Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 13:5
A righteous [man] hateth lying: but a wicked [man] is loathsome, and cometh to shame.
5. is loathsome ] lit. stinketh. Comp. Ecc 10:1; Exo 5:21, where the same Heb. word occurs.
In R.V. marg. an alternative rendering is suggested: causeth shame and bringeth reproach.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Pro 13:5
A righteous man hateth lying.
Moral truthfulness
I. An instinct to the righteous. A righteous man hateth lying. A soul that has been made right in relation to the laws of its own spiritual being to the universe and to God has an instinctive repugnance to falsehood. A right-hearted man cannot be false in speech or life. The prayer of his soul is, Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me Thy law graciously (Psa 119:29).
II. Moral truthfulness is a safeguard against evil. The evils specified in these two verses in connection with the wicked must be regarded as kept off from the righteous by his moral truthfulness. What are the evils here implied connected with falsehood?
1. Loathsomeness. A wicked man is loathsome. A liar is an unlovely and an unlovable object; he is detestable; he attracts none; he repels all.
2. Shame. He cometh to shame. A liar either in lip, or life, or both, must come to shame. A rigorous destiny will strip off his mask, and leave him exposed, a hideous hypocrite, to the scorn of men and angels.
3. Destruction. Wickedness overthroweth the sinner. Inevitable destruction is the doom of the false. They have built their houses on the sand of fiction, and the storms of reality will lay them in ruins. From all these evils, moral truthfulness guards the righteous. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Lying hateful
There is no knowing the effects of a lie even in this world. Said a lady, I told once for all the fashionable lie of having my servant announce at the door that I was not at home. At night my husband said, Mrs.
died to-day. It went through me like cold steel. She had made me promise that I would be at her bedside at the last hour, as she had something of great importance to disclose. And, said my husband, she died in great distress to see you, having sent three times, only to learn that you were not at home. How I loathed myself! No more lies for me!
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Hateth lying, both in himself and in other men, whereby he getteth that good name which is like a precious ointment.
A wicked man; who accustometh himself to lying, as may be gathered from the foregoing words.
Cometh to shame; makes himself contemptible and hateful to all that know him; there being scarce any reproach which men more impatiently endure, and severely revenge, than that of being called or accounted a liar.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. loathsome . . . shamebetter,causeth shame and reproach (compare Pr19:26), by slander, &c., which the righteous hates.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
A righteous [man] hateth lying,…. Or, “a word of falsehood” y; as being contrary to honour, truth, and conscience. He hates it in himself and others; he hates all sorts of lies, lies in common conversation, religious lies, doctrinal ones, false doctrines, lies spoken in hypocrisy; such as the followers of antichrist spread, being given up unto them that they might be damned, 1Ti 4:2; these are an abomination to God and all good men, Re 21:27;
but a wicked [man] is loathsome, and cometh to shame; or, “causes” or “spreads a stink” z: all wicked men are loathsome and abominable, being very corrupt in principle and practice; all over defiled with sin, and covered with wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores, from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet; and especially liars, who are often brought to shame and confusion in this life, and will hereafter come to everlasting shame and contempt. Or, “makes himself to stink” a; in the nostrils of all good men, and so brought to shame: or “digs”; a metaphor, as Cartwright thinks, from those that dig in the earth, where such as are covered with shame would gladly put their heads.
y “verbum falsitatis”, Montanus, Michaelis; “verbum fuci”, Schulteus. z “foetere facit”, Vatablus, Mercerus; “foetere faciet”, Montanus; “foetere fecit foetorem”, Gussetius, p. 114. “foetorem spargit”, Schultens. a “Se ipse foetere facit”, Coccei Lexic. col. 77. “foetidum se reddit”, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Two proverbs of the character of the righteous and of the effect of righteousness:
A deceitful thing the righteous hateth;
But the godless disgraceth and putteth to shame.
