Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 26:28
A lying tongue hateth [those that are] afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin.
28. Comp. “Proprium humani ingenii est odisse quem lseris.” Tacitus, Agric., cap. 42.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The lying tongue hates its victims.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 26:28
A flattering mouth worketh ruin.
How may we best cure the love of being flattered
I. What flattery is. Solomon calls it a mouth that flatters. All that comes from the flatterer is complaisant, only heartiness and sincerity are wanting. All that appears is a fair semblance, but very falsehood. The actor in this tragedy never forgets himself and his own advantage, stripping the novice he hath coaxed, and living on him whom he deceived. There are two kinds of flattery: a self-flattery, and a flattery from others. As to the qualities of flattery, it may be hellish, revengeful, servile, cowardly, covetous, or envious. Love to be flattered is a disease of human nature. It is an immoderate desire of praise. When this desire prevails, we believe what the flatterer saith; set the value on ourselves by what such affirm of us. Another branch of love to be flattered is an affected seeking to ourselves, or giving unto others unnecessary occasions of setting forth the worth of our persons, actions, and qualifications, according to the standard of flatterers; a well-pleasedness to hear the great and good things by dissembling flatterers ascribed to us which either we never did, or did in manner much below what they report them. But–
II. Love of undue praise is pernicious. It destroys virtuous principles, natural inclinations to good, estates, reputation, safety and life, the soul and its happiness.
III. What may best effect its cure?
1. Consider the bad name that flattery hath ever had.
2. View the deplorable miseries it hath filled the world with.
3. Suspect all who come to you with undue praise.
4. Reject the friendship of the man who turns due praises into flattery.
5. Look on flattery, and your love for it, as diametrically opposed to God in the truth of all His Word.
6. Cultivate generous and pure love to all that is good.
7. Get and keep the humble frame of heart. Undue love of the praise of men is sacrilegious robbery of God. (Henry Hurst, M. A.)
The flatterer
As to the flatterer, he is the most dangerous of characters. He attacks at points where men are naturally most successfully assailable; where they are most in danger of being thrown off their guard and giving him admission. And when by his flatteries he has thus got the mastery, then follows the execution of the end for which they were employed–worketh ruin. The expression is strong, but not stronger than experience justifies. It even works ruin to the most interesting characters–characters admired and worthy of the admiration–by infusing a principle that spoils the whole, the principle of vanity and self-conceit. They thus lose their loveliest and most engaging attraction. And whatever be the selfish object of the flatterer, his selfishness obtains its gratification by the ruin of him whom his flatteries have deceived. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)
Flattery worketh ruin
The stem of the ivy is furnished with root-like suckers which insinuate their spurs into the bark of trees or on the surface of a wall. Who has not seen with regret some noble ash-tree covered with ivy, in whose embrace it rapidly yields up its life? Surely the root is draining the tree of its sap, and transferring it to its own veins. Thus does a sycophant gradually extend his influence over a patron until the manliness of that patron succumbs to his ascendancy. The hero is ruined, and the flatterer flourishes in his place. Beware of the insinuating aptitudes of the parasite! Let him, like ivy on a wall, keep his proper situation. Protect a noble nature from his advances. (Scientific Illustrations.)
Flattery cannot compensate for the damage it works
Parasitic plants send their roots into the substance of another plant, and derive their food from its juices; but though, like some of the human kind, they live upon their neighbours bounty, it must be admitted that they sometimes reward their benefactor by adorning it with their beautiful flowers. The Rafflesia Arnoldi, for example, whose flower is three feet across, and whose cup will contain several pints of fluid, grows attached to the stem of a climbing cistus in Sumatra. The mistletoe also, whose silvery berries adorn the oak. Whether these offerings of the parasite bear any reasonable proportion to the amount of damage done by it must be a question open to doubt. Certain it is that the offerings of the social parasite to his benefactor, consisting as they do of subservience, flattery, and petty traits, are no real benefit to anybody; whilst, on the other hand, the injury which the parasite does to honesty and manliness is most unmistakable. On the whole, we are inclined to think that all the productions of parasites, whether vegetable or human, are not sufficient to make us value the producers very highly. (Scientific Illustrations.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 28. A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it] He that injures another hates him in proportion to the injury he has done him; and, strange to tell, in proportion to the innocence of the oppressed. The debtor cannot bear the sight of his creditor; nor the knave, of him whom he has injured.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Hateth those that are afflicted by it, because by his calumnies he hath made them his enemies.
