Proverbs 17:4

A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. A WICKED DOER GIVETH HEED TO FALSE LIPS; (AND) A LIAR (LITERALLY, A LIE) GIVETH EAR TO A NAUGHTY TONGUE - literally, 'to a tongue of perversities'-a tongue that speaketh nothing but what is perverse, to the grievous injury of others. Malignity of action is generally combined with falsehood. Not content with his own inborn depravity, the "wicked doer" seeks out helps to foment it and so gives ear to those who are more practiced and ingenious in evil than himself, in order to add mischief of tongue to mischief of deed....

Verse Proverbs 17:4. _A WICKED DOER GIVETH HEED_] An evil heart is disposed and ever ready to receive evil; and liars delight in lies....

The two clauses describe two phases of the mutual affinities of evil. The evil-doer delights in lies, the liar in bad words....

EXPOSITION PROVERBS 17:1 (Comp, Proverbs 15:16, Proverbs 15:17; Proverbs 16:8.) BETTER (sweeter) IS A DRY MORSEL, AND QUIETNESS THEREWITH. Dry bread was soaked in wine or water before it was eaten. Thus Boaz bid Ruth "dip her morsel in the vinegar" (Ruth 2:14); thus Jesus gave the sop to Judas when he had dipped it (John 13:26). The Septuagint is pleonastic, "Better is a morsel with joy in peace." Ab

A WICKED DOER GIVETH HEED TO FALSE LIPS,.... A man of an ill spirit, of a mischievous disposition, that delights in doing wickedness; he carefully attends to such as speak falsehood; he listens to lies and calumnies, loves to hear ill reports of persons, and takes pleasure in spreading them to the hurt of their characters; and men of bad hearts and lives give heed to seducing spirits, to false teachers, to inch as speak lies in hypocrisy, who sooth and harden them in their wickedness; [AND] A LIAR GIVETH EAR TO A NAUGHTY TONGUE: or, "to a tongue of destruction" a; a culumniating, backbiting tongue, which destroys the good name and reputation of men; and he that is given to lying is made up of lying, or is a lie itself, as the word signifies; who roves and makes a lie, as antichrist and his followers; such an one hearkens diligently to everything that may detract from the character of th...

CHAPTER 17 DIVERSE PROVERBS Of the twenty-eight proverbs found in this chapter we point out but a few. “The fining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold; but the LORD trieth the hearts” (Proverbs 17:3). Man may try silver and gold, but God only the hearts. And He tries the hearts by the refining process, trials and afflictions, the process which rests in His own hands. (See Psalms 66:10; Malachi 3:3; 1 Peter 1:7 .) “He that covereth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends” (Proverbs 17:9). To

PROVERBS 17. Fresh points are the rise of the able and clever slave to a place in the family (Proverbs 17:2), the practice of bribes (Proverbs 17:8; Proverbs 17:23), the value of adversity as a test of friendship (Proverbs 17:17): also the subject of suretyship, dealt with in Proverbs 6:1, is resumed (Proverbs 17:18). PROVERBS 17:1. For the connexion betwee

WICKED. mischief maker. Hebrew. _ra'a'._ App-44. LIAR. Hebrew "lie". Text not "corrupt"; but "lie "is put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Effect), App-6, for the man who habitually lies: i.e.. liar is always ready to believe. lie. Illustrations: Ahab (1 Kings 22:6); Jews (Isaiah 30:9.Jeremiah 5:30; Jeremiah 5:31.Micah 2:11; Micah 2:11)....

_false_ Rather, WICKED, R.V., in a wider sense....

AND A LIAR GIVETH EAR TO A NAUGHTY TONGUE— _And a hearkener after lies to,_ &c. Houbigant renders the verse, _A wicked man will give ear to false lips, a just man will not hearken to an evil tongue._...