With in the sphere of an intelligible generality (as here of falsehood, or Psa 41:9 of worthlessness) a concrete event is in view, as with in the following plur. a general fact is separated into its individual instances and circumstances ( vid., at Psa 65:4); for means not only the word in which the soul reveals itself, but also any fact in which an inner principle or a general fact or a whole comes forth to view. The righteous hateth all that bears in it the character of a falsehood (punctuate with Gaja, cf. Pro 12:19), but the godless … Should we now, with Bertheau, Hitzig, and others, translate “acteth basely and shamefully”? It is true that both Hiphs. may be regarded as transitive, but this expression gives not right contrast to 5a, and is pointless. We have seen at Pro 10:5 that , like , has also a causative signification: to put to shame, i.e., bring shame upon others, and that Pro 19:26, where are connected, this causative signification lies nearer than the intrinsically transitive. Thus it will also here be meant, that while the righteous hateth all that is false or that is tainted by falsehood, the godless on the contrary loves to disgrace and to put to shame. But it is a question whether is to be derived from = , and thus is of the same meaning as ; , Isa 30:5, which there signifies pudefactum esse , is pointed , and is thus derived from a = , vid., 2Sa 19:6. But occurs also as Hiph. of , and means transitively to make of an evil savour, Gen 34:30, cf. Exo 5:21, as well as intransitively to come into evil savour, 1Sa 27:12. In this sense of putidum faciens , bringing into evil savour, occurs here as at Pro 19:26, suitably along with ; Pro 19:26 is the putidum facere by evil report (slander), into which the foolish son brings his parents, here by his own evil report, thus to be thought of as brought about by means of slander. The old translators here fall into error; Luther renders both Hiphils reflexively; only the Venet. (after Kimchi) is right: (from an as trans. to ) , he makes to be of ill odour and dishonours.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
5 A righteous man hateth lying: but a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame.
Note, 1. Where grace reigns sin is loathsome. It is the undoubted character of every righteous man that he hates lying (that is, all sin, for every sin is a lie, and particularly all fraud and falsehood in commerce and conversation), not only that he will not tell a lie, but he abhors lying, from a rooted reigning principle of love to truth and justice, and conformity to God. 2. Where sin reigns the man is loathsome. If his eyes were opened, and his conscience awakened, he would be so to himself, he would abhor himself and repent in dust and ashes; however, he is so to God and all good men; particularly, he makes himself so by lying, than which there is nothing more detestable. And, though he may think to face it out awhile, yet he will come to shame and contempt at last and will blush to show his face, Dan. xii. 2.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Truth and Falsehood
Verse 5 suggests that a righteous man (a lover of truth) hates or detests lying; but a wicked man (who lies and slanders) is loathsome and will eventually come to shame. Pro 12:22 expresses the LORD’s view of lying and truthful persons. This verse emphasizes the consequences of lying; it exerts an evil influence which provokes abhorrence by men, Gen 34:30; and leads to everlasting shame and contempt, Dan 12:2; Mat 25:46; Rev 21:8.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 13:5. Lying, rather deceit. Stuart renders it a false report. Zckler translates the latter clause of this verse, the ungodly acteth basely and shamefully. The translations of Stuart and Delitzsch are nearly the same. Miller reads the whole verse, A deceiving business hates the righteous man, but also shames and disgraces the wicked.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 13:5
A LAWFUL HATRED
I. A righteous man hates lying.
1. Because it is contrary to his ruling disposition. His own righteous character has been created by believing the truth. His spiritual life is constantly renewed and sustained by believing the truth, and reducing his belief to practice. He is a child of the truth, and, therefore, apart from all the consequences of lying he instinctively abhors it.
2. He hates it also because of its evil influence upon men. Confidence in a lie ruined our first parents, and confidence in a lie has ruined whole nations and mighty empires in the past. In proportion as men believe a lie (2Th. 2:11) in the same proportion will be their ruin. The righteous man knows that the kingdom of God is a kingdom of truth (Joh. 18:37), and as his great desire is to see that kingdom spread he must hate all that opposes it, and thus mars the happiness of the human race.
