Rob not the poor, because he is poor, neither oppress the afflicted in the gate;
This proverb speaks to anyone who holds the power in a dispute. It names the most cowardly motive for theft: taking from a man because he cannot fight back. It also points to what the wrongdoer forgot — who else is standing at that gate.
The words "because he is poor" give the reason for the crime. Poverty itself is what marks the man out as a target.
There are some who are despicable enough to rob the poor because they are poor (v. 22). They take advantage of the fact that the poor cannot put right any wrong. If you rob the rich, they are in a position to retaliate. But the Lord will plead the cause of the poor (v. 23). So their oppressors will find their evil coming back on their own heads. They aim to plunder others, and they will be plundered themselves.
A city gate was not just an entrance. People settled public business there, and a wronged man went there to have his case heard.
Gates protected a city, but "in the gate" was also the place where people settled many important matters. When Boaz wanted to settle the question about Ruth and the inheritance, he went up to the gate. There he debated the matter with a nearer relative, brought it to a close, and the elders witnessed it. To "sit in the gate" was a place of honour... It should have been the place of true judgement and justice, but was not always so.
That is what makes the second half of the verse so ugly. The crushing happens in the very place built to prevent it.
Flattery goes up to the rich. Cruelty goes down to the poor. Both come from the same self-interest. But the gate has a witness no one called.
It may seem strange to say, "Do not rob the poor," and in particular "because he is poor." But it is a warning we need, because human nature is now so base, selfish, and cruel. The rich might look like the more inviting prey for people without scruples. But they can take care of themselves in ways the poor would not or could not try. So bad men flatter the rich for gain, while they also rob or oppress those who ought to be objects of pity. But the LORD has His eye on such villainy, at the very gate from which justice should flow. He pleads the cause of the poor and the afflicted, and repays heavily those who plunder them.
The command rests on a fact about both men. The two in the dispute have less between them than the stronger one imagines.
In the essentials, how little the difference is! They come into the world alike, and they stand alike when the world passes away. "Rich and poor meet together; the LORD is the maker of them all." The poor man is entitled to remember this, and the rich man ought not to forget it. Job had it clearly before him: "If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant, when they brought a complaint against me, what then shall I do when God rises up? When He makes inquiry, what shall I answer Him? Did not He who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?"
The New Testament presses the same charge further. Being poor does not make a man worse, but being rich carries a danger of its own.
James addresses the rich. They have possessions in this world, and they do not consider the poor. Yet "Blessed is the one who considers the poor" (Psalm 41:1). He who despises the poor because of his poverty despises the Lord Himself. "As for me, I am poor and needy," says the Lord in the psalm before the one I have quoted (Psalm 40:17). The Lord had pronounced His blessing on the poor. They were the ones who heard the gospel, and that was a sign announcing the Messiah. We all know a poor man may be just as wicked as anyone else. But riches are a real danger to us. They feed pride, and they tend to make the heart keep its distance from the poor. And the Lord associated Himself with the poor in this world.
- Defenceless. The poor man is robbed for one reason: he cannot strike back. That is the whole shame of it.
- The gate. The wrong is done at the very place designed to stop it — the public court where the wronged were meant to be heard.
- Watched. The LORD's eye is on that gate. What no human judge saw, He sees.
- Represented. He does more than watch. He takes the poor man's side, pleads his cause, and repays the plunderer with plundering.
- Equal. Rich and poor enter and leave the world the same way, made by one Maker. To despise a man for his poverty is to despise the God who made him — and the Lord who called Himself poor and needy.
for Jehovah will plead their cause, and despoil the soul of those that despoil them.
The line before this one forbids robbing the poor and crushing the afflicted at the gate. This verse gives the reason: the poor have a defender, and He takes from the robber what the robber took.
The warning sounds strange at first. A poor man has little worth taking. One commentator explains why such a low crime happens at all.
