Proverbs 18:5 - Exposition

It is not good to accept the person of the wicked. To "accept the person" is to show partiality, to be guided in judgment, not by the facts of a case, or the abstract principles of right or wrong, but by extraneous considerations, as a man's appearance, manners, fortune, family. (For the expression, comp. Le Proverbs 19:15 ; Deuteronomy 1:17 ; and in our book, Proverbs 24:23 ; Proverbs 28:21 .) The Septuagint phrase is θαυμάσαι πρόσωπον , which St. Jude adopts ( Jude 1:16 ). Other writers in the New Testament use λαμβάνειν πρόσωτον in the same sense; e.g. Luke 20:21 ; Galatians 2:6 ). To overthrow (turn aside) the righteous in judgment is not good (comp. Isaiah 10:2 ). The construction is the same as in Proverbs 17:26 . The LXX . adds in the second clause, οὐδὲ ὄσιον , which makes the sentence clear; not seeing this, the Vulgate renders, ut declines a veritate judicii. The offence censured is the perversion of justice in giving sentence against a righteous man whose cause the judge has reason to know is just.