A flattering mouth; which, though it be more smooth and plausible than a slandering mouth, yet is in truth no less pernicious, betraying others either to sin, or to danger and mischief.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
28. Men hate those they injure.
A lying tongue“lips”for the persons (compare Pro 4:24;Psa 12:3).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
A lying tongue hateth [those that are] afflicted by it,…. That is, a man of a lying tongue, that is given to lying, hates those that are hurt and crushed by his lies; the reason why he hurts them with his lies is because he hates them; and, having hurt them, he hates them, being made his enemies, and from whom he may expect and be in fear of revenge: moreover, he hates those that are troubled at and disturbed with his lies; or the “contrite” p and humble men: or those who “smite” or “strike” q him, as some render the word, actively; that is, reprove him, and bring him to shame for lying. The words are by some translated, a “contrite” person, or everyone of “the contrite ones, hateth a lying tongue” r; such as are of a broken and of a contrite spirit, and that tremble at the word of God, or are hurt by lies, these abhor a liar. The Targum is,
“a lying tongue bates the ways of truth;”
and the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it, “a lying tongue hate truth”; and so the Vulgate Latin version, “a lying tongue loves not truth”; for nothing is more contrary to a lie than truth;
and a flattering mouth worketh ruin; both to itself and to the persons flattered by it: or, “makes an impulse” s; a pushing, a driving away; it drives away such as cannot bear its flatteries: and pushes on such that are taken with it, both into sin and into ruin.
p “contritos suos”, Montanus, Michaelis. q “Percutientes”, Gejerus. r “Linguam falsitatis odit quisque contritorum ejus”, Cocceius Lexic. col. 158. “quisque contritorum ab ea”, ibid. version. s “expulsionem”, Pagninus, Montanus; “impulsum sive lapsum”, Vatablus; “impulsionem”, Tigurine version, Mercerus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Gejerus, Michaelis, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
28 The lying tongue hateth those whom it bruiseth;
And a flattering mouth causeth ruin.
The lxx, Jerome, the Targ., and Syr. render in the sense of non amat veritatem ; they appear by to have thought of the Aram. , that which is pure; and thus they gain nothing else but an undeniable plain thought. Many Jewish interpreters gloss: , also after the Aram.: = ; but the Aram. does not mean pure in the sense of being right, therefore Elia Wilna understands him who desires to justify himself, and this violent derivation from the Aram. thus does not lead to the end. Luther, translating: “a false tongue hates those who punish it,” explains, as also Gesenius, conterentes = castigantes ipsam ; but signifies, according to the usage of the language before us, “bruised” ( vid., Psa 9:10), not: bruising; and the thought that the liar hates him who listens to him, leads ad absurdum; but that he does not love him who bruises (punishes) him, is self-evident. Kimchi sees in another form of ; and Meri, Jona Gerundi in his ethical work ( = The gates of Repentance), and others, accordingly render in the sense of ( ): the lying tongue hates – as Lwenstein translates – the humble [pious]; also that for , by the omission of , = may be read, is supposable; but this does not harmonize with the second half of the proverb, according to which must be the subject, and must express some kind of evil which proceeds from such a tongue. Ewald: “the lying tongue hates its master ( ),” but that is not in accordance with the Heb. style; the word in that case should have been . Hitzig countenances this , with the remark that the tongue is here personified; but personified, the tongue certainly means him who has it (Psa 120:3). Bttcher’s conjecture , “confounds their talk,” is certainly a curiosity. Spoken of the sea, those words would mean, “it changes its surge.” But is it then at all necessary to uncover first the meaning of 28a? Rashi, Arama, and others refer to = ( ). Thus also perhaps the Venet., which translates (not: ) . C. B. Michaelis: Lingua falsitatis odio habet contritos suos, h. e. eos quos falsitate ac mendacio laedit contritosque facit . Hitzig objects that it is more correct to say: conterit perosos sibi . And certainly this lay nearer, on which account Fleischer remarks: in 28a there is to be supposed a poetic transposition of the ideas (Hypallage): homo qui lingua ad calumnias abutitur conterit eos quos odit . The poet makes the main conception, because it does not come to him so readily to say that the lying tongue bruises those against whom it is directed, as that it is hatred, which is active in this. To say this was by no means superfluous. There are men who find pleasure in repeating and magnifying scandalously that which is depreciatory and disadvantageous to their neighbour unsubstantiated, without being at all conscious of any particular ill-will or personal enmity against him; but this proverb says that such untruthful tongue-thrashing proceeds always from a transgression of the commandment, “Thou shalt not hate thy brother,” Lev 19:17, and not merely from the want of love, but from a state of mind which is the direct opposite of love ( vid., Pro 10:18). Ewald finds it incongruous that 28a speaks of that which others have to suffer from the lying tongue, whereas the whole connection of this proverb requires that the tongue should here be regarded as bringing ruin upon its owner himself. But of the destruction which the wicked tongue prepares for others many proverbs also speak, e.g., Pro 12:13, cf. Pro 17:4, ; and 28b does not mention that the smooth tongue (written with Makkeph) brings injury upon itself (an idea which must be otherwise expressed; cf. Pro 14:32), but that it brings injury and ruin on those who have pleasure in its flatteries ( , Psa 12:3; Isa 30:10), and are befooled thereby: os blandiloquum ( blanditiis dolum tegens ) ad casum impellit, sc. alios (Fleischer).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
