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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 24:23 - 24:23
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The curse of partiality and the blessing of impartiality:
Respect of persons in judgment is by no means good:
24 He that saith to the guilty, “Thou art in the right,”
Him the people curse, nations detest.
25 But to them who rightly decide, it is well,
And upon them cometh blessing with good.
Partiality is either called שְׂאֵת פָנִים, Pro 18:5, respect to the person, for the partisan looks with pleasure on the פני, the countenance, appearance, personality of one, by way of preference; or הַכֶּר־פָּנִים, as here and at Pro 28:21, for he places one person before another in his sight, or, as we say, has a regard to him; the latter expression is found in Deu 1:17; Deu 16:19. הִכִּיר (vid., Pro 20:11) means to regard sharply, whether from interest in the object, or because it is strange. בַּל Heidenheim regards as weaker than לֹא; but the reverse is the case (vid., vol. i. p. 204), as is seen from the derivation of this negative (= balj, from בָּלָה, to melt, to decay); thus it does not occur anywhere else than here with the pred. adj. The two supplements delight in this בל, Deu 22:29; Deu 23:7, 35. The thesis 23b is now confirmed in Pro 24:24 and Pro 24:25, from the consequences of this partiality and its opposite: He that saith (אֹמֵר, with Mehuppach Legarmeh from the last syllable, as rightly by Athias, Nissel, and Michaelis, vid., Thorath Emeth, p. 32) to the guilty: thou art right, i.e., he who sets the guilty free (for רָשָׁע and צַדִּיק have here the forensic sense of the post-bibl. חַיָּב and זַכַּי), him they curse, etc.; cf. the shorter proverb, Pro 17:15, according to which a partial, unjust judge is an abomination to God. Regarding נָקַב (קָבַב) here and at Pro 11:26, Schultens, under Job 3:8, is right; the word signifies figere, and hence to distinguish and make prominent by distinguishing as well as by branding; cf. defigere, to curse, properly, to pierce through. Regarding זָעַם, vid., at Pro 22:14. עַמִּים and לְאֻמִּים (from עָמַם and לָאַם, which both mean to bind and combine) are plur. of categ.: not merely individuals, not merely families, curse such an unrighteous judge and abhor him, but the whole people in all conditions and ranks of society; for even though such an unjust judge bring himself and his favourites to external honour, yet among no people is conscience so blunted, that he who absolves the crime and ennobles the miscarriage of justice shall escape the vox populi. On the contrary, it goes well (יִנְעַם, like Pro 2:10; Pro 9:17, but here with neut. indef. subj. as ייטַב, Gen 12:13, and frequently) with those who place the right, and particularly the wrong, fully to view; מוֹכִיחַ is he who mediates the right, Job 9:33, and particularly who proves, censures, punishes the wrong, Pro 9:7, and in the character of a judge as here, Amo 5:10; Isa 29:21. The genitive connection בִרְכַּת־טוֹב is not altogether of the same signification as יֵין הַטּוֹב, wine of a good sort, Son 7:10, and אֵושׁת רַע, a woman of a bad kind, Pro 6:24, for every blessing is of a good kind; the gen. טוב thus, as at Psa 21:4, denotes the contents of the blessing; cf. Eph 1:3, “with all spiritual blessings,” in which the manifoldness of the blessing is presupposed.