The Poor Can See Through the Rich Person's Confidence

The curse of Leviticus 26:17 and 26:36 is fulfilled here in miniature: “ye shall flee when none pursueth you… the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them.” The Hebrew verb “flee” is plural while “the wicked” is singular, an odd grammatical mismatch. “Bold” is batah, to trust, to feel secure: the lion is not reckless but unafraid.

The northern kingdom of Israel is the history that fits: nine dynasties in about two hundred years, with kings murdered in turn, and Zimri reigning seven days (1 Kings 16:15). The second line is difficult in Hebrew, but its sense is clear enough: one man of understanding keeps a land stable longer than a queue of rulers.

A poor man oppressing the poor seemed so odd to some readers that they proposed adding a letter to read “a ruler” or “a wicked man”. The Hebrew as it stands says poor. The “sweeping rain” is a driving downpour that flattens the crop and washes the soil off the terraces. Rain should bring bread; this one takes it.

The word torah, law or instruction, appears four times in this chapter (twice in verse 4, then in verses 7 and 9), an unusual concentration for Proverbs. It may mean teaching in general or the Law of Moses. “Contend” is the verb for stirring up conflict, the word of Deuteronomy 2:5, “Meddle not with them”. Keeping the law means refusing to applaud the wicked.

The same verb, bin, to understand, is used on both sides: evil men do not understand justice, and those who seek the LORD understand everything. The claim is not that the godly know all facts, but that seeking the LORD opens the whole field of right and wrong to them. Psalm 119:100 says “I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.”

“Perverse in his ways” is in the Hebrew dual, “crooked of two ways”, the picture of a man trying to walk two roads at once, a double-dealer. Verse 18 uses the same dual. The poor man has only one road, and he walks it straight; the rich man’s wealth has not bought him a single path.

“Companion” is ro‘eh, which also means shepherd: he tends gluttons as a shepherd tends a flock. The same Hebrew word describes the glutton in 23:20–21 and in the rebellious son’s charge of Deuteronomy 21:20. The verse sets keeping the law against keeping bad company, and the father is shamed by the second.

“Usury and unjust gain” are the exact pair of Leviticus 25:36, “Take thou no usury of him, or increase”. Lending at interest to a poor fellow Israelite was forbidden (Exodus 22:25); the word for usury, neshekh, comes from a root meaning to bite. The money bitten out of the poor ends up in the hands of someone who will give it back to them.

The man who turns away his ear finds God turning away his. Zechariah 7:13 states the exchange: “as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear.” Contrast 15:8, where the prayer of the upright is his delight. Prayer is judged by the one who prays, and this man has refused to listen first.

“Causeth to go astray” is the verb of Deuteronomy 27:18, “Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way.” Misleading the upright is treated like steering a blind man off the road, and the man who does it drops into his own pit. The verse has three lines, and the third gives the upright an inheritance of good.

The rich man has only his own eyes as a mirror, and he likes what he sees. The poor man who has understanding “searcheth him out”, sees through him. Ecclesiastes 4:13 makes a similar ranking: “Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.”

When the righteous triumph there is “great glory”, festive splendour in the streets. When the wicked rise, “a man is hidden”: the verb is hapas, which can mean to be searched for or to disguise oneself, the word used of Saul putting on a disguise to visit the medium at Endor (1 Samuel 28:8). People go into hiding and must be hunted out.

“Covereth” is the same verb used in 10:12 and 17:9 for covering someone else’s offence, which is love; covering one’s own sin is the opposite. Psalm 32:3–5 describes the cost of the cover-up: “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old,” and then, “I acknowledged my sin unto thee.” “Confesseth” is from the root that also means to give thanks.

The fear here is not the usual yir’ah, reverence, but pahad, dread, the word for trembling at danger. The man who stays alert, jumpy even, is called happy. Its opposite is the hardened heart, the phrase used of Pharaoh in Exodus 7:3, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart”. A heart that can still tremble can still be warned.

