Proverbs 10:32

The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable: but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(32) What is acceptable.—To God and man. (Comp. the gracious words which proceeded out of Christ’s lips, Luke 4:22.)

Speaketh frowardness.—Rather, is mere falsehood, misrepresentation. (See above on Proverbs 8:30.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:29. The believer grows stronger in faith, and obeys with increased delight. 30. The wicked would be glad to have this earth their home for ever, but it cannot be so. They must die and leave all their idols behind. 31,32. A good man discourses wisely for the benefit of others. But it is the sin, and will be the ruin of a wicked man, that he speaks what is displeasing to God, and provoking to those he converses with. The righteous is kept by the power of God; and nothing shall be able to separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Know - i. e., "Know, and therefore utter." So, in like manner, the "mouth of the wicked" knows, and therefore speaks frowardness, and that only.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

32. know—regard and provide for (Ps 1:6).

frowardness—all kinds of deceit and ill-nature. The word is plural.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Know, to wit, practically, so as to consider and speak. Knowledge is here ascribed to the lips, as it is to the hands Psalm 78:72, because they are conducted by knowledge and wisdom.

What is acceptable to God and good men, or what is truly worthy of acceptation; for this is opposed to what is froward or wicked in the next clause.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable,.... To God and man; what is well pleasing to, God, and what ministers grace to the hearers, or what is grateful: and such things they will deliver out; they are used and accustomed to them; not only the righteous know in their judgment what is acceptable, but they use themselves to say those things; they not only know them in theory, but practise them: some men know what is acceptable, but their lips do not know it; they are not used to it, but the contrary;

but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness; or perverse things, as before. Or, "the mouth of the wicked knoweth frowardness" (b); or perverse things; or is used only to speak froward things; things contrary to truth and righteousness, and which they know to be so; their mouth speaks things contrary to their hearts; their hearts and mouths do not agree, when they both flatter and lie.

(b) "Novit tantum perversa", Michaelis,

Geneva Study Bible

The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable: but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

32. speaketh] So R.V. text: “is,” R.V. marg. Others supply the verb “knoweth” from the first clause, as in Proverbs 10:29.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 32. - Know. A good man's lips are conversant with what is acceptable to God and man. Such a person considers what will please God and edify his neighbour, and speaks in conformity therewith. The LXX. has," The lips of the righteous distil graces;" ἀποστάζει χάριτας, but probably the right verb is ἐπίσταται, which is found in some manuscripts. Speaketh frowardnsss; rather, knoweth, or is perverseness (comp. Ephesians 4:29); Septuagint, ἀποστρέφεται, or, according to the Sinaitic correcter and some other scribes, καταστρέφεται, "is turned aside," or "is overthrown." Delitszch translates, "is mere falsehood."



Proverbs 10:32

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

32 The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable;

     But the mouth of the godless is mere falsehood.

Hitzig, instead of ידעוּן, reads יבּעוּן; the ἀποστάζει [they distil or send forth] of the lxx does not favour this, for it is probably only a corruption of ἐπίσταται, which is found in several MSS the Graec. Venet., which translates ποιμανοῦσι, makes use of a MS which it sometimes misreads. The text does not stand in need of any emendations, but rather of a corrected relation between the clauses, for the relation of 31a with 32b, and of 32a with 31b, strongly commends itself (Hitzig); in that case the explanation lies near: the lips of the righteous find what is acceptable, viz., to God. But this thought in the Mashal language is otherwise expressed (Proverbs 12:2 and paral.); and also 32a and 32b fit each other as contrasts, if by רצון, as Proverbs 11:27; Proverbs 14:9, is to be understood that which is acceptable in its widest generality, equally then in relation to God and man. It is a question whether ידעון means that they have knowledge of it (as one e.g., says ידע ספר, to understand writing, i.e., the reading of it), or that they think thereupon (cf. Proverbs 27:23). Fundamentally the two ideas, according to the Hebrew conception of the words, lie in each other; for the central conception, perceiving, is biblically equivalent to a delighted searching into or going towards the object. Thus: the lips of the righteous think of that which is acceptable (רצון, cogn. to חן, gracefulness; χάρις, Colossians 4:6); while the mouth of the godless is mere falsehood, which God (the wisdom of God) hates, and from which discord on all sides arises. We might transfer ידעון to 32b; but this line, interpreted as a clause by itself, is stronger and more pointed (Fl.).