Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 21:28
A false witness shall perish: but the man that heareth speaketh constantly.
28. that heareth ] Either (1) who listens to the voice of duty and of conscience ( , LXX.; vir obediens, Vulg.); or (2) who simply states in evidence what he has heard, “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” (qui non nisi qu ipse audivit testatur Maurer). Comp. , 1Jn 1:3.
constantly ] Lit. for ever, so as to endure, R.V. marg. He will live on to speak, in contrast to the false witness who will perish. This preserves the parallelism better than shall speak unchallenged, (R.V. text), i.e. shall speak on, without being interrupted by cross-questioning, or objection, because his testimony will carry conviction, and be listened to with respectful silence.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Speaketh constantly – His testimony abides evermore who repeats simply what he has heard, whether from the lips of men or from the voice within, in contrast with the false witness.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
A false witness, Heb. a witness of lies; one who is forward to swear or speak false things, or such things as he hath not heard nor learned from others, nor seen, but devised in his own heart.
Shall perish; shall be severely punished, either by God or men, and shall be confounded and silenced, because none will for the future regard or credit his testimony. The man that heareth; he who hears before he speaks, and witnesseth nothing but what he hath heard or seen, and knows to be true.
Speaketh constantly; doth not contradict himself, but always affirmeth the same thing. Or, as most other interpreters render the words, speaketh (or, may speak, dare speak freely and boldly) for ever; when liars are cut off, he lives, and is in a capacity of speaking and bearing witness again and again, as occasion requires, as long as he lives, and his testimony will be received.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
28. (Compare Pr19:5).
that hearethor heedsinstruction, and so grows wise.
speaketh constantlyorsincerely (compare Hab 1:5), andhence is believed (Pro 12:19;Jas 1:19).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
A false witness shall perish,…. As witness he shall perish in his reputation, no credit shall be given him, he shall not be admitted an evidence, or a witness in any cause, being found a false one; and as a man, he shall be punished in body or estate by the civil magistrate, and his soul shall perish eternally, unless he has true repentance for his sin: or, a witness of lies shall perish k it may be applied to any teacher of false doctrine; and to the man of sin, and his followers, that speak lies in hypocrisy; everyone that loves and makes a lie shall die the second death, and be excluded from eternal happiness, Re 21:8;
but the man that heareth; before he speaks, and speaks what he hears, and does not devise things himself; but witnesses the truth, and nothing else, to the best of his knowledge:
speaketh constantly; invariably and consistently, what is all of a piece, and by which he ah, des; or “continually”, as Jarchi; or “for ever”; he is made use of as a witness as long as he lives, whenever there is occasion for him; the Vulgate Latin version renders it, “he speaks victory”; his testimony, being true and valid, carries the cause: it, nay be applied to a faithful teacher, who hearkens to the word of God, and speaks according to that; such an one speaks out, he doctrine of the word constantly, boldly, with certainty, without any hesitation or staggering.
k “testis mendaciorum”, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
28 A false witness shall perish;
But he who heareth shall always speak truth.
The lxx translate 28b by . Cappellus supposes that they read for , which, however, cannot mean “taking care.” Hitzig further imagines for , and brings out the meaning: “the man that rejoiceth to deliver shall speak.” But where in all the world does mean “to deliver”? It means, “to guard, preserve;” and to reach the meaning of “to deliver,” a clause must be added with , as . When one who speaks lies ( ), and a man who hears ( , plene, and with the orthophonic Dagesh), are contrasted, the former is one who fancifully or malevolently falsifies the fact, and the latter is one who before he speaks hears in order that he may say nothing that he has not surely heard. As , 1Ki 3:9, means an obedient heart, so here means a man who attentively hears, carefully proves. Such an one will speak , i.e., not: according to the truth, and not: for victory (Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, ), i.e., so that accomplishes it (Oetinger); for the Heb. has neither that Arab. nor this Aram. signification; but, with the transference of the root meaning of radiating or streaming over, to time, continuous existence ( vid., Orelli, Synonyma der Zeit und Ewigkeit, pp. 96-97), thus: he will speak for continuance, i.e., either: without ever requiring to be silent, or, which we prefer: so that what he says stands; on the contrary, he who testifies mere fictions, i.e., avers that they are truth, is destroyed (28a = Pro 19:9, cf. 5): he himself comes to nothing, since his testimonies are referred to their groundlessness and falsity; for , the lie has no feet on which it can stand, it comes to nothing sooner or later.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
