Proverbs 3:29

Pro 3:29 Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee.

Ver. 29. Devise not evil against thy neighbour.] Heb. Plow not evil - i.e., plot not. One of the Rabbis renders it, suspect not; shun "evil surmises." {1Ti 6:4} Most unkindnesses among friends grow upon mistakes, misprisions; charity is candid, and takes everything in the best sense, and by the right handle. {1Co 13:1-13}

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.

Pro 3:29. Devise not evil, &c. — Any thing injurious or hurtful; against thy neighbour — Against any child of man. Having commanded the doing of good, (Pro 3:27-28,) he here forbids the doing or designing any evil. Seeing he dwelleth securely by thee — Relying upon thy integrity: do not, therefore, deceive his trust, and cause him to repent of the confidence which he places in thee, which would be an iniquity hateful even to heathen.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:29 Because we have frequent contact with those who live nearby, we must not take advantage of them.

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

That is, putteth his trust in thee.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Do not abuse confidence and avoid litigation.

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

Devise not evil against thy neighbour,.... Or, "plough not evil" (i); turn not up thy heart to find evil against thy neighbour, as the earth is turned up by the plough; see Hos 10:13. Do not contrive and form schemes in thy mind and thoughts to do him any injury, in his name and character, in his person, property, or family: a good man should devise all the good he can to his fellow creatures, but not evil to any; especially to his neighbour, and as described in the next clause;

seeing he dwelleth securely by thee; having a good opinion of thee, and not suspecting any ill design against him, thinks himself, goods, and family, in safety; and is under no concern to provide for his security, placing his confidence in thee, and perhaps to such a degree as to entrust with his secrets. Now to project evil against such a man is exceeding base; it is doubly sinful; this is an aggravation of the iniquity.

(i) "ne ares", Amama.

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

Devise not evil; any thing injurious or hurtful. Having commanded doing of good, Pro 3:27,28, he here forbids doing or designing any evil.

Dwelleth securely by thee; relying upon thine integrity: do not therefore betray thy trust, which is hateful even to heathens.

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

29. Devise not evil — Design no violation of good faith or of kindness towards thy friend or neighbour who dwells unsuspectingly beside thee. The word also means, Be not silent. It may signify that we are to give our neighbour the advantage of our knowledge; not to keep silent to his injury when we know of evil threatening him, or of some good he might enjoy by the help of our intelligence. Comp. Php_2:4. Securely — With full trust. Compare Jdg_18:7; Jdg_18:27.

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

Devise not evil against thy neighbour. This precept is directed against abuse of confidence. Devise not evil (al takharosh raah). The meaning of this expression lies between "fabricating evil" and "ploughing evil." The radical meaning of kharash, from which takharosh, is "to cut into," "to inscribe" letters on a tablet, cognate with the Greek carassein , "to cut into." But it is used in the sense of "to plough" in Job_4:18, "They that plough iniquity (khar"shey aven)," and Psa_129:3, "The ploughers ploughed (khar"shim khar"shim) upon my back". (Hos_10:13) This also appears from the context to be the meaning in Pro_6:14. With these we may compare such expressions as "to plough a lie" (mh arotria qeudov , rendered in the Authorized Version, "Devise not a lie"); see Pro_7:12, and "to sow iniquity," cf. Pro_22:8 a cognate figure. "To plough evil" is to devise evil, to prepare for it, just in the same way as a ploughman prepares the land for sowing. In this sense the verb is understood by the older commentators and by Ewald and Delitzsch. On the other hand, the verb may be used in its other signification, "to fabricate," and hence "to contrive." The noun kharash is an artificer of iron, etc. (Exo_35:35 Deu_27:15) "To fabricate evil" is, of course, as the Authorized Version "to devise evil." The LXX, mh tekthnh , from tekteinomai , "to build," inclines to this sense. The Vulgate, ne moliaris, does not clear up the point, though moliri, usually "to contrive," is used by Virgil, "Georg.," 1:494, "moliri terrain," of working or tilling the ground. The verb also occurs in Pro_6:19 Pro_12:20 Pro_14:22. Seeing he dwelleth securely by thee; i.e. as the Vulgate, cure ille in te habet fiduciam, "when he has confidence in thee;" so the LXX; or, as the Targum and Syriac, "when he dwells with thee in peace." To dwell (yashar) is in Psa_1:1 "to sit with any one," i.e. to associate familiarly with him; (cf. Psa_26:4, Psa_26:5) but it also has the meaning, "to dwell," and the participle yoshev, here used; in Gen_19:23 Jud_1:6:21, means "an inhabitant, a dweller." Securely (lavetah); i.e. with full trust (see on ver. 23). Devising evil against a friend is at any time reprehensible, but to do so when he confides in and is altogether unsuspicious of you, is an act of the greatest treachery, and an outrage on all law. human and Divine. It implies dissimulation. It is the very sin by which "the devil beguiled Eve through his subtlety" (Wardlaw).

