Proverbs 24:26

Pro 24:26 [Every man] shall kiss [his] lips that giveth a right answer.

Ver. 26. Every man shall kiss his lips.] That is, Shall do him honour, as Gen 41:40. All the people shall kiss at thy mouth, saith Pharaoh to Joseph; and Samuel kissed Saul when he anointed him king; {1Sa 10:1} and, "Kiss the Son," saith David. {Psa 2:12} That is, Give unto him the honour due unto his name.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

24:26 Saying 2: A true friend does not cover up problems but honestly points out areas for improvement. A wise person welcomes the correction of a friend.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

kiss his lips--love and obey, do homage (Psa 2:12; Sol 8:1).

right answer--literally, "plain words" (compare Pro 8:9), opposed to deceptive, or obscure.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 26. Kiss his lips] Shall treat him with affection and respect.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(26) Every man shall kiss his lips . . . Rather, He kisseth the lips that giveth right answers. His words are as pleasant as if he had kissed the inquirer’s lips.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. Every man shall kiss his lips] Rather, he kisseth the lips, or with the lips: i.e. a right answer is as grateful and conciliating as a friendly salutation.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause,.... Unless forced unto it, except there is some urgent reason for it; not upon any trivial account, or in any frivolous matter; never appear forward and eager to bear witness against him, and, whenever obliged to it, be not a false witness, but speak truth, whether thy neighbour be a friend or a foe;

and deceive not with thy lips; by bearing a false testimony, the judge, thy neighbour and thyself; for though men may be deceived, God cannot: or, shouldest thou do so, "thou wouldest break" and cut him to pieces "with thy lips" (x); which is the sense of the words according to R. Judah, as Ben Melech relates.

(x) "et ne atteras labiis tuis", Vatablus; "et ne comminuas eum labiis tuis", Syriac version.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Better, He shall kiss lips that giveth a right answer, i. e., he shall gain the hearts of men as much as by all outward signs of sympathy and favor. Compare 2Sa 15:1-6.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Lips. And be deemed a friend. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Every man shall kiss his lips, shall highly respect and love him, of which kissing was a sign,

that giveth a right answer; who being called to speak, either as a judge, or witness, or otherwise, in weighty matters, speaks pertinently, and plainly, and truly, to the conviction and satisfaction of the hearers.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

26. Shall kiss lips that giveth a right answer — When a judge speaks upright words — gives a just decision — men salute him with respect and affection. Zockler says: Faithful and truthful answers affect one as favourably as the most agreeable caress. It is probable that there is here an allusion to the Eastern custom of kissing the writing which contains the order of a ruler or a judge. The passage is rendered by the Septuagint thus: “Lips shall kiss those things that answer (to) right words:” that is, those writings or decrees which correspond to the principles of equity and justice shall be treated with the utmost reverence. Compare Gen_27:26, Gen_29:11; Gen_29:13; Gen_33:4; Gen_48:10; Gen_50:1; 1Sa_10:1; 1Sa_20:41; 2Sa_20:9; 2Sa_15:5; Luk_9:38; Luk_15:20; Acts 20:39, etc.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A distich connected with the subject of the preceding paragraph. Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer; or better, he kisseth the lips who giveth a right answer. An answer that is fair and suitable to the circumstances is as pleasant and assuring to the bearers as a kiss on the lips. Such a salutation would be a natural sign of sympathy and affection. Thus Absalom won the hearts of the people by kissing those who came to court with their suits. (2Sa_15:5) In Gen_41:40, where the Authorized Version has, "According to thy word shall all my people be ruled," the Hebrew runs, "Thy mouth shall all my people kiss," i.e. they shall do homage to thee, which is another signification of this action. This, however, would not be suitable here, as the kiss is supposed to be given by the speaker, though the LXX mistakenly translates, "But men will kiss lips that answer good words.

Vers. 26-29. Just conduct to our neighbour.

I TRUE WITNESS. (Ver. 26) He who gives true and faithful answers especially in courts of justice delights, even as the sweetest kiss upon the mouth delights. The poet alludes to the effect upon the ear. The understanding can no more be delighted with a lie than the will can choose an apparent evil. "Strange as it may seem," says one playfully, "the human mind loses truth." We may add, "when passion does not blind the intellect to its beauty." In the court of justice, all but the guilty and those interested in his fate see the beauty of truth, and prize it above all things. Hence to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is the solemn oath of witnesses.