It may seem odd to say, "Do not rob the poor," and especially "because he is poor." But we need the warning. Human nature as it is now can be so low, selfish, and cruel. A dishonest man might see the rich as the more tempting prey. But the rich can protect themselves in ways the poor would not or could not try. So bad men flatter the rich for gain, while they rob or oppress those who ought to be objects of pity. But the LORD has His eye on such villainy, at the very gate where justice should flow. He pleads the cause of the poor and the afflicted, and He repays heavily those who plunder them.
The second half of the verse names the sentence: the LORD robs the robber of life. The punishment takes the shape of the crime.
There are some who are despicable enough to rob the poor because they are poor — that is, taking advantage of their inability to get any wrong put right (v. 22). If you rob the rich, they are in a position to retaliate. But the LORD will plead the cause of the poor (v. 23). So their oppressors will find their own evil coming back on their heads. They aim to plunder others, and they end up plundered themselves.
"Plead their cause" is courtroom language. Kelly draws it out on a related proverb about the fatherless.
Heartless dishonesty toward anyone draws out a far graver warning, and most of all toward the fatherless. It makes no difference what form it takes. It may be the sly move of shifting an old boundary stone. It may be the open boldness of walking into the fields of the fatherless. If they have no father, they need no lawyer any more than they need to take the law into their own hands. Their Kinsman, their Redeemer, is strong; He will plead their cause against the wrongdoer, high or low.
But God often waits. Writing on a psalm, one commentator separates God's silence from God's approval.
God has long been a patient Observer (v. 14), but patience is not indifference, as the world will learn by terrible experience. God will repay in perfect righteousness. The helpless who have committed themselves to Him will find Him a real helper. He is a Helper of the fatherless — of those who have no one on earth to depend on.
The same wrong still happens. One writer applies the promise to a working man sent home unpaid.
Nothing can be more painful to a tender heart than the lack of kindly consideration for the poor that the rich so often show. They can sit down to their lavish meal, having just turned a poor hard-working man away from their door. He had come seeking the fair reward of his honest labour. They never think of the aching heart with which that man goes back to his family to tell them of the disappointment to himself and to them. Oh, it is terrible. It offends God deeply. It offends everyone who has tasted His grace in any measure. Do you want to know what God thinks of such behaviour? Then listen to these words of holy indignation: "Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts" (James 5:4). "The Lord of hosts" hears the cry of the wronged and disappointed labourer. God will not let hard-hearted people toss the claims of the poor aside — people so hardened by wealth that no appeal to tenderness can reach them. The poor are the special objects of God's care.
- The crime. Thieves pick the poor because the poor cannot hit back. The rich can defend themselves. That is what makes the theft so low.
- The court. The robbery happens at the gate, the very place justice should come from. God's eye is on that spot.
- The Advocate. Those with no father and no lawyer still have a defender. Their Kinsman-Redeemer is strong, and He takes the case Himself, against high and low alike.
- The delay. God's silence is patience, not indifference. He repays in perfect righteousness, and the helpless who commit themselves to Him find a real Helper.
- The verdict. The sentence fits the crime: the plunderer is plundered, and loses more than he took. The unpaid worker's cry still reaches the Lord of hosts today.
Make no friendship with an angry man, and go not with a furious man;
This proverb warns about the company we keep. It rules out two things: making a friend of a hot-tempered man, and even walking with him. The question is not what his anger does to him. It is what it will do to you.
One commentator lists what can go wrong in such a friendship. The first risk is being caught up in what the angry man does to someone else:
A man who easily loses his temper is certainly not fit to be one's friend (v. 24). He may simply be present when that man's rage injures or kills someone. Even then, he will face the same accusation as the furious man. Or, he may find that he becomes the victim of the angry man's rage. Or he may learn the angry man's ways, and his soul be snared in such evil (v. 25).
Watching a bad temper up close ought to cure you of it. Often the opposite happens.
With a man given to anger, it is hard to keep friends, and unsafe to make one. Go with a furious man and you risk learning his ways. So you get a snare instead of a deterrent.