The “ranging bear” is a charging one; the verb is used of locusts “running to and fro” in Isaiah 33:4. The lion that pictured the bold righteous in verse 1 now pictures a predator on the throne. Zephaniah 3:3 puts it the same way: “Her princes within her are roaring lions.” The victims are “the poor people”, a whole population without defence.

“Hateth covetousness” is the qualification Jethro gave Moses for choosing judges: “men of truth, hating covetousness” (Exodus 18:21). The word is betsa‘, unjust profit. The prince who lacks it has a long reign; the prince who lacks understanding has a reign of extortion. The first half is awkwardly phrased in Hebrew, and translations vary.

The murderer is literally “oppressed by the blood of a life”, weighed down with bloodguilt. He runs until the grave. The law provided cities of refuge for the man who killed by accident, but not for the deliberate murderer (Numbers 35:11–21). “Let no man stay him” means do not hold out a hand to support him.

The dual “two ways” from verse 6 returns. “Shall fall at once” is literally “shall fall in one”, which may mean all at once, or in one of his two roads: the man who tries to walk two ways falls into one of them. The upright “shall be saved”, kept safe, because he never split his path.

The first line is identical to 12:11; the second has been sharpened. There the man who follows vain persons merely lacks understanding; here he is “sated with poverty”, the same verb as the “plenty” of the first line. “Vain persons” are empty men, like the hired idlers of Abimelech in Judges 9:4.

“Shall not be innocent” is the formula elsewhere translated “shall not be unpunished” (6:29, 11:21, 16:5). The man in a hurry for riches will not get off. Gehazi is a fitting example: he ran after Naaman for silver and clothing and came back with leprosy (2 Kings 5:20–27). The faithful man, in contrast, abounds in blessings.

“A piece of bread” is a crust. Ezekiel 13:19 accuses false prophets of profaning God “for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread”. The price of corruption is shockingly small, and that is the point: partiality does not need a large bribe; once the habit is formed, a scrap will do.

“Hasteth” here is bahal, a verb of panic, used of the chiefs of Edom being “amazed” with terror in Exodus 15:15. The greedy man rushes as if frightened. The grudging “evil eye” is fixed on wealth ahead, and it does not see the want coming up behind him.

“Afterwards” renders a Hebrew word that literally means “after me”, and some take it as the teacher’s voice: he that rebukes a man in my way. The King James reads it as time: the one who rebukes will be thanked later. The flatterer has a “smooth tongue”, and his favour is spent at once.

Judges 17:2 records a man named Micah who took eleven hundred shekels from his mother. Jesus condemns a similar evasion in Mark 7:10–12, where property declared an offering is withheld from parents. “Companion of a destroyer” echoes 18:9, where the lazy man is “brother” to the great waster: the destroyer keeps collecting relatives.

“Of a proud heart” is literally “wide of appetite”, greedy, the same idea as Sheol enlarging her throat in Isaiah 5:14. The greedy man stirs up strife because he wants more than his share. The one who trusts the LORD “shall be made fat”, well fed, and gets without grabbing.

Jeremiah 17:5–9 sets out the same contrast at length: “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man”, “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD”, and “The heart is deceitful above all things.” “Delivered” is the verb for slipping out of danger, as the wise man escapes what the self-trusting man walks into.

“Hideth his eyes” is the verb of Deuteronomy 22:1–4, which forbids seeing a neighbour’s ox or sheep astray and hiding oneself from it. Deliberately not seeing is named as a sin. Isaiah 1:15 has God answer in kind: “I will hide mine eyes from you.” The giver lacks nothing; the one who looks away gathers curses.

The verse repeats the thought of verse 12 and frames the second half of the chapter with it. Chapter 29 picks it up at once (29:2, 29:16). When the wicked rise, people vanish from public life; when the wicked perish, the righteous “increase”, multiply, as if they had been there all along, waiting to come out.