Proverbs 28:4

They that forsake the law praise the wicked,.... Who are like them; who forsake and transgress the law, as they do; every like loves its like; wicked men delight in sin, the transgression of the law, and in those that do it.

They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them. They that forsake the law praise the wicked - naturally, as resembling themselves.

They that forsake the law, that live in the contempt of and disobedience to God’ s law, praise the wicked; honour their persons, contrary to ; freely and familiarly associate themselves with them, and approve of their sinful courses; all which proceeds from their great likeness to them. Contend with them; are so far from praising or applauding them, that they severely rebuke them, and to the utmost of their power oppose them in their wicked enterprises.

Proverbs 28:4 They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them.Ver. 4. They that forsake the law praise the wicked.] As Machiavel doth Caesar Borgia, that bipedum nequissimum, proposing him for a pattern to all Christian princes; as Onