticus 5:1.
נגד · nagad · declare, report
To make known, to inform. The same verb as in Leviticus 5:1.
With no police force, a victim or the court would pronounce a public curse on the unknown culprit and on anyone who knew of the matter and kept quiet. Leviticus 5:1 says the silent witness bears his guilt. In Judges 17:1-2 a son confesses a theft after hearing his mother utter such a curse.
Proverbs 29:25
Being afraid of what people think is a trap. But anyone who trusts God is kept safe.
Trembling before people sets a trap,
When what others might think, say or do to you becomes the thing that decides your actions, you are caught. You will lie, flatter, stay silent or go along in order to be safe from them, and each of those is a snare closing.
but whoever trusts in the LORD is lifted out of reach.
The contrast: the cure for fear of people is not courage in the abstract but trust in someone greater. The picture is of being set up on a high place, like a fortress on a rock, where the things you feared cannot get at you.
חרדה · charadah · trembling, panic
From a verb meaning to tremble. Not reverent awe (yir'ah) but anxious shaking. Used of Isaac's violent trembling in Genesis 27:33.
אדם · adam · human being
A human being, humankind. Set against the LORD in the second line.
מוקש · moqesh · snare, bait
The trap of verse 6. There a person's offence was the snare; here his fear is.
בטח · batach · feel safe, trust
To feel secure by relying on someone. The same phrase closed 28:25.
יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name
God's personal name. Fear of adam is answered by trust in YHWH.
שגב · sagav · be set on high
To be high and inaccessible. The same verb is in 18:10, where the righteous runs into the strong tower of the LORD's name and is set on high.
Towns and strongholds were built on hilltops and crags because height was safety: an attacker had to climb under fire. To be 'set on high' was to be placed where the enemy could not reach.
Proverbs 29:26
Lots of people want the ruler to be nice to them. But it is God who makes sure each person is treated fairly.
Many people seek an audience with the ruler,
People with a case or a need go to whoever holds power and try to win him over. It is a picture of crowds waiting at the palace, each hoping for a favorable hearing.
but a person's verdict comes from the LORD.
The contrast, and a correction of where hope is placed. The ruler is not the final court. What a person actually receives, his true judgment, is decided by God, who cannot be lobbied. This pairs with verse 25: do not fear people, and do not put your hope in them either.
בקש · baqash · look for, pursue
To look for, to try to obtain.
משל · mashal · rule, govern
The moshel of verse 12, whose ear decides so much. Here his power is put in proportion.
פנים · panim · face, presence
Literally 'the face of the ruler'. To seek someone's face is to seek a hearing and his goodwill.
משפט · mishpat · right verdict
The verdict in a person's case. In verse 4 a king upholds the land by it; here its true source is named.
יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name
In Hebrew 'from the LORD' stands first in the line for emphasis.
Proverbs 29:27
People who do right cannot stand the unfair things bad people do. And bad people cannot stand those who live an honest life.
A dishonest man is detestable to the righteous,
The righteous are not neutral about injustice. They find the person who deals unjustly repulsive, the same reaction God has.
and one whose way is straight is detestable to the wicked.
The mirror image. The loathing runs both ways and cannot be reconciled. Solomon's collected sayings end here on purpose: there are two kinds of people, each revolted by the other, and no middle ground. If you live straight, expect to be hated by some.
עול · avel · injustice, wrong
Wrongdoing, especially unfairness in dealings and in court. The Hebrew is 'a man of injustice'.
תועבה · to'evah · something detestable
The strongest Hebrew word for what is repulsive. Usually it is what the LORD detests (11:1; 15:8); here it describes how each side sees the other.
צדיק · tsaddiq · in the right
The last appearance of the pair in this collection.
ישר · yashar · straight
Straight. The phrase is 'straight of way', the opposite of the man 'twisted of two ways' in 28:6 and 28:18.
דרך · derek · road, way of life
A road, and so a course of life. One of the main images of the whole book.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked
The guilty one. The collection that began at 25:1 ends with this contrast.