Behind this one warning stands a wider rule: you become like the people you walk with. One commentator sets the two directions side by side:
Since the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, the heart values the company and advice of the wise, and walking with them teaches good lessons. But a companion of fools shows all too clearly where his heart is. He cannot escape being corrupted by their bad company, and unless someone rescues him he will be destroyed.
One writer turns that into direct advice — choose your friends on purpose:
Choose only committed Christians as your friends. Make sure your companions are firmly on the Lord's side. A man is known by the company he keeps. Stay clear of people with loose opinions and lax morals. Your companions will influence you either for good or for evil.
Loving such a man does not make him safe to be near. One commentator explains why rescuing him settles nothing:
He is "a man of great wrath," set off by any word or action that does not please his rash mind. What is the result? He "will pay the penalty." The sad thing is that neither he nor anyone else can say what will come next. Love him as much as you like: his hasty temper is a constant danger. "For if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again." Christ is the only Deliverer equal to the need, and not only through His redemption but through the power of abiding in Him.
Hot temper often defends itself by pointing at a real wrong. One commentator answers that defence — the anger does not fix the evil it attacks:
A man may even have clear thoughts about right and wrong. Even so, his fierce anger against wrong will not correct it. It will stir up strife and cause worse friction than the evil he condemns. If a man has formed a character like this, the harm he will do cannot be measured. In fact his fury against what he considers wrong will cause him to "abound in transgression": his wrongs will be more than those he denounces.
The verse sifts your friends, and then it turns on you. Kelly moves from the proverb to the call not to let anger sit overnight, and on to forgiveness:
"Do not let the sun go down on your anger," says the Apostle. To refuse him here is to give the devil an opportunity. Even when we have serious reason to be angry, the only right Christian feeling is to forgive. "If you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." You who are slow to let go of your wrongs — wrongs that may only be imagined — do you believe Christ's words?
- Company — walk with the wise and you learn good lessons; walk with fools and you cannot come away undamaged.
- Catching — the risk is imitation: you learn his ways, and what should have warned you off becomes a snare.
- Constant danger — a hasty temper is unpredictable. Rescue such a man once and you will have to do it again. Christ alone is the Deliverer equal to the need.
- Counterproductive — even anger aimed at real wrong does not correct it. It stirs up strife and multiplies the angry man's own wrongs.
- Choose, then check yourself — pick friends who are firmly on the Lord's side. Then refuse to let your own anger outlast the day.
lest thou learn his paths, and get a snare to thy soul.
This verse gives the reason for the warning just before it. Keep company with an angry man and two things follow: you pick up his ways, and a snare closes on you.
The command is not to avoid all contact with a hot-tempered man. It is to refuse his friendship and his road. One writer explains why that tie is unsafe on both counts:
With a man given to anger, it is hard to keep friends, and unsafe to make a friend. To go with a furious soul is to run the risk of learning his ways, and so to get a snare instead of a warning. "Do not let the sun go down on your anger," says the Apostle. Not to listen to him here is to give place to the devil. Even if we have serious reason, the only right Christian feeling is to forgive. And if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.
A man in a rage should put you off anger for life. Live close to him and the opposite happens: he teaches you.
Nobody sits you down and teaches you. You absorb it, and you absorb it downward: you sink to the level of your company instead of lifting it to yours. One writer separates the contact we cannot avoid from the company we choose:
The lowest society you keep is what colours you. Many a person, I have no doubt, gets into low society, and he is corrupted and damaged before he knows where he is... A man or woman is spoilt by the company he or she keeps. I do not mean in business. There is no idea of company in business. That is not company. You are then on the alert. I mean social company, where you can relax; do you understand? In business you keep your eyes open.
The trap is not only that you copy him. Standing beside an angry man exposes you to his damage and his blame as well:
A man who easily loses his temper is certainly not fit to be one's friend (v. 24). Suppose he is with such a man when the man's rage causes injury or death to someone. He will find himself under the same accusation as the furious man. Or, he may find that he becomes the victim of the angry man's rage. Or he may learn the angry man's ways, and his soul be snared in such evil (v. 25).