II. Wicked men are untruthful men. As the righteous mans character is built by truth and upon truth, so that of an ungodly man is built upon false hood. All such men are the children of him who was a liar from the beginning, and although they may not be liars in the common acceptation of the word, there is a lack of truthfulness in the character of the most outwardly moral. In some shape or other he is a liarhe is a subject of him whose kingdom is built upon lying, and who could not retain under his influence a man who hated lying in every form and under every disguise. Such a man must come to shame. What would be the fate of a cripple if he were to challenge a man with sound limbs to run a race? Must he not be worsted in the end? Not more surely than will every subject of the kingdom whose foundation was laid in a lie. There is an Italian proverb which says, A liar is sooner caught than a cripple. If lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, he who owns the lips must be an abomination also (see Homiletics on chap. Pro. 12:22).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Clear and round dealing is the honour of mans nature; and that mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold or silver, which may make the metal work the better but embaseth it. For these winding and crooked courses are the goings of the serpent, which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious; and, therefore, Montaigne sayeth prettily, when he inquired the reason why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace and such an odious charge, If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much as to say that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. For a lie faces God and shrinks from man.Lord Bacon.
The natural man shuns lying and deceit on account of the outward shame and reproach; the pious abhors them with all his heart for Gods sake.Starke, in Langes Commentary.
The allegiance of the soul to truth is tested by small things, rather than by those which are more important. There is many a man who would lose his life rather than perjnre himself in a court of justice, whose life is yet a tissue of small insincerities. We think that we are hating falsehood when we are only hating the consequences of falsehood. We resent hypocrisy and treachery, and calumny, not because they are untrue, but because they harm us. We hate the false calumny, but are half-pleased by the false praise. It is evidently not the element of untruth here that is displeasing, but the element of harmfulness. Now he is a man of integrity who hates untruth as untruth; who resents the smooth and polished falsehood of society, which does no harm; who turns in indignation from the glittering whitened lie of sepulchral Pharisaism which injures no one. Integrity recoils from deception, which men would almost smile to hear called deception. To a moral pure mind the artifices in every department of life are painful. The stained wood which passes for a more firm and costly material in a building, and deceives the eye by passing for what it is notmarble. The painting which is intended to be taken for reality; the gilding which is meant to pass for gold; and the glass which is worn to look like jewels; for there is a moral feeling and a truthfulness in architecture, in painting, and in dress, as well as in the market-place and in the senate, and in the judgment hall. These are trifles. Yes, these are trifles; but it is just these trifles which go to the formation of character. He that is habituated to deceptions and artificialities in trifles will try in vain to be true in matters of importance; for truth is a thing of habit rather than of will. And it is a fearful question, and a difficult one, how all these things, the atmosphere of which we breathe in our daily life, may sap the very foundation of the power of becoming a servant of the truth.F. W. Robertson.
It is not said that a righteous man never lies. David lied more than once, and yet he could say with truth that he abhorred lying. Though he lied to Abimelech the priest, and to the king of the Philistines, yet his fixed hatred of sin was an evidence of piety, to which those can lay no claim who never spoke a lie in their lives, if their abstinence from this sin was caused by some other motive than hatred. God and men agree in almost nothing but this, that a liar is detestable to both, and therefore he must, sooner or later, come to disgrace.Lawson.
The affections are of as great force in the service of God as the words and actions, and the heart hath no less place than the members of the body. It must be one and the principal agent in love, where they have calling; and it must deal alone with detestation of those abominations which they are discharged to intermeddle with. Here we have instruction to inform our hearts against all manner of wickedness, that they may be the more incensed against it. The less we like sin the more righteous we are, and the better the Lord will love us. And the more agreement there is between sin and our souls, the less peace there is between our souls and God. All the hurts and miseries that have ever come upon us, or on Christ for our sakes, do give us just occasion to fall out with sinfulness, that hath been the cause thereof.Dod.
Where grace reigns, sin is loathsome, where sin reigns the man is loathsome. Henry.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(5) A wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame.Or it may signify, disgraceth and putteth to shame (by his calumnies), or acts basely and shamefully.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Hateth lying , ( debhar sheker,) a word of lying; that is, a lying word slander or false report. Zockler takes debhar in the sense of thing any deceitful thing; a possible sense. Miller: “A deceitful business.”
