Proverbs 16:6

By mercy and truth iniquity is purged,.... Or "expiated" (d), and atoned for: not by the mercy and truth of men; not by alms deeds or showing mercy to the poor; nor by speaking truth and keeping

By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.

By mercy and truth; either, 1. By God’ s mercy or grace, and by his truth in performing his promises made to sinners in Christ. Or, 2. By men’ s mercy and truth, as those very words are jointly used, 20:28, and elsewhere; and as, in the following clause, the fear of the Lord is a grace or disposition in men; by a merciful, and just, and faithful frame of heart and course of life; which are here opposed to sacrifices, as mercy is, , by which the hypocritical Jews expected to obtain the expiation of their sins. Iniquity is purged, not meritoriously, but instrumentally, as they qualify a man to offer up acceptable prayers to God for the pardon of his sins, and to receive and apply to himself that pardon which Christ by his blood hath purchased for all sincere believers, who are filled with mercy, and truth, and other graces. By the fear of the Lord; by a filial reverence or respect unto God, and by a holy fear of offending God, and by a dread of God’ s judgments; men depart from evil; they are kept from abusing pardoning mercy, and from returning to folly or wickedness. So he showeth that justification and sanctification are constant and inseparable companions.

Proverbs 16:6 By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD [men] depart from evil.Ver. 6. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged.] Lest the proud person, bearing these dreadful threats, sbould fall into despair, here is a way shewed him how to escape. "By mercy and truth"; that is, by the goodness and faithfulness of God; by his love tbat moved him to promise pardon to the penitent, and by his truth that binds him to perform; "iniquity" - though never so hateful, be it blasphemy or any like heinous sin - "is purged," or expiated, viz., through Christ, "who is the propitiation for our sins." And by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.] As in the former clause were declared the causes of justification, so here the exercise of sanctification, for these two go ever together. Christ doth not only wash all his in "the fountain" of his blood "opened for sin and for uncleanness," but healeth their natures of that swinish disposition, whereby they would else wallow again in their former filth. The laver and altar under the law situated in the same priest’ s court signified the same, as the water and blood issuing out of Christ’ s side, viz., the necessary concurrence of justification and sanctification in all that shall be saved: that [the latter] was intimated by the laver and water; this [the former] by the altar and blood.

(6) Mercy and truth.—See above on Proverbs 3:3. Mercy and truth cannot, of course, in themselves “purge iniquity,” only so far as they are signs of the “faith which worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6), which accepts the salvation offered by God (Romans 1:16-17). (Comp. the statement with regard to charity, 1 Peter 4:8.) By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.—Or, rather, escape misfortune. (Comp. Psalms 37 throughout.)

Verse 6. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged] This may be misunderstood, as if a man, by showing mercy and acting according to truth, could atone for his own iniquity. The Hebrew text is not ambiguous: בחסד ואמת יכפר עון bechesed veemeth yechapper avon; "By mercy and truth he shall atone for iniquity." He - God, by his mercy, in sending his son Jesus into the world, - "shall make an atonement for iniquity" according to his truth - the word which he declared by his holy prophets since the world began. Or, if we retain the present version, and follow the points in yecuppar, reading "iniquity is purged" or "atoned for," the sense is unexceptionable, as we refer the mercy and the truth to GOD. But what an awful comment is that of Don Calmet, in which he expresses, not only his own opinion, but the staple doctrine of his own Church, the Romish! The reader shall have his own words: "'L'iniquite se rachete par la misericorde et la verite.' On expie ses pechez par des oeuvres de misericorde envers le prochein; par la clemence, par la douceur, par compassion, par les aumones: et par la verite - par la fidelity, la bonne foi, la droiture, l'equite dans le commerce. Voyez Proverbs 3:3; Proverbs 14:22; Proverbs 20:28." "'Iniquity is redeemed by mercy and truth.' We expiate our sins by works of mercy towards our neighbour; by clemency, by kindness, by compassion, and by alms: and by truth - by fidelity, by trustworthiness, by uprightness, by equity in commerce." If this be so, why was Jesus incarnated? Why his agony and bloody sweat, his cross and passion, his death and burial, his resurrection and ascension? Was it only to supply a sufficient portion of merit for those who had neglected to make a fund for themselves? Is the guilt of sin so small in the sight of Divine justice, that a man can atone for it by manifesting good dispositions towards his neighbours, by giving some alms, and not doing those things for which he might be hanged? Why then did God make such a mighty matter of the redemption of the world? Why send his Son at all? An angel would have been more than sufficient; yea, even a sinner, who had been converted by his own compassion, alms - deeds, c., would have been sufficient. And is not this the very doctrine of this most awfully fallen and corrupt Church? Has she not provided a fund of merit in her saints, of what was more than requisite for themselves, that it might be given, or sold out, to those who had not enough of their own? Now such is the doctrine of the Romish Church - grossly absurd, and destructively iniquitous! And because men cannot believe this, cannot believe these monstrosities, that Church will burn them to ashes. Ruthless Church! degenerated, fallen, corrupt, and corrupting! once a praise, now a curse, in the earth.

6. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged] This is not a statement of the method and ground of atonement, though the Heb. word here rendered purged is the usual word in the O.T. for covering, or atoning for, sin. That is taught elsewhere both in the Old (Psalms 51:7), and in the New Testament (Romans 3:20-26). But it is a lifting of man’s appropriation of atonement out of the ceremonial and ritual into the moral sphere of action. Not by sacrifices as its purchase-money, but by a new life as its seal, is the free gift of atonement realised and assured. Comp. Ezekiel 18:27-28; Micah 6:6-8; James 2:24.

Compare Proverbs 15:8. “By mercy and truth,” not by sacrifices and burnt-offerings, “iniquity is purged, atoned for, expiated.” The teaching is the same as that of the prophets.

6. By mercy and truth (compare Proverbs 3:3; Proverbs 20:28) iniquity is purged — Literally, covered.