28 A false witness shall perish: but the man that heareth speaketh constantly.
Here is, 1. The doom of a false witness. He who, for favour to one side or malice to the other, gives in a false evidence, or makes an affidavit of that which he knows to be false, or at least does not know to be true, if it be discovered, his reputation will be ruined. A man may tell a lie perhaps in his haste; but he that gives a false testimony does it with deliberation and solemnity, and it cannot but be a presumptuous sin, and a forfeiture of man’s credit. But, though he should not be discovered, he himself shall be ruined; the vengeance he imprecated upon himself, when he took the false oath, will come upon him. 2. The praise of him that is conscientious: He who hears (that is, obeys) the command of God, which is to speak every man truth with his neighbour, he who testifies nothing but what he has heard and knows to be true, speaks constantly (that is, consistently with himself); he is always in the same story; he speaks in finem—to the end; people will give credit to him and hear him out; he speaks unto victory; he carries the cause, which the false witness shall lose; he shall speak to eternity. What is true is true eternally. The lip of truth is established for ever.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
False and True Witnesses
Verse 28 repeats the decree of certain punishment for the false witness (Pro 19:5; Pro 19:9) and emphasizes in contrast, that he who hears and speaks truth, speaks constantly; speaks that which endures forever, Psa 119:142; Psa 146:6. See comment on Pro 12:19; Pro 19:5. See Jer 20:1-6; Jer 28:1-17; Jer 29:21; Jer 29:31-32 for examples of false witnesses who perished.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(28) But the man that heareth (carefully, and repeats accurately) speaketh constantly (his testimony will live).Comp., he being dead yet speaketh, Heb. 11:4.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
28. A false witness A witness of lies; one who testifies falsely.
Shall perish , ( yobhedh.) It is possible that this verb is used here in its primitive sense, shall lose himself, namely, by wandering.
But the man that heareth Who has heard attentively the words spoken, and testified accordingly.
Speaketh Shall be allowed to speak freely, a privilege not conceded to the “false witness,” who, because of prevarications, is stopped. Compare Pro 12:17; Pro 19:5; Pro 19:9. “Human testimony is one of the chief agencies of society. Without it the social organization could not be sustained, nor its machinery kept in motion. Much of what must necessarily be known in conducting the affairs of life we owe to the veracity of witnesses. Hence the many precepts in this book respecting it, enforcing the obligation of a strict observance of the ninth commandment in the disclosure.” Conant. Compare Exo 20:16.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 28. A false witness shall perish,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 21:28. But the man that heareth Dr. Grey would render this, But an obedient or good man will be careful of what he speaks. Houbigant has it, He who hearkeneth to justice shall be victorious in his cause.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
The False Witness, Etc.
Pro 21:28-31
The mystery is that there should be such a character in society as a “false witness.” We are apt to take the existence of such characters as a matter of course. If, however, we look carefully into the case we shall regard a false witness not only as a curiosity in nature but as an unspeakable monstrosity. Consider how awful a thing it is to violate truth, to trifle with uprightness, to give a false colour or accent to human action or language: what possible motive can there be for such wantonness and profanation? Searching into the matter, we shall find here, as everywhere, that selfishness explains the whole of that mischievous action. The man has some object to gain, either money, fame, influence, or flattery of himself; on the other hand, he may be fearing danger, penalty, loss, or affliction in some form; whatever may be the details of the case, there remains the suggestive and alarming fact, that it is possible for man to tell lies about his brother man and to swear falsely in the very courts of truth and justice. In this direction we find the miracles that ought to astound us. If by familiarity we have become accustomed to the possibility of false-witnessing, that does not at all diminish the awfulness of the act in the first instance. Who was the first liar? Who began the mystery of falsehood? Whose name towers out into a bad eminence as the original witness against the truth and light? Whilst we are searching into the ancestry of the bad man we may possibly overlook the reality of contemporaneous wickedness. We need not go back to the original for false-swearing, inasmuch as each man may find a false witness in his own heart Bad as it is to bear false witness against our neighbour, we should remember that it is possible for a man to bear false witness to himself; he may deceive his own imagination, he may bribe his own conscience, he may over-persuade himself that this or that course is right; he may silence the voice divine which would guide him into the upward way, and for some avowed or unconscious reason he may take the way that ends in death. When a man can bear false witness to himself, there will be no difficulty in his bearing false witness concerning others. The end of the false witness is declared in the text “shall perish.” We know not the meaning of that awful term; it would seem to be more than destruction, even more than annihilation; it is an outgoing and vanishing from the sphere of life, amid sneers, detestation, execration of every kind, as if the universe were glad to be rid of so black and cold and noisome a shadow.
