Proverbs 14:34 - Exposition

Righteousness exalteth a nation. "Righteousness" ( Proverbs 10:2 ) is the rendering to all their due, whether to God or man. We are taught the salutary lesson that a nation's real greatness consists not in its conquests, magnificence, military or artistic skill, but in its observance of the requirements of justice and religion. Hesiod, εργ . 223—

οἱ δὲ δίκας ξείνοισι καὶ ἐνδήμοισι διδοῦσιν

ἰθείας καὶ μή τι παρεκβαίνουσι δικαίου

τοῖσι τέθηλε πόλις λαοὶ δ ἀνθεῦσιν ἐν αὐτῇ

But sin is a reproach to any people; to peoples. The words for "nation" ( goi ) and "peoples" ( leummim ) are usually applied to foreign nations rather than to the Hebrews; and Wordsworth sees here a statement a fortiori : if righteousness exalts and sin degrades heathen nations, how much more must this be the case with God's own people, who have clearer revelations and heavier responsibilities! חֶסֶד ( chesed ) occurs in the sense of "reproach," in Le Proverbs 20:17 , and with a different punctuation in Proverbs 25:10 of this book. Its more usual meaning is "mercy" or "piety;" hence some have explained the clause: "The piety of the peoples, i.e. the worship of the heathen, is sin; and others, taking "sin" as put metonymically for "sin offering," render: "Piety is an atonement for the peoples." But there is no doubt that the Authorized Version is correct (comp. Proverbs 11:11 ). Thus Symmachus renders it by ὄνειδος , "shame;" and in the same sense the Chaldee Paraphrase. The Vulgate and Septuagint, owing to the common confusion of the letters daleth and resh, have read cheser instead of chesed, and render thus: Vulgate, "Sin makes peoples miserable;" Septuagint, "Sins diminish tribes." The sin of nations contrasted with the righteousness in the first clause must be injustice, impiety, and violence. See a grand passage in the fifth book of St. Augustine's 'De Civitate Dei,' ch. 12.