But a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame Causes a badodour, and acts shamefully, or puts to the blush. This is, doubtless, to be understood metaphorically of false and slanderous reports put in circulation by him, but the expressions are strong, and may readily be understood. Comp. on first clause, Pro 19:26; also, Col 3:9; Rom 12:9; Eph 4:25; Lev 19:11.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 5. A righteous man hateth lying,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
DISCOURSE: 780
THE CHARACTER AND END OF THE WICKED
Pro 13:5. A wicked man is lothesome, and cometh to shame.
THE world in general uphold and countenance one another in their evil ways; some will even make a mock at sin, and glory in it. But Gods testimony respecting the wicked man is, that, whatever be his rank, or talents, or estimation among men, he is indeed lothesome, and cometh to shame.
In these words we behold,
I.
The character of the wicked
The wicked comprehend all who are not righteous
[There are but two classes of persons mentioned in the Scriptures; and to one or other of them we all belong. There is no intermediate character. We indeed cannot always determine to which of these classes men belong, because we cannot discern the heart; but God, to whom all things are naked and open, will distinguish them from each other as easily as we do sheep from the goats.
It is of infinite importance that we should have this truth impressed on our minds: for we are ready to rank among the wicked those only who are guilty of great enormities: whereas all are wicked who are not truly righteous; all, who are not converted to God, and renewed in the spirit of their minds.]
Gods testimony respecting them is applicable to them all, whether they be more or less wicked in respect of gross sins
[The openly profane are doubtless exceeding lothesome in the sight of God. Let any one but notice their conversation; how replete is it with lewdness and blasphemy! Let their tempers be marked; what evil dispositions do they manifest on all occasions! Let their conduct be scrutinized, their drunkenness, their whoredoms, and all their other abominations; and who must not confess the justice of that representation, which compares them to swine wallowing in the mire, and dogs devouring their own vomit [Note: 2Pe 2:22. See also Job 15:16. Psa 53:1-3.]?
The more decent, it is true, are not so vile in the eyes of men, (yea, perhaps they are honoured and esteemed) but they also are lothesome in the sight of God. What monsters of ingratitude are the very best of unregenerate men! What mercies have they received from God; what inconceivable love has been shewn them by the Lord Jesus Christ; and yet they have never spent one hour in humble and grateful adorations. If they had laboured thus to win the affections of some worthless wretch, and after many years of unintermitted kindness were requited by him as they requite their God, would they not consider him as deserving of utter execration? How lothesome then must they be, whose obligations are infinitely greater, and whose conduct is inexpressibly more vile! Their actions, it is confessed, may have been fair and specious: but what have their hearts been? have they not been a very sink of iniquity [Note: Jer 17:9. Gen 6:5.]? Yes; so depraved are the very best of men, that there are few, if any, who would not rather die, than have all the secrets of their hearts known to men as they are known to God. What then are such persons, but whited sepulchres [Note: Mat 23:27.]? No wonder that, however they be esteemed among men, both their persons and services are an abomination to the Lord [Note: Luk 15:16. Pro 15:8; Pro 15:26; Pro 28:9.].]
Conformable to their character must surely be,
II.
Their end
Sin is in itself inconceivably vile, and will bring its votaries to shame,
1.
In this world
[How often are the fairest characters blasted by detection, and exposed to infamy! The deeds of darkness, when brought to light, often reflect such dishonour upon men, as to make them shun society, and put a period to their own existence. And how many are brought to die by the hands of a public executioner, and to entail disgrace on their latest posterity! Little do men think, when first they yield to temptation, whither sin will lead them. It is a principal device of Satan to conceal the consequences of sin, and to make men believe that they can recede from it whenever they please: but when he has once entangled their feet, they find to their cost, that they cannot escape from his net.]
2.
In the world to come
[There are many who pass honourably through life, and, for their conduct in society, deserve every token of our respect. But God will try the hearts of men in the last day: and will bring to light every secret thing, whether it be good or evil. Then what shame will overwhelm the most specious moralist, whose heart was unrenewed by grace! A want of love to Christ now is thought but a light matter: but then it will appear in its true colours, as deserving of Gods heaviest indignation [Note: 1Co 16:22.]. Secret lusts too are overlooked, as though they did not at all defile the soul: but they will then be found to have made us altogether lothesome and odious to God [Note: Eze 14:4; Eze 14:7.]. Then will Christ [Note: Mat 7:22-23.] with all his saints [Note: 1Co 6:2.] and angels [Note: Mat 13:41-42.] unite in expressing their abhorrence of these whited sepulchres; so fully shall that declaration be verified, They shall awake to shame and everlasting contempt [Note: Dan 12:2.].]
