Proverbs 2:14 - Exposition

Who rejoice to do evil. Another element is here brought forward, and the description increases in intensity. The wicked not only rejoice to do evil themselves, but they exult when they hear of evil in others (cf. Romans 1:32 ). Such may be the interpretation, though the latter part, of the verse is capable of a different and more general rendering as signifying exultation in evil generally, whether it appears in themselves or others. The expression rendered in the Authorized Version, in the frowardness of the wicked, is in the original ( בְּתַחְפֻכוֹת רַע , b'thah'pucoth ra ) , in the perverseness of evil, or in evil perverseness, where the combination of the two nouns serves to give force to the main idea, which is that of perverseness. This rendering is adopted in the LXX ; ἐπὶ διαστροφῇ κακῇ , "in evil distortion;" in the Vulgate, in pessimis rebus ; in the Targum, Syriac, and Arabic, in conversatione mala, "in a bad course of conduct;" and in the Targum, in malitiae perversione, "in the perversion of wickedness." It is not perverseness in its simple and common form that these men exult in. but in its worst and most vicious form (for a similar construction, see Proverbs 6:24 ; Proverbs 15:26 ; and Proverbs 28:5 ). How widely different is the conduct of charity, which "rejoiceth not in iniquity" ( 1 Corinthians 13:6 )!