Proverbs 14:22

Do they not err that devise evil? but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) Do they not err that devise evil?—Comp. Wisdom Of Solomon 5:6-7.

Mercy and truth.—God will be merciful, and also fulfil His promises of protection and reward to them (Wisdom Of Solomon 3:9).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:18. Sin is the shame of sinners; but wisdom is the honour of the wise. 19. Even bad men acknowledge the excellency of God's people. 20. Friendship in the world is governed by self-interest. It is good to have God our Friend; he will not desert us. 21. To despise a man for his employment or appearance is a sin. 22. How wisely those consult their own interest, who not only do good, but devise it! 23. Labour of the head, or of the hand, will turn to some good account. But if men's religion runs all out in talk and noise, they will come to nothing. 24. The riches of men of wisdom and piety enlarge their usefulness. 25. An upright man will venture the displeasure of the greatest, to bring truth to light. 26,27. Those who fear the Lord so as to obey and serve him, have a strong ground of confidence, and will be preserved. Let us seek to this Fountain of life, that we may escape the snares of death. 28. Let all that wish well to the kingdom of Christ, do what they can, that many may be added to his church. 29. A mild, patient man is one that learns of Christ, who is Wisdom itself. Unbridled passion is folly made known. 30. An upright, contented, and benevolent mind, tends to health. 31. To oppress the poor is to reproach our Creator. 32. The wicked man has his soul forced from him; he dies in his sins, under the guilt and power of them. But godly men, though they have pain and some dread of death, have the blessed hope, which God, who cannot lie, has given them. 33. Wisdom possesses the heart, and thus regulates the affections and tempers. 34. Piety and holiness always promote industry, sobriety, and honesty. 35. The great King who reigns over heaven and earth, will reward faithful servants who honour his gospel by the proper discharge of the duties of their stations: he despises not the services of the lowest.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Err - In the sense of wandering from the right way, the way of life.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

22. As usual, the interrogative negative strengthens the affirmative.

mercy and truth—that is, God's (Ps 57:3; 61:7).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Do they not err? they do certainly err from the right way, and mistake their mark, and shall miss of that advantage and felicity which they promise to themselves by such practices.

That devise; that do not only commit it, but make it their design, and study, and business; that are artists or masters in it, as the word signifies.

Evil; either,

1. Mischief to men. Or,

2. Any kind of wickedness against God or men; for the expression is general; and this seems best to agree to the following clause.

Mercy and truth; either,

1. From men; men shall deal truly and kindly with them, partly because such men by their carriage obliged them to do so, and partly because God inclineth their hearts to it. Or,

2. From God, to whom these two properties are jointly ascribed in divers places of Scripture.

That devise good; that designedly and industriously apply themselves to the doing of all good offices to God and men.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Do they not err that devise evil?.... Certainly they do; they go astray from the right way, from the word of truth, from the Gospel of Christ, who contrive schemes to commit sin, and do mischief to their neighbours; or who "plough" (t) it, and sow it, and expect a fine harvest; but they will be mistaken, and find it will not turn to account, and that they have took a wrong course, and have gone out of the way: none more mischievous devisers or contrivers of evil than the Papists, and none more sadly and fatally err;

but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good; who devise liberal things, to do good to the poor and needy; to their neighbours, their fellow creatures and fellow Christians: such receive grace and "mercy" at the hands of God, and his "truth" will appear in making good all promises to them; mercy and truth will preserve them from the evil way, and guide them in the right way, so that they shall not err as others do; neither from the doctrines of grace and truth, nor from the practice of them.

(t) "arant", Baynus; "arantibus", Amama; "verbum proprie significat arare", Piscator.

Geneva Study Bible

Do they not err that devise evil? but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

22. The LXX. add:

They understand not mercy and faith who are devisers of evil,

But things merciful and faithful are with them who devise good.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 22. - Do they not err that devise evil? or, Will they not go astray? The question is an emphatic mode of asserting the truth. They who meditate and practise evil (Proverbs 3:29; Proverbs 6:14) go astray from the right way - the way of life; their views are distorted, and they no longer see their proper course. Thus the remorseful voluptuary bemoans himself, "We have erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness hath not shined unto us We wearied ourselves in the way of wickedness and destruction; yea, we have gone through deserts, where there lay no way; but as for the way of the Lord, we have not known it" (Wisd. 5:6, etc.), Mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good. God's blessing will rest upon them. The combination of "mercy and truth" is found in Psalm 61:7; in Wisd. 3:9 and 4:15, and in 1 Timothy 1:2 we have "grace and mercy" (see note on Proverbs 3:3, where the two words occur in connection; and comp. Proverbs 16:6; Proverbs 20:28). The two graces in the text signify the love and mercy which God bestows on the righteous, and the truth and fidelity with which he keeps the promises which he has made. The Vulgate makes the two graces human, not Divine: "Mercy and truth procure blessings." The Septuagint renders, "The good devise mercy and truth." It adds a paraphrase not found in the Hebrew, "The devisers of evil know not mercy and faith; but alms and faith are with the devisers of good." Proverbs 14:22

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The proverb terminating (Proverbs 14:21) with אשׁריו (cf. Proverbs 16:20) is now followed by one not less singularly formed, commencing with הלא (cf. Proverbs 8:1).

Will they not go astray who devise evil,

And are not mercy and truth to those who devise good?

The part. חרשׁ signifies both the plougher and the artisan; but on this account to read with Hitzig both times חרשׁי, i.e., machinatores, is nothing less than advisable, since there is connected with this metaphorical חרשׁ, as we have shown at Proverbs 3:29, not only the idea of fabricating, but also that of ploughing. Just so little is there any reason for changing with Hitzig, against all old translators, יתעוּ into ירעוּ: will it not go ill with them...; the fut. יתעו (cf. Isaiah 63:17) is not to be touched; the perf. תעו (e.g., Psalm 58:4) would denote that those who contrive evil are in the way of error, the fut. on the contrary that they will fall into error (cf. Proverbs 12:26 with Job 12:24). But if הלא יתעו is the expression of the result which shall certainly come to such, then 22b stands as a contrast adapted thereto: and are not, on the contrary, mercy and truth those who contrive that which is good, i.e., (for that which befalls them, as Proverbs 13:18, cf. Proverbs 14:35, is made their attribute) are they not an object of mercy and truth, viz., on the part of God and of men, for the effort which proceeds from love and is directed to the showing forth of good is rewarded by this, that God and men are merciful to such and maintain truth to them, stand in truth to them; for חסד ואמת is to be understood here, as at Proverbs 3:3, neither of God nor of men exclusively, but of both together: the wicked who contrive evil lose themselves on the way to destruction, but grace and truth are the lot of those who aim at what is good, guarded and guided by which, they reach by a blessed way a glorious end.