II FALSE AND UNCALLED-FOR WITNESS. (Ver. 28) To bear false witness strikes at the very root of conscience and moral obligation. But criminal, though in a less degree, is the volunteering of evidence without cause against another; i.e. when no object but private hatred and revenge is to be served. Compare the case of Doeg; (1Sa_22:9, 1Sa_22:10) the Pharisees with the wretched sinner in John 8; the words of the Lord in Joh_15:25. Speak evil of no man, not only that evil which is altogether false and groundless, but that which is true, when speaking of it will do more harm than good (Matthew Henry).

III DELIBERATE DECEPTION. About a court of justice, which represents truth, there gathers a dark shade of roguery and falsehood; "persons that are full of sinister tricks and shifts, whereby they pervert the plain and direct courses of courts, and bring justice into oblique lines and labyrinths.

IV BLIND INDULGENCE OF VINDICTIVE TEMPER. (Ver. 29; comp. Pro_20:22) Nothing is more deeply impressed in the Bible than the truth of compensation or retribution. But men must not take the law into their own hands. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith Jehovah." "Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man"s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. In taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over he is superior. It is the glory of a man to pass by an offence. The man who studies revenge keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well" (Bacon). J.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Shall kiss - Shall respect him. A right answer - That speaks pertinently and plainly, and truly.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Then follows a distich with the watchword נצחים:

26 He kisseth the lips

Who for the end giveth a right answer.

The lxx, Syr., and Targ. translate: one kisseth the lips who, or: of those who...; but such a meaning is violently forced into the word (in that case the expression would have been שׂפתי משׁיב or שׂפתים משׁיבים). Equally impossible is Theodotion's χείλεσι καταφιληθήσεται, for ישּׁק cannot be the fut. Niph. Nor is it: lips kiss him who... (Rashi); for, to be thus understood, the word ought to have been למשׁיב. משׁיב is naturally to be taken as the subj., and thus it supplies the meaning: he who kisseth the lips giveth an excellent answer, viz., the lips of him whom the answer concerns (Jerome, Venet., Luther). But Hitzig ingeniously, "the words reach from the lips of the speaker to the ears of the hearer, and thus he kisses his ear with his lips." But since to kiss the ear is not a custom, not even with the Florentines, then a welcome answer, if its impression is to be compared to a kiss, is compared to a kiss on the lips. Hitzig himself translates: he commends himself with the lips who...; but נשׁק may mean to join oneself, Gen 41:40, as kissing is equivalent to the joining of the lips; it does not mean intrans. to cringe. Rather the explanation: he who joins the lips together...; for he, viz., before reflecting, closed his lips together (suggested by Meri); but נשׁק, with שׂפתים, brings the idea of kissing, labra labris jungere, far nearer. This prevails against Schultens' armatus est (erit) labia, besides נשׁק, certainly, from the primary idea of connecting (laying together) (vid., Psa 78:9), to equip (arm) oneself therewith; but the meaning arising from thence: with the lips he arms himself... is direct nonsense. Fleischer is essentially right, Labra osculatur (i.e., quasi osculum oblatum reddit) qui congrua respondet. Only the question has nothing to do with a kiss; but if he who asks receives a satisfactory answer, an enlightening counsel, he experiences it as if he received a kiss. The Midrash incorrectly remarks under דּברים נצחים, "words of merited denunciation," according to which the Syr. translates. Words are meant which are corresponding to the matter and the circumstances, and suitable for the end (cf. Pro 8:9). Such words are like as if the lips of the inquirer received a kiss from the lips of the answerer.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

v. 26. Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer, rather, "A kiss upon the lips does he bestow who returns well-pleasing words," that is, a faithful and favorable answer, especially before a court of justice, is like a most agreeable caress.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

gives a kiss on the lips

A kiss was a sign of respect and devotion in that culture. AT: "shows true friendship" (See: Idiom)

translationWords

kiss

house

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Lips should kiss It is fitting that all lips kiss him.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.