Vers. 29-31. Odious passions.

Let them he held up in the clear exposure of Wisdom, that their very mention may suggest their hideousness.

I MALICE AND ITS DEVICES. (Ver. 29) Literally, "Forge not ill against thy neighbour.

1. Malice, like love, is all-inventive. But as the devices of the latter are the very instruments of progress and good, so those of the former are pernicious burglar"s tools, cunning instruments of torture.

2. Directed against unsuspecting objects, malice is truly Satanic, an inspiration from hell. We have to beware of indulgence in curiosity about our neighbours; it is seldom free from some taint of malice in thought, which may pass over at any moment into action. Something in our neighbour"s life may rebuke us and rouse the latent passion. How near are the angel and the devil to one another in the heart!

II UNPROVOKED CONTENTIOUSNESS. (Ver. 30) In other words, quarrelsomeness. The vicious habit and disposition to "pick quarrels," to invent occasions for faultfinding, for the exercise of pugnacity, and so on. The man of whom it is said that if left alone in the world he would fight with his own shadow. Let him contend with his own vices, of which this temper is a symptom, and expend his pugnacity upon the evils of society. There are men before whose presence all the sleeping germs of wrath start up into chaotic life. Could they but see themselves as others see them!

III ENVY OF THE WICKED GREAT. (Ver. 31) As emulation of the virtuous great is a noble passion, this, the reverse side of it, is correspondingly base. Imitation, again, is a powerful passion, the source of "fashion." The pure spirit knows nothing of fashion as such; and immoral fashion, born of mere imitation, it must avoid and. denounce.

1. Every passion has its obverse and its reverse, its good and its evil side; malice may be turned to benevolence; idle quarrelsomeness to noble pugnacity; immoral envy to pure emulation.

2. Religion intensifies, purifies, directs, the passions to noble ends. J.

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

Securely - Relying upon thine integrity.

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

A second illustration of neighbourly love is harmlessness:

Devise not evil against thy neighbour,

While he dwelleth securely by thee.

The verb חרשׁ, χαράσσειν, signifies to cut into, and is used of the faber ferrarius as well as of the τιγναριυς (Isaiah, p. 463), who with a cutting instrument (חרשׁ, Gen 4:22) works with metal or wood, and from his profession is called חרשׁ. But the word means as commonly to plough, i.e., to cut with the plough, and חרשׁ is used also of a ploughman, and, without any addition to it, it always has this meaning. It is then a question whether the metaphorical phrase רעה חרשׁ signifies to fabricate evil, cf. dolorum faber, mendacia procudere, ψευδῶν καὶ ἀπατῶν τέκτων, and the Homeric κακὰ φρεὶ βυσσοδομεύειν (Fleischer and most others), or to plough evil (Rashi, Ewald, etc.). The Targ., Syriac, and Jerome translate חשׁב, without deciding the point, by moliri; but the lxx and Graecus Venet. by τεκταίνειν. The correctness of these renderings is not supported by Ezek. 21:36, where חרשׁי משׁחית are not such as fabricate destruction, but smiths who cause destruction; also מחרישׁ, Sa1 23:9, proves nothing, and probably does not at all appertain to חרשׁ incidere (Keil), but to חרשׁ silere, in the sense of dolose moliri. On the one hand, it is to be observed from Job 4:8; Hos 10:13, cf. Psa 129:3, that the meaning arare malum might connect itself with חרשׁ רעה; and the proverb of Sirach 7:12, μὴ ἀροτρία ψεῦδος ἐπ ̓ ἀδελφῷ σου, places this beyond a doubt. Therefore in this phrase, if one keeps before him a clear perception of the figure, at one time the idea of fabricating, at another that of ploughing, is presented before us. The usage of the language in the case before us is more in favour of the latter than of the former. Whether ישׁב את means to dwell together with, or as Bttcher, to sit together with, after Psa 1:1; Psa 26:4., need not be a matter of dispute. It means in general a continued being together, whether as sitting, Job 2:13, or as dwelling, Jdg 17:11.