Three doors into one snare — shared blame, injury, and infection — and you do not choose which one closes on you. The last shuts on the soul.
Anger with a real cause is still catching. One writer shows where it ends, commenting on the warning not to fret yourself into evil:
Anger and wrath can take possession of our spirits, even when sin is what provoked them. Our views and judgments turn fretful, and in the end we are trapped into something sinful ourselves. And what a tragedy that is! Sinning ourselves, because angry against something sinful!
The snare does not announce itself. It arrives dressed as anger at something truly wrong.
But should love not stay near and help? One writer answers that a hot temper is a repeating danger, not a one-off crisis, and points elsewhere for the cure:
Look next at one not accustomed to bear the yoke in his youth. He is "a man of great wrath," overcome by any word or work which does not please his rash mind; what is the result? He "will pay the penalty," and the sad thing is that neither he nor anyone else can say what comes next. Love him as you may, his hasty temper is constant danger. "For if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again." Christ is the only Deliverer who is enough, and not only by His redemption but by the power of abiding in Him.
That is not a reason to stop caring. It is a reason to stop pretending your closeness is the cure.
- Company colours. The company you relax in is the company that shapes you. Friendship, not business, is where an angry man's ways pass to you.
- Learn. The first cost is imitation. Go with a furious soul and you learn his ways: his example becomes a lesson instead of a warning.
- Snare. The second cost is entanglement — shared blame for his rage, injury from it, or your own soul caught in the same evil.
- Deceived. The trap works best on those who feel justified. Anger provoked by real sin still ends in sin of your own.
- Deliverer. Loving an angry man will not cure him. Rescue him once and you must rescue him again. Christ alone is Deliverer enough — and when you are wronged, forgive before the day ends.
Be not of them that strike hands, of them that are sureties for debts
In Bible times a handshake sealed a promise to pay someone else's debt. This proverb tells you not to be one of the people who do it. So why is such a generous-looking act called folly? And what should you do instead when a friend is in trouble?
Here the handshake is not a greeting. It is a pledge to pay what another person owes. The proverb does not forbid helping. It forbids one way of helping.
Verse 26 warns us, as Proverbs has done before, not to copy the example of those who shake hands, making a pledge to be surety for another's debts. If we want to help someone, we can give to them, if we have the means, without pledging anything. If a person is not sure he can pay when his pledge falls due, making that pledge is folly. The creditor may not hesitate to take even your bed away.
The trap does not look like a trap. They call it a mere formality, and the person asking is already sinking.
Suppose a person truly faced the duty of having to pay. Then in any bargain he makes, or any suretyship he agrees to, he would think hard about whether God approves and leads the way. But the careless are like drowning men catching at a straw. They lose their own money, then try to draw in their trusting friends. Those friends may have little or nothing to spare. It is a trifle, they say, or a mere form with no risk, since it is certain to work out. Those who hope for too much, and those who never plan ahead, trap themselves this way into their own ruin.
Should love risk anything at all for a friend? Commentators answer that generosity has a limit, and the limit is the harm your pledge would do to others.
Our strength and resources are very limited. Human life changes often and fast. So it would be hard to name a more dangerous mistake than a rash pledge or suretyship. Grace is free to lose without limit for another. But it is not free to dishonour the Lord by running up one's own debt, or to injure others, whether one's family or strangers. That would indeed be playing the part of a senseless man, not of a brother born for adversity.
Writers give a test to apply before you sign. It turns on one question: could you carry the whole loss yourself?
Proverbs condemns becoming surety for another as unwise: "he who hates striking hands in pledge is secure." Proverbs condemns being surety for a stranger outright. Many a Christian has suffered by being surety for a friend. Refusing may be hard. Yet it is unrighteousness unless the person who becomes surety can bear the loss if it falls on him.
The New Testament tells believers to owe no one anything. One writer takes that as a whole way of living with money, not just a rule about overdue bills.
