Proverbs 29:27
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An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.

Proverbs 29 Commentaries: BarnesClarkeDarbyGillGenevaGuzikJFBKeil / DelitzschKJV Translators'Henry's ConciseMatthew HenryScofieldTSKWesley
Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The words point out not only the antagonism between the doers of good and evil, but the instinctive antipathy which the one feels toward the other.


Clarke's Commentary on the Bible

And he that is upright in the way - "But as for those that be in the right waye, the wicked hate them." - Coverdale.

To this verse the Vulgate adds the following: Verbum custodiens filius extra perditionem erit; "The son that keeps the word shall not fall into perdition." This is not in all copies of the Vulgate: but it was in that from which my old MS. Bible was made, where it is thus translated: The sone keping the worde schal ben out of perdicyon. I believe verbum here is intended for the Divine word; the revelation from God.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

An unjust man is an abomination to the just,.... Not his person, but his actions, his unrighteous actions, his ungodly life and conversation; which a man, holy, just, and good, loathes and abhors, and cannot forbear expressing his abhorrence of; and therefore shuns his company, and will have no fellowship with him. And, on the other hand,

he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked; that man that is upright in heart and life, that walks according to the rule of the divine word, in the path of holiness, in the way of truth and righteousness, he is abhorred by a wicked man; he cannot have any pleasure in his company; he is under some awe and restraint which is disagreeable to him; and he cannot bear the reproofs he gives him; besides, if he is silent, his whole life and conversation carries in it a tacit reproof, conviction, and condemnation of him. There always has been a mutual enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, Genesis 3:15.


Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

27 An abomination to a righteous man is a villanous man;

     And an abomination to the godless is he who walketh uprightly.

In all the other proverbs which begin with תועבת, e.g., Proverbs 11:20, יהוה follows as genit., here צדּיקים, whose judgment is like that of God. אישׁ עול is an abhorrence to them, not as a man, but just as of such a character; עול is the direct contrast to ישׁר. The righteous sees in the villanous man, who boldly does that which is opposed to morality and to honour, an adversary of his God; on the other hand, the godless sees in the man that walketh uprightly (ישׁר־דּרך, as at Psalm 37:14) his adversary, and the condemnation of himself.

With this doubled ת the Book of Proverbs, prepared by the men of Hezekiah, comes to an end. It closes, in accordance with its intention announced at the beginning, with a proverb concerning the king, and a proverb of the great moral contrasts which are found in all circles of society up to the very throne itself.


Geneva Study Bible

An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

27. (Compare Pr 3:32). On last clause, compare Pr 29:16; Ps 37:12.


Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

29:26. The wisest course is, to look to God, and seek the favour of the Ruler of rulers; for every creature is that to us which God makes it to be. 27. The just man abhors the sins of the wicked, and shuns their company. Christ exposed the wickedness of men, yet prayed for the wicked when they were crucifying him. Hatred to sin in ourselves and others, is a needful branch of the Christian temper. But all that are unholy, have rooted hatred to godliness.


Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary

Verse 27

This expresses not only the innate contrariety that there is between virtue and vice, as between light and darkness, fire and water, but the old enmity that has always been between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, Gen. 3:15. 1. All that are sanctified have a rooted antipathy to wickedness and wicked people. They have a good will to the souls of all (God has, and would have none perish); but they hate the ways and practices of those that are impious towards God and injurious towards men; they cannot hear of them nor speak of them without a holy indignation; they loathe the society of the ungodly and unjust, and dread the thought of giving them any countenance, but do all they can to bring the wickedness of the wicked to an end. Thus an unjust man makes himself odious to the just, and it is one part of his present shame and punishment that good men cannot endure him. 2. All that are unsanctified have a like rooted antipathy to godliness and godly people: He that is upright in the way, that makes conscience of what he says and does, is an abomination to the wicked, whose wickedness is restrained perhaps and suppressed, or, at least, shamed and condemned, by the uprightness of the upright. Thus Cain did, who was of his father the devil. And this is not only the wickedness of the wicked, that they hate those whom God loves, but their misery too, that they hate those whom them shall shortly see in everlasting bliss and honour, and who shall have dominion over them in the morning, Ps. 49:14.