Proverbs 16:10

A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) His mouth transgresseth not in judgment.—Or, should not transgress, as being the representative of God upon earth, and so distinguished by the title of “God” himself (Psalm 82:6). This verse recalls the days of Solomon’s youth, when it was his highest aspiration to judge his people righteously (1Kings 3:9). Comp. David’s noble words (2Samuel 23:3).

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 16:10. A divine sentence — Hebrew, קסם, divination, (a word which is sometimes taken in a good sense for prudence, as Isaiah 3:2,) that is, great sagacity, and a piercing judgment to discern dubious and difficult cases; is in the lips of the king — Of a wise king, who only is worthy of the name and office. Thus understood, the assertion was verified by fact in David, 2 Samuel 14:17; and in Solomon, 1 Kings 3:28. “God,” says Bishop Patrick, “is present, in a singular manner, with a pious king, inspiring his mind to divine sagaciously in dubious and obscure things; that his resolutions and decrees may be received like oracles; and all causes be decided by him so justly and exactly, that no man may be wronged in the judgment which he passes.” But as the verb is wanting, and there is nothing for is, in the Hebrew, the clause may be rendered, A divine sentence, or divination, should be in the lips of the king. Thus it speaks not so much of a matter of fact, as if it were thus in all kings, which is notoriously and confessedly untrue, as of the duty of kings, in whom wisdom is a necessary qualification; and thus the two proverbs, Proverbs 16:12-13, must be understood, otherwise they are repugnant to common experience. His mouth transgresseth not in judgment — That is, does not easily transgress, or go beyond the bounds of justice, or truth, or piety, in pronouncing sentence, if he be truly wise and pious: or, should not transgress, if understood of kings in general.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:4. God makes use of the wicked to execute righteous vengeance on each other; and he will be glorified by their destruction at last. 5. Though sinners strengthen themselves and one another, they shall not escape God's judgments. 6. By the mercy and truth of God in Christ Jesus, the sins of believers are taken away, and the power of sin is broken. 7. He that has all hearts in his hand, can make a man's enemies to be at peace with him. 8. A small estate, honestly come by, will turn to better account than a great estate ill-gotten. 9. If men make God's glory their end, and his will their rule, he will direct their steps by his Spirit and grace. 10. Let kings and judges of the earth be just, and rule in the fear of God. 11. To observe justice in dealings between man and man is God's appointment.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A divine sentence - See the margin, i. e., "soothsaying" in its darker aspect as contrasted with prophecy. The true oracle is to be sought, not from soothsayers and diviners, but "at the lips of the king," who is ideally the representative, the προφήτης prophētēs of Yahweh, in His government of mankind.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. The last clause depends on the first, expressing the importance of equity in decisions, so authoritative.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

A divine sentence, Heb. divination, which is sometimes taken in a good sense for prudence, as it is Isaiah 3:2. A great sagacity and piercing judgment to discern dubious and difficult cases.

Is; or, should be; for the verb is wanting in the Hebrew, and this may be supplied as well as is. And he seems not so much to speak of the matter of fact, as if it were thus in all kings, which is notoriously and confessedly untrue, as of the duty of kings, in whom wisdom is a necessary qualification. For thus the two following proverbs concerning kings, Proverbs 16:12,13, must be understood, otherwise they are repugnant to common experience.

Of the king; either,

1. Of wise kings, who only are worthy of that name and office; king being here put for a wise king, as a name is put for a good name, and a woman for a good woman, Ecclesiastes 7:28; and then this is true in fact, as it was in David. 2 Samuel 14:17, and in Solomon, 1 Kings 3:28. Or,

2. Of kings in general, in the sense before given; for seeing the word is generally expressed without any limitation, both here and Proverbs 16:12,13, it may seem presumption to confine it to those few kings which are or were wise and good.

Transgresseth not; or, shall or should not transgress, or go beyond the bounds of religion and justice.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

A divine sentence is in the lips of the king,.... Or "divination" (f), as the word signifies; or what is like to divination, as Aben Ezra and Gersom interpret it (g). What be says is as an oracle, and should be strictly true. Some understand it of the sagacity and penetration of kings, as was in Solomon, and appeared in his judging the two harlots; but such is not to be found in kings in common: rather therefore this expresses and designs what should be, and not what is, in kings. These, as the kings of Israel, ought to have the book of God before them, and read in it, and judge and pronounce sentence in every case according to it; they should speak as the oracles of God; and, when they do, a divine sentence may be said to be in their lips. But it is best to understand this of the King of kings, of the King Messiah; into whose lips grace is poured, and from whence none but words of wisdom, grace, and truth, flow; who taught the way of God in truth; who had the word of God in his heart and in his month continually; and on whom the Spirit of wisdom without measure dwelt; and is the wisdom and word of God, as well as the power of God;

his mouth transgresseth not in judgment; this cannot be said of any earthly king; they ought not indeed to transgress in judgment with their mouths, but it is notorious that they too often do: could this be applied to kings in common, they would have a better claim to infallibility than the pope of Rome has. But this is true of Christ, the King of saints; who is a King that reigns in righteousness, and decrees judgment; sits upon his throne, to order and establish it with judgment: nor does his mouth ever transgress in judgment, or ever say, or he do, a wrong thing; his sceptre is a sceptre of righteousness.