"Owe no one anything." These few words cover a great deal. They mean more than paying debts when they are due. They mean seeking to pay every demand as soon as it falls due. To do this, a Christian should always aim to live below his income and do his business within his means. This may take much diligence and self-denial, but what misery he will avoid.
There is one great exception to the proverb's warning. What Proverbs calls unwise for us, Christ took up for us — and He could pay.
Suretyship. He became surety of a better covenant (Hebrews 7:22). Solomon was both wealthy and wise. In his book of Proverbs he warns against suretyship: "Whoever puts up security for a stranger will surely suffer harm" (Proverbs 11:15). Yet the Lord Jesus Christ, in His matchless grace, took up our cause — and we were strangers indeed. He Himself assumed our liabilities and paid our debts. The sorrows and sufferings of the cross show us the price He had to pay for our redemption.
- The debt — Striking hands meant taking on someone else's debt as your own. The proverb tells you not to be among the people who do it.
- The bait — Those who have already lost their own money call the pledge a trifle. So they pull in trusting friends who have nothing to spare.
- The limit — Grace may lose without limit for another. It may not dishonour the Lord with a debt you cannot pay, or injure your own family.
- The test — Give outright if you can. If you cannot carry the whole loss yourself, signing is unrighteousness — however hard refusing feels.
- The exception — Christ became Surety for strangers. He took our debts and paid them in full at the cross. Only He could.
if thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?
Verse 26 warns against shaking hands on someone else's debt. This verse gives the reason. A guarantee you cannot cover — standing surety for someone else — can cost you the bed you sleep on. Commentators read it as a warning about money, a test of real kindness, and a pointer to the one Surety who could pay.
One writer traces how it happens. The man in trouble grabs at anyone within reach, and the pitch for a signature makes the risk sound like nothing.
Suppose a person understood the duty of having to pay. Then, in any bargain made or any pledge agreed to, he would think seriously about whether God approves and leads the way. But drowning men catch at a straw for life. In the same way, the unwise lose their own money and then try to pull in their trusting friends, even when those friends have little or nothing to spare. It is a small thing, they say, or a mere formality with no risk, because it is certain to work out. The optimistic and the careless trap themselves into their own ruin. How plain and sharp the hint is! If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you?
The bed is the last thing a poor man owns, and his signature puts even that within the lender's reach.
Verse 26 warns us, as Proverbs has done before, that we should not copy the example of those who shake hands, making a pledge to be surety for another's debts. If we want to help someone, we can give to them, if we have the means, without pledging anything. Is someone unsure of being able to pay when his pledge falls due? Then it is folly to make the pledge. The creditor may not hesitate to take even your bed away.
God's law protected a poor man's night covering.
And so God kindly ordered that a garment pledged during the day had to be properly returned at night, so that no harm should come of it.
The force of the proverb lands here: what God guarded for the poor, a careless signature can hand over.
Commentators do not treat every guarantee as sin. The test is whether you could absorb the loss if it fell on you.
To stand surety for another is condemned in Proverbs as unwise: "whoever hates being surety is secure." Standing surety for a stranger is condemned outright. Many a Christian has suffered by standing surety for a friend. It may be hard to refuse, but it is unrighteousness unless the person standing surety can bear the loss if it should fall on him.
Where the money is not there, refusing is the right answer.
In our own way and measure we too may take the risk. But we should do it only where we are ready to stand the loss, and can do it thoughtfully and honourably. Otherwise it is right as well as safe to refuse. But risking money you do not have, or more than you have, cannot be justified. It is not kindness. It is dishonesty.
The proverb assumes a man who meant well and still could not pay. Good intentions do not pay a debt. Only means can, and that is where Christ differs from us.
If we want to become surety for a stranger, we should be prepared to suffer the consequences. When the Lord Jesus became surety for us, He was fully prepared to bear all the consequences of our countless sins. And He did this perfectly. He had both the ability and the willingness for this. Even if we should be willing to be surety for another, do we have the ability for it? Generally, the answer is no!