We cannot improve this subject better than by pointing out,
1.
What is that repentance which such persons need
[It is by no means sufficient to confess that we are sinners: we should feel that we are indeed lothesome [Note: Isa 64:6.]; and should be filled with shame on account of the extreme vileness of our hearts [Note: Eze 36:31; Eze 16:63 and Rom 6:21.]. Nothing less than this will constitute that repentance which is not to be repented of [Note: See Ezr 9:6. Job 40:4; Job 42:6.].]
2.
How their character and end may be completely changed
[Lothesome as we are we may be purified by the blood of Jesus, and be made without spot or blemish in the sight of God [Note: Eph 5:25-27.]. Our natures also may be changed by his Spirit, so that we shall possess a beauty that God himself shall admire [Note: 1Pe 3:4.]. Yea, instead of having shame for our portion, we shall be made to inherit glory and honour and immortality. We shall be sons of the living God, and be seated with Christ on thrones of glory. Let us then seek this change, and rely on Gods promises, that by means of them it may be accomplished in us [Note: 2Co 7:1.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 13:5 A righteous [man] hateth lying: but a wicked [man] is loathsome, and cometh to shame.
Ver. 5. A righteous man hateth lying. ] Hateth it as hell. Rom 12:9 a “I hate and abhor lying,” saith David; Psa 119:163 and yet, among other corruptions, he had an inclination to this sin. See how roundly he tells three or four lies together; 1Sa 21:2 ; 1Sa 21:8 ; 1Sa 27:8 ; 1Sa 27:10 but he both hated it in himself and prayed against it Psa 119:29
But a wicked man is loathsome.
a .
b Epiphan.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
hateth lying. Illustrations: Joseph (Gen 46:31-34); Samuel (1Sa 3:18); Mieaiah (1Ki 22:13, 1Ki 22:14; 1Ki 14:5); Elihu (Job 32:22); Hezekiah (Psa 119:29, Psa 119:163); David (Psa 101:7); Agur (Pro 30:8); Jeremiah (Jer 26:1-15); John Baptist (Mat 14:4).
wicked = lawless one. Hebrew. rasha’. App-44.
Cometh to shame. Illustrations: Jehoram (2Ch 21:18, 2Ch 21:19); Gehazi (2Ki 5:27. 2Ki 20:17); Jezebel (2Ki 9:35); Manasseh(2Ki 21:7-13. 2Ki 17:15); Herod (Act 12:21-23).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 13:5
Pro 13:5
“A righteous man hateth lying; But a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame.”
“A good man hates an untrue word, but an evil man’s talk is a shame and a disgrace. “The translation of the second line, which determines the main point of the proverb, turns on whether we take the two verbs in their primary meaning or their secondary sense. The primary meaning is, causes to stink and makes ashamed; but they also can mean, acts shamefully and disgracefully. We have included this here, because it explains how widely different translation may be made.
Pro 13:5. The righteous hate all sin (Rom 12:9). The wicked are loathsome in the eyes of others who deplore their conduct, and they come to no good end.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
righteous: Pro 6:17, Pro 30:8, Psa 119:163, Eph 4:25, Col 3:9
is: Eze 6:9, Eze 20:43, Eze 36:31, Zec 11:8
and: Pro 3:35, Dan 12:2, Rev 21:8
Reciprocal: Jdg 16:11 – If they bind me Psa 62:4 – delight Pro 14:5 – General Rom 7:15 – what I hate
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 13:5. A righteous man hateth lying Both in himself and in other men, whereby he gets that good name, which is like a precious ointment; but a wicked man Who accustoms himself to lying; cometh to shame
Makes himself contemptible and hateful to all that know him; there being scarcely any reproach which men endure more impatiently, or revenge more severely, than that of being called or accounted liars.