(f) "divinatio", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis, Schultens. (g) So Vatablus, Mercerus, Piscator.

Geneva Study Bible

A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. A divine sentence] Lit. divination, A.V. and R.V. marg. The word is generally used in a bad sense, “soothsaying.” See Deuteronomy 18:10, where it is positively forbidden, and 1 Samuel 15:23, where it is called a “sin.” Here, however, it has a good meaning: the true king in judgement, like the true prophet in preaching, “speaks as oracles of God” (1 Peter 4:11. See 1 Kings 3:28).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - A Divine sentence is in the lips of the king. קֶסֶם (quesem) is "divination," "soothsaying," oracular utterance. Septuagint, μαντεῖον. The king's words have, in people's minds, the certainty and importance of a Divine oracle, putting an end to all controversy or division of opinion. It seems to be a general maxim, not especially referring to Solomon or the theocratic kingdom, but rather indicating the traditional view of the absolute monarchy. The custom of deifying kings and invoking them as gods was usual in Egypt and Eastern countries, and made its way to the West. "It is the voice of a god, and not of a man," cried the people, when Herod addressed them in the amphitheatre at Caesarea (Acts 12:22). The Greeks could say -

Αἰκὼν δὲ βασιλεύς ἐστιν ἔμψυχος Θεοῦ.

"God's very living image is the king." And thus his utterances were regarded as irrefragably true and decisive. His month transgresseth not in judgment. The decisions which he gives are infallible, and, at any rate, irresistible. We may refer to Solomon's famous verdict concerning the two mothers (1 Kings 3:16, etc.), and such sentences as Proverbs 8:15, "By me (wisdom) kings reign, and princes decree justice" (see below on ver. 12; Proverbs 21:1); and David's words (2 Samuel 23:4), "He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God" (Wisd. 9:4, 10, 12). Delitzsch regards the second hemistich as giving a warning (consequent on the former clause), and not stating a fact, "In the judgment his mouth should not err." The present chapter contains many admonitions to kings which a wise father like Solomon may have uttered and recorded for the benefit of his son. If this is the case, it is as strange as it is true that Rehoboam made little use of the counsels, and that Solomon's latter days gave the lie to many of them. Proverbs 16:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

10 Oracular decision (belongeth) to the lips of the king;

     In the judgment his mouth should not err.

The first line is a noun clause: קסם, as subject, thus needs a distinctive accent, and that is here, after the rule of the sequence of accents, and manuscript authority (vid., Torath Emeth, p. 49), not Mehuppach legarme, as in our printed copies, but Dechi (קסם). Jerome's translation: Divinatio in labiis regis, in judicio non errabit os ejus, and yet more Luther's: "his mouth fails not in judgment," makes it appear as if the proverb meant that the king, in his official duties, was infallible; and Hitzig (Zckler agreeing), indeed, finds here expressed the infallibility of the theocratic king, and that as an actual testimony to be believed, not only is a mere political fiction, like the phrase, "the king can do no wrong." But while this political fiction is not strange even to the Israelitish law, according to which the king could not be brought before the judgment, that testimony is only a pure imagination. For as little as the N.T. teaches that the Pope, as the legitimate vicarius of Christ, is infallible, cum ex cathedra docet, so little does the O.T. that the theocratic king, who indeed was the legitimate vicarius Dei, was infallible in judicio ferendo. Yet Ewald maintains that the proverb teaches that the word of the king, when on the seat of justice, is an infallible oracle; but it dates from the first bright period of the strong uncorrupted kingdom in Israel. One may not forget, says Dchsel also, with von Gerlach, that these proverbs belong to the time of Solomon, before it had given to the throne sons of David who did evil before the Lord. Then it would fare ill for the truth of the proverb - the course of history would falsify it. But in fact this was never maintained in Israel. Of the idolizing flattering language in which, at the present day, rulers in the East are addressed, not a trace is found in the O.T. The kings were restrained by objective law and the recognised rights of the people. David showed, not merely to those who were about him, but also to the people at large, so many human weaknesses, that he certainly appeared by no means infallible; and Solomon distinguished himself, it is true, by rare kingly wisdom, but when he surrounded himself with the glory of an oriental potentate, and when Rehoboam began to assume the tone of a despot, there arose an unhallowed breach between the theocratic kingdom and the greatest portion of the people. The proverb, as Hitzig translates and expounds it: "a divine utterance rests on the lips of the king; in giving judgment his mouth deceives not," is both historically and dogmatically impossible. The choice of the word קסם (from קסם, R. קש קם, to make fast, to take an oath, to confirm by an oath, incantare, vid., at Isaiah 3:2), which does not mean prediction (Luther), but speaking the truth, shows that 10a expresses, not what falls from the lips of the king in itself, but according to the judgment of the people: the people are wont to regard the utterances of the king as oracular, as they shouted in the circus at Caesarea of King Agrippa, designating his words as θεοῦ φωνὴ καὶ οὐκ ἀνθρώπων (Acts 12:22). Hence 10b supplies an earnest warning to the king, viz., that his mouth should not offend against righteousness, nor withhold it. לא ימעל is meant as warning (Umbreit, Bertheau), like לא תבא, Proverbs 22:24, and ב in מעל is here, as always, that of the object; at least this is more probable than that מעל stands without object, which is possible, and that ב designates the situation.