The same principle shapes everyday spending.
We take Romans 13:8 in its plain, broad sense. We believe it teaches us to owe no one anything. If only it were more fully carried out! It is painful beyond words to see how little conscience professing Christians have about debt. We solemnly call on all who are in the habit of going into debt. Let them judge themselves in this matter and get out of a false position at once. It is far better to sit down to a dry crust and wear a shabby coat than to live well and dress well at our neighbour's expense.
- Signature — A pledge always sounds like a formality; the proverb asks what happens when it isn't.
- Bed — The last thing you own is what the pledge exposes; the creditor is free to take it.
- Guarded — God's law gave a poor man his covering back at night. A careless pledge hands over what God protected.
- Ability — Willingness to help is not the same as means to pay; give what you have instead of pledging what you don't.
- Surety — Christ took our debt on Himself with both the will and the means to pay it in full.
Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.
One short rule stands between a farmer's field and his neighbour's greed: leave the boundary stone where your fathers put it. Behind it sits a bigger question. Who may redraw what God has already marked out?
The word points to something you could see and touch:
Anything, such as a stone or stake, that marked the boundary of a tribe or of a man's possession. Moving one was forbidden by the law. Deuteronomy 19:14; Job 24:2; Proverbs 22:28; Proverbs 23:10.
Those stones did a job. Move one, and two neighbours no longer know whose field is whose:
"Do not move the ancient landmark that your fathers have set" (v. 28). A landmark may be placed to mark off one person's property from another's, and no one should ignore it. Removing such a landmark may cause needless confusion.
Moving a stone is not robbery by force. It is a quieter kind of theft, and it starts in the heart:
The proverb then rebukes another kind of dishonesty. Here men tend to cheat by cunning rather than by open violence. Keep the ancient landmark your fathers set, with contentment, and without letting any greedy desire in.
The boundaries were not the result of bargaining between neighbours. They traced a division God Himself had made, which is why tampering with them was a matter between the offender and God.
Each one's portion was to stay untouched, along the boundary lines set up long ago. The LORD had given the land to Israel. More than that, He had assigned to each tribe and each family their own portion. He marked it off exactly. He showed it by landmarks so plain that there could be no confusion, no clashing of interests, no interference with one another, no ground for a lawsuit or dispute about property… Each one held his land as a tenant under the God of Israel, who knew all about his small plot. Every tenant had the comfort of knowing that the eye of the gracious and Almighty Landlord was on his bit of land, and His hand over it to protect it from every intruder.
Commentators carry the proverb across from land to truth. What the stone was to Israel's fields, the doctrines of Scripture are to God's heavenly people:
These landmarks were sacred things for Israel. God staked out their possessions according to His will, so to meddle with the markers was a transgression. Israel, God's earthly people, had landmarks. God's heavenly people also have landmarks of the heavenly realm — the blessed doctrines of the Word of God. These make up the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. And how man removes these landmarks in our day!
Mackintosh pictures an Israelite answering a plan to redraw the tribal map. Then he turns that answer on the church:
He would have said, "We want nothing new here. We are fully content with those sacred, long-honoured landmarks which those of old set in our inheritance. By the grace of God we are determined to keep to them, and to resist any modern change with firm purpose." … Surely the Christian should be just as prompt and just as decided in answering all those who, under the plea of progress and development, remove the landmarks of the church of God.
One writer warns that the verse gets used to defend things God never staked out:
From time to time we are told not to remove the ancient landmarks which our fathers have set. This verse is often applied to pet customs and patterns that have become traditional among gatherings of Christians. The ancient landmarks God prizes are the ones He has used our spiritual fathers, the apostles, to set for us in His Word.
The abuse runs the other way too. People also use that same label — "tradition" — to clear away what Scripture itself teaches:
These landmarks stand for truths that are basic to the testimony of the church of God — truths that keep us within the borders God has set for the order of His church. People may call them traditions, but true traditions are good. If they are only men's traditions, we must refuse them. But too often people try to cancel truths that Scripture teaches by calling them "traditions." That is removing the old landmarks.