(Note: Accentuate והוא־יושׁב לבטח. It is thus in correct texts. The Rebia Mugrash is transformed, according to the Accentuationssystem, xviii. 2.)

To take advantage of the regardlessness of him who imparts to us his confidence is unamiable. Love is doubly owing to him who resigns himself to it because he believes in it.

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.)

The command — withhold not good — is naturally followed by the forbidding to do evil. The treachery here rebuked was a scandal even to a heathen.†1 It is generally abhorred by the world, and should be doubly hated by a godly man. With him all should be clear and open as the day. An evil device against a neighbour, from whatever cause, is a cursed sin. (Pro 6:14-18 . Deu 27:24 . Psa 35:20 ; Psa 55:20 . Jer 18:18-20 .) But to take occasion from confidence reposed, betrays "the wisdom that descendeth not from above — devilish." (Jas 3:15 .) Such was the craft of Jacob’s sons against the unsuspecting Shechemites (Gen 34:13-29 ; Gen 49:5-7 ); Saul’s malice against David, when under his protection (1Sa 18:22-26 ); Joab’s murder of Abner and Amasa (2Sa 3:27 ; 2Sa 20:9-10 ); Ishmael’s of Gedaliah. (Jer 41:1-2 .) No trial cuts so keenly. (Psa 55:12-14 .) This was one of the bitters in the Savior’s cup of suffering. (Joh 13:21, with Psa 41:9 ; Mat 26:46-50 ). And many a wounded spirit has been cheered by his sympathy with this poignant sorrow. (Heb 4:15 .)

Yet we must guard not only against secret malice, but against causeless strivings. A propensity to embroil ourselves in quarrels (Pro 17:14 ; Pro 18:6 ; Pro 25:8-9 ) kindles strife, instead of following the rule of peace. (Rom 12:18 .) This spirit is a great hindrance to holiness (Heb 12:14 . Col 3:12-15 ), and inconsistent with a true servant of God. (2Ti 2:24 .) Irritable persons strongly insist upon their rights, or what they conceive to be due to them from others. "Is there not" — say they — "a cause?" But impartial observers frequently judge it to be striving without cause; that no harm has been done; none at least to justify the breach of love; that more love on one hand, and more forbearance on the other, would have prevented the breach; that "there is utterly a fault — Why do ye not rather take wrong?" (1Co 6:1-7 .) How valuable is a close application of the self-denying law of Christ! (Such as Mat 5:39-41 .) How earnestly should we seek from himself his own meek and loving spirit! (1Pe 2:21-23 .) ’O Lord, pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace, and of all virtues; without which, whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee.’†2

Footnotes

†1 ’Fallere eum, qui læsus non esset, nisi credidisset.’ — Cicero pro Roscio.

†2 Collect for Quinquagesima Sunday. 1Co 13:4-7 .

Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs (1846) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

translationWords

neighbor

trust

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

Devise no harm against your fellow Heb. אל תחרש, do not think—but it does not deviate from the meaning of plowing (חרישה); just as it is customary for the plower to prepare a place for the time of sowing, so does one who devises harm prepare a place for devices in his heart, how he will get up and execute it.

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.