Contrasted with the false witness is “the man that heareth,” literally, heareth carefully, and repeats with exactness and precision what he does hear, so that not a word is lost, not a tone is changed, not a single colour is varied; the man speaks constantly, that is, consistently with himself, all the parts of his speech are equal and mutually illuminative, and in the whole there is a solidity or constancy that shall not decay. The word “constantly” is put in opposition to the word “perish”; the one abides, the other departs; the one is unvarying in its testimony, the other is ambiguous, equivocal, and self-destructive. Here, then, we have as usual the two aspects of moral life, namely, falsehood and truthfulness, the false witness and the exact speaker, the child of night and the child of midday. It is curious and instructive to observe how perfectly this twofold division of character is maintained throughout Biblical history. Each man can take his position under one or other of the divisions of this verse: we have only a right hand and a left, we have only falsehood and truth: there is no middle place in which a man may lodge himself in security and honour: when the Son of man cometh in his glory he shall divide the gathered nations into sheep and goats, and third division or modification there shall be none. With such a fact before us we may realise the day of judgment now,
“There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord” ( Pro 21:30 ).
This is a religious philosophy of life. If there is a Lord according to the Biblical revelation and description of his character, it is impossible that he can be opposed with ultimate success. Even if we empty this word “Lord” of its personality, and regard it as a term symbolical of righteousness, judgment, truth, and goodness, it may still be affirmed that in the long run these must prevail over every form of wickedness. It would seem to be impossible that evil should be eternal. From the beginning there has been in human consciousness a hope, yea an assurance, that by-and-by light will expel darkness, and righteousness will occupy the place of wickedness. Account for it as we may, that hope has sustained the human race in all the agony of its transition, in all the battles and storms of its manifold progress. Upon an instinct of this kind is built many a temple of religion and many an altar of sacrifice and service. Religious rites and ceremonies would be too costly and arduous to maintain simply in their mechanical bearings and aspects; there must be under the whole of them something that is stronger than themselves: call it an instinct, a persuasion, a conviction, a consciousness of divine revelation it is in that depth that we must find the reason of all that is external in religious pomp, circumstance, or simplicity. Men would become weary of doing things that are merely superficial and mechanical; it is the ineffable motive, the profound conviction, that explains all the deepest religious action of life, and that sustains men in the maintenance and defence of their religious purposes. Undoubtedly there is an opposition to everything that is of the quality of purity and nobleness: there are passions in men which clamour for gratification, and those passions are instantly opposed and threatened with destruction by everything that is heavenly and divine. Man grows, and in his growth he undergoes processes of trial which are essential to his development. Many a combat is to be traced, not to the evil that is in a man, but to the good that is rising within him and claiming pre-eminence. We may be too apt to trace all battle and conflict to evil purpose or motive, whereas, in many cases, it will be found upon a correct and complete analysis that there would have been no conflict but for the good that was rising to assert itself and claim dominance over the mind. If there were no good there would be no bad; it is because we are more conscious of the evil than of the good that we sometimes do ourselves injustice. Who can tell how much good is going with a man even when he enters upon a course of depravity and practical suicide? We only see him pass out of his door and hasten away into forbidden paths; we cannot tell what voices are clamouring after him and within him, and how awful is the conflict from which he is vainly seeking to escape. Then, again, there is another aspect to the whole tragedy: when the man turns his face homeward he is already a victor; when he breathes one sigh of regret he has already begun to pray; when he brands himself as a fool in the sight of God, he has already entered into the agony and the joy of spiritual resurrection. The universal lesson of the text is that all evil will come to nought, that every counsel that is uninspired with the spirit of truth and beneficence will go up as smoke and leave nothing behind it of which men shall speak with honour and thankfulness. Only the good can stand for ever; only the counsel of the Lord is charged with all the honour and dignity of eternity, and will abide through all the ages, in their coming and their going, an unchangeable, an infinite blessing. Here is the strength of the good man; this is the very secret of divine communion and spiritual hopefulness. The eternal God is the refuge of his saints because he is eternal. A God that could change would be no God: the unchangeableness of God is not an attribute only, it is the very essence of his Being.
“The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord” ( Pro 21:31 ).