- Boundary — A landmark was a stone or stake. It fixed where one man's land ended, and the law forbade moving it.
- Given — Neighbours did not bargain out those lines. God assigned each portion, marked it off exactly, and kept watch over it.
- Coveted — The sin is quiet theft, not open force. The cure is contentment with your own portion.
- Inherited — For Christians, the landmarks are the doctrines of God's Word: the faith once delivered to the saints.
- Tested — Guard the stakes God set, not every old habit. And never wave away plain Scripture as mere tradition.
Hast thou seen a man diligent in his work? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before the mean.
This proverb closes the section with a question, not a command. It watches one man — the man who is good at his work — and tells you where he ends up and who he leaves behind.
A man who works with care and skill does not stay unnoticed for long. Rulers need such men.
Last, it is good to notice a man who is diligent in his work, in a world where so many begrudge their time, care, and labour. No wonder that a man who does his business with conscience, speed, and skill becomes in time someone the king wants to honour, or even needs. He leaves behind the obscure men he started out among. Those who rule value integrity in work.
Part of the reason is the contrast with everyone else.
We can well understand why a man who excels in his work comes to stand before kings. Most people are not diligent, and no employer admires that slackness.
The old Greek translation of the Old Testament used a word for laziness where the ESV has "obscure men".
The Greek word for habitual laziness occurs once in the Greek Old Testament: it is not fit that one diligent in business should attend on slothful men, Proverbs 22:29.
Joseph and Daniel both worked well where no one was looking for talent, and both ended up before the throne.
"The hand of the diligent will rule" (Proverbs 12:24). Only those who are willing to work are fit to rule over others, while a lazy man can expect to end up doing forced labour. Joseph is an example of diligence even in prison, and he was soon raised to rule in Egypt (Genesis 41:38-44).
With Daniel and his friends, that place before the king came from God keeping His word to those who honour Him.
As a result, these faithful men became witnesses for God, for we read they stood "before the king." God was true to His own word, "Those who honour Me I will honour" (1 Samuel 2:30). So in every matter of wisdom and understanding, the king found these faithful men ten times better than all the men of the world.
If God does all the work in a believer, why should I put in any effort? The answer is that God works through means, and one of them is our own diligence.
The work in our hearts and lives as believers is all God's work. Yet we must not turn that into fatalism, as though there were nothing for us to do. God is pleased to use human means in much of His working. He has appointed that the road to spiritual growth for each believer runs through that believer's own diligence. This is no surprise, for it matches what we see in natural things. In Proverbs, God applies His wisdom to natural things.
Jesus worked with tireless diligence, and it did carry Him before kings — but not for the honour the proverb leads you to expect.
Mark's Gospel gives special prominence to the eager work of the Servant of the Lord. At the same time it shows how His labour ended. By ordinary human standards, it did not end as the careers of busy public men normally end. "Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men" (Proverbs 22:29). The Lord did stand before kings, but not for reward. He stood there to be unjustly condemned.
The proverb still holds for those who serve Christ, but the reward comes later.
How much more important it is for those who know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to be wholehearted and diligent in the work of the Lord! His work deserves our deepest care. Faith that serves Him earns the commendation of the Lord Jesus, and He will reward it with eternal results.
- Diligence — the proverb praises care, speed and skill in ordinary work. Rulers value that kind of integrity and send for it.
- Contrast — the diligent stand out because most people are not. No employer admires slackness.
- Promotion — Joseph worked well in prison and then ruled Egypt. Daniel stood before the king, because God honours those who honour Him.
- Principle — the same rule holds in the soul. God works through means, and He has made each believer's own diligence the road to spiritual growth.
- Exception — Christ, the diligent Servant, stood before kings for condemnation, not reward. Those who serve Him work now, and He rewards them with eternal results.