Proverbs 28:4-6

PROVERBS 28:4

Law ( torah ) is mentioned about a dozen times in Proverbs.  Most of the uses refer to the torah of a mother (1:8) or a father (3:1), and in these uses the emphasis is on the fact that torah is “instruction” rather than strictly “law” in our sense of the term.  The word is used four times in a few verses of Proverbs 28 (vv. 4, 7, 9), and here the referent is the torah of Israel, Yahweh’s own torah , His instruction to His people, the instruction of Israel’s “Father” to his Son, the instruction of mother-Israel.

These references to torah highlight the continuity between the Mosaic and Solomonic eras of Israel’s history.  There is a transition from priestly to kingly order, from “law” to “wisdom” as the dominant theme of rule and leadership.  But this transition to the new doesn’t leave the old behind, but builds on it.

It is important to note too that the repeated references to torah in chapter 28 are intertwined with repeated references to mercy and justice, especially for the poor.  Verse 6 commends the poor man who has integrity, verse 8 points to the ironic inversion of the miser’s accumulation of money, verse 11 speaks of a poor man who has the wisdom to see through the rich, and verse 15 describes an oppressive ruler of the poor as a “roaring lion and a rushing bear.”  The combination of the twin themes of torah and poverty is not accidental.  The torah is about mercy, justice, and truth, as Jesus, the greatest interpreter of torah and Himself torah in flesh, said.

Verse 4 specifically is organized in a parallel structure, as reflected in the NASB and other translations:

They who forsake torah praise the wicked

They who guard torah contend against them.

There are two contrasts here.  First, the contrast between “forsaking” and “guarding” torah, and second the contrast between “praising” and “contending” with the wicked.  Forsake often has a personal object in the Hebrew Bible (cf. Jeremiah 16:11), and deserting the study of, love of, hearing of, adherence to the law is also deserting Yahweh who gave the law.  The proper attitude toward torah is to “keep” it; this certainly includes doing what the law says, but also involves defending the law against detractors and misinterpretations, defending the law as instruction in mercy, justice, and truth.  Jesus is a the great “guardian” of torah in His attacks on Pharisaical subversions.

Different attitudes toward torah issue in different responses to the wicked.  A liturgical view of life is perhaps implicit here.  Praise is inevitable; everyone responds to something with awe and acclamation.  Those who guard torah praise Yahweh; those who desert torah and its Author don’t escape from worship, but worship and praise something else.  They praise wickedness.

By contrast, guarding torah should lead to contention with the wicked.  The verb “contend” is fairly rare, and means something like “to be rough.”  In some contexts it has a negative connotation; proverbs about “stirring up” strife use this word (Proverbs 15:18; 28:25; 29:22).  Here in 28:4, though, the connotation is positive.  The one who guards torah creates contention and strife, righteous contention and strife.  It’s not enough to delight in torah , study it, honor it.  Genuine devotion to torah trains us for battle.  Torah is a manual for warfare.  Again, Jesus is the great example.  His zeal for the word of His Father roused Him to make relentless war on His Father’s enemies.

This entire proverb is, of course, premised on the view that there no neutrality.  One cannot forsake torah and find some stable source of moral guidance.  Torah may have some residual effect for a time, but eventually those who leave torah behind will be praising the wicked.  Those who leave torah behind will eventually give honor to tyrants, fight for the right to slaughter babies, condemn those who oppose sodomy as immoral.

PROVERBS 28:5

This verse is also written in two parallel lines:

Men of wickedness do not understand judgment

But those who seek Yahweh understand all.

“Judgment” refers not to some abstract concept of justice, or even to standards of justice.  Judgment is the act of judging, sometimes the decision of a judge, sometimes the accumulation of such decisions, whether formally as “statutes” or informally as “customs.”  Wicked men don’t understand judgment in at least two senses: They don’t understand God’s judgments and statutes, and they don’t understand how to pass judgment themselves.

Those who seek Yahweh understand not only His judgments, how to judge, but, more broadly “all things.”  1 John makes a similarly brash claim: We have an anointing from the holy one, and we understand all (2:20).  We have the mind of Christ, Paul says, and have the Spirit who searches the deep things of God.  Therefore we judge all things

Perhaps we are to understand that “judgment” encompasses everything.  To know anything is to know a “judgment” of God.  To know that the world is good is to know God’s judgment that it is good; to know good and evil is to know God’s judgments concerning human conduct.  In any case, wickedness leads to ignorance, but seeking Yahweh leads to understanding and insight.

Deuteronomy 4:29 encourages us to seek Yahweh our God, and promises that those who seek with heart and soul will find Him.  Deuteronomy 12:5 specifies the location and means for seeking God: God is not sought primarily in some kind of mystical ascension, but “in the place which Yahweh your God will choose” (Deuteronomy 12:5; cf. 1 Chronicles 22:19; 2 Chronicles 11:16; Ezra 6:21; Psalm 27:4, 8).  Yahweh promises to be found in His sanctuary, and in His sanctuary instructs us in His judgments and everything else.  Jesus is His new sanctuary, and those who seek the Lord there understand all.

PROVERBS 26:6

Proverbs is full of comparative statements.  Wisdom is better than silver, gold, or jewels (3:14; 8:11, 19; 16:16).  Being slow to anger is better than taking a city (16:32), and living on a roof or in the desert is preferable to living with a contentious woman (21:9, 19).  Open rebuke is better than concealed love (27:5), and a near friend is better than a brother who is too far away to be of help (27:10).  Many of these are comparisons that involve wealth and reputation.  It is better to be lightly esteemed and have a servant than to have honor without bread (12:9).  A little combined with the fear of Yahweh is better than treasure mixed with turmoil (15:16), and a dish of vegetables with love is better than fatted oxen and hatred (15:17).  Having little with righteousness is better than income with injustice (16:8).  And so on and on (16:19; 17:1; 19:1, 22).

All of these use the Hebrew word tob , good, the word Yahweh used to describe His creation in the beginning.  The things commended as “good” are things that are as they should be, as God intended, ready for God’s enjoyment and ready also for the future.  As Toby Sumpter pointed out, “good” means not only that something is well-formed not, but also that it

’s ready for tomorrow.  “Good” is an evaluative term.

Here the poor man is good when he walks in integrity.  “Integrity” translates tom , related to the Levitical term for a sound, blemish-less offering.  The poor man is suitable for God’s table, suitable for sacrifice, so long as he walks with integrity.  He walks in straight lines, and isn’t stained by sin.  The rich man in the verse is, however, “crooked” in his ways.  He can’t walk in a straight line.  Everything is roundabout and devious.  In Deuteronomy 32:5, the generation that rebelled in the wilderness is described as a “crooked” generation; they twisted away from Yahweh, and Yahweh gave them over to walk in a “crooked” path.  That’s the way Yahweh works: He is crooked with the crooked (Psalm 18:26).

What gives value to a man is not his portfolio but the way in which he walks.