Horses had been imported largely from Egypt in Solomon’s time, and the importation of horses was a direct breach of the law as laid down in 1Ki 4:26 , and before that in Deu 17:16 . Man has always been trying to be “as God.” He has never escaped the first temptation offered by the serpent in Eden, Do this, and ye shall be as gods; eat this, and your eyes shall be opened; change your point of view, and the whole universe will give up its length and breadth, its depth and height, to your enjoyment. So man has prepared himself a horse, and set the horse in battle, and assured himself that the animal would win the victory; he has laid his hand upon the horse’s neck, and declared that neck to be clothed with thunder; he has lifted the horse’s hoof, and declared it to be as a flint; he has looked into the horse’s eye, and has seen already in the lustre of that eye the assurance of complete triumph over every foe. In all this process man has been looking at the wrong object, or looking in the wrong direction, or making his calculation upon a false basis. In reality, the horse has nothing to do with the battle, nor has the sword of the warrior; in the last result safety is of the Lord, that is to say, only in proportion as a man is right is he safe, only in the degree of his true religion is he assured of prosperity and final peace. But we must be minor gods! Such is the perversity of our will, and such the disease of our imagination, that we continually suppose that we should be able to construct for ourselves a new and better base of action. It would seem impossible to expel this idea from the human mind. By some change of ceremony, by some variation of policy, by some new dream which we are presently to realise, we shall escape all ghostly dominion and enter into the enjoyment of consciously personal mastery over matter and mind; yet age comes after age and leaves behind it unspeakable disappointment and mortification: still we dream, and hope; still we delude ourselves with imaginations of greatness, and thus we continue the tragedy which often becomes farcical, and the farce which often becomes tragical. We shall never be right until we see that we are creatures, not creators; subordinates, not principals: that we are under the direction and inspiration of God, and are not sources and fountains of self-inspiration. We must be brought to the holy resignation which says, “Not my will, but thine, be done: Lord, what wilt thou have me do? Lord Jesus, into thy hands I commend my spirit”: in that holy state of resignation and confidence we shall look no longer to the horse, to the helmet, or to the sword, but to the God of battles, and shall find in his direction and consolation all that we need in order to throw down our enemies, and enter into the sanctuary of victory and the temple of peace.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Pro 21:28 A false witness shall perish: but the man that heareth speaketh constantly.
Ver. 28. A false witness shall perish. ] See Trapp on “ Pro 19:5 “ The Scythians had a law that if any man did duo peccata contorquere, bind two sins together, a lie and an oath, he was to lose his head, because this was the way to take away all faith and truth among men.
But the man that heareth speaketh constantly.
a Paraeus in Rev 22:16 .
b Bel de Verb. Dei, lib. i. cap. 2.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
shall perish. Illustrations: Pashur(Jer 20:4-6); Hananiah (Jer 28:1-4, Jer 28:10-17); the false prophets (Jer 29:21); Shemaiah (Jer 29:31, Jer 29:32); Amaziah (Amo 7:10-17).
speaketh. Supply the Ellipsis (App-6), “speaketh [the truth] evermore. “
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 21:28
Pro 21:28
“A false witness shall perish; But the man that heareth shall speak so as to endure.”
What is contrasted here is the permanence of the true witness as compared with the ephemeral life and testimony of the false witness. “A dishonest witness will perish, but a truthful man will never be forgotten.
Pro 21:28. Very similar to Pro 19:5 and Pro 19:9, both of which say, A false witness shall not be unpunished. So as to endure in the second statement stands over against shall perish in the first, meaning that the true witness (one who speaks what he knows through his own seeing and hearing) will not be executed for perverting justice through lying such as will befall the false witness.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
false witness: Heb. witness of lies, Pro 6:19, Pro 19:5, Pro 19:9, Pro 25:18, Exo 23:1, Deu 19:16-19
the man: Pro 12:19, Act 12:15, 2Co 1:17-20, 2Co 4:13, Tit 3:8
Reciprocal: 2Sa 16:3 – day Psa 116:10 – therefore Pro 12:17 – but Pro 24:28 – not
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 21:28. A false witness Hebrew, , A witness of lies; one who is forward to swear or speak false things, or such things as he hath neither heard nor seen, but devised in his own heart; shall perish Shall be severely punished, either by God or men, and shall be confounded and silenced, because none will for the future regard or credit his testimony. But the man that heareth Before he speaks, and witnesseth nothing but what he has heard or seen, and knows to be true; speaketh constantly
Doth not contradict himself, but always affirms the same thing. Or, as most interpreters render , speaketh, or may, or shall speak for ever. He dare speak freely and boldly; and, when liars are cut off, he lives, and is in a capacity of speaking and bearing witness again and again, as occasion requires, as long as he lives, and his testimony will be received.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
21:28 A false witness shall perish: but the man that heareth {m} speaketh constantly.
(m) He may boldly testify the truth that he has heard.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The contrast is between the person who listens to falsehood and repeats it, and the person who listens to the truth and repeats it. The first person has little concern for listening carefully, but the second person listens, learns, and applies. Heeding the truth makes all the difference.
"The key phrase is a man who hears: his first aim is to know and understand, not to grind some axe. . . . the man who listens (Isa 50:4) is the man worth listening to." [Note: Kidner, p. 146.]
Ross believed that the verse teaches that "false witnesses will be discredited and destroyed." [Note: Ross, p. 1058. Cf. McKane, p. 556.]