28 A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin.
There are two sorts of lies equally detestable:– 1. A slandering lie, which avowedly hates those it is spoken of: A lying tongue hates those that are afflicted by it; it afflicts them by calumnies and reproaches because it hates them, and can thus smite them secretly where they are without defence; and it hates them because it has afflicted them and made them its enemies. The mischief of this is open and obvious; it afflicts, it hates, and owns it, and every body sees it. 2. A flattering lie, which secretly works the ruin of those it is spoken to. In the former the mischief is plain, and men guard against it as well as they can, but in this it is little suspected, and men betray themselves by being credulous of their own praises and the compliments that are passed upon them. A wise man therefore will be more afraid of a flatterer that kisses and kills than of a slanderer that proclaims war.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
(28) A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it.As the remembrance of them calls up his own wickedness to the mind of the offender. This is one reason why the carnal mind is enmity against God (Rom. 8:7), as being conscious of having rejected Gods love, and so hating to be reminded of Him.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
28. A lying tongue and a flattering mouth These terms, according to Hebrew usage, stand for persons with these qualities. The rendering of the first clause is not entirely satisfactory. We prefer, as more coherent with the latter member, to follow Bate: “The lying tongue shall hate (repent) its bruisings, (calumnies;) for the flattering mouth shall work its own destruction.” The proverb may be regarded as complementary to the preceding one, and as a suitable finale to the whole subject of lying, flattery, and deception presented in Pro 26:23-28. Nevertheless, it is fair to say that the larger number of critics substantially accord with our Authorized Version, and take the first clause as corresponding with the saying of Tacitus: “It is natural to man to hate one whom he has injured.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 26:28. A lying tongue hateth, &c. A deceitful tongue shall suffer its own example, a deceitful mouth shall fall into ruin. Houbigant. Our translation, however, may be justified; and the meaning is, that it is common for men to hate those to whom they have done ill turns: Proprium humani ingenii est, odisse quem laeseris, says Tacitus; and this aversion is always strong in proportion to the greatness and injustice of the wrong which has been done. See Calmet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS.
If the Reader discovers Jesus in the midst of these verses, he will find what the wise man hath elsewhere observed, and with truth is found to be the case, that his name is as ointment poured forth. The discovery of his Person, and the apprehension of his character, relations, and offices, by faith, hath a blessed effect to endear the scriptures to our hearts. And indeed without this discovery, what can we be said to learn in a way of salvation. And Reader! whether we discover him or not, depend upon it here Jesus is. Christ is in all, and through all, and with all. He fills the whole in the church, the word, the promises, and the hearts of his people. Lord! open mine eyes to see the wonderous things of thy law. Open mine heart to feel the full influences of thy grace. Be thou the sum and substance of all my pursuits and desires: and be thou formed in my heart the hope of glory.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 26:28 A lying tongue hateth [those that are] afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin.
Ver. 28. A lying tongue hateth those that are addicted by it. ] False love proves to be true hatred, by the evil consequent of its ruin and destruction to the party flattered, and betrayed by a smooth supparasitation. There are those who thus read the text. The false tongue hateth those that smite it, &c. Truth breeds hatred, as the fair nymphs did the ill-favoured fauns and satyrs.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
hateth, &c. : i.e.: “Forgiveness to the injured doth belong; They ne’er pardon who have done the wrong. “
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
lying: He that injures another hates him in proportion to the injury; Proprium humani ingenii est, odisse quem leseris, says Tacitlus, and strange to say, in proportion to the innocence of the injured. Joh 8:40, Joh 8:44-49, Joh 10:32, Joh 10:33, Joh 15:22-24
a flattering: Pro 6:24, Pro 7:5, Pro 7:21-23, Pro 29:5, Luk 20:20, Luk 20:21
Reciprocal: Jdg 16:6 – General 1Sa 24:9 – General 2Sa 14:20 – according 2Ch 24:17 – the princes of Judah Psa 55:21 – The words Pro 6:17 – lying Eze 12:24 – General Dan 11:32 – shall be Act 24:2 – Seeing 1Th 2:5 – used
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 26:28. A lying tongue hateth, &c. That is, he who slanders others hates those whom he slanders, because, by his calumnies, he hath made them his enemies. For it is common for men to hate those to whom they have done evil: thus Tacitus, Proprium humani ingenii est, odisse quem lseris, It is natural to man to hate one whom he hath injured; and this aversion is always strong in proportion to the greatness and injustice of the wrong which has been done. See Calmet. And a flattering mouth worketh ruin Though it be more smooth and plausible than a slandering mouth, yet it is, in truth, no less pernicious, betraying others either to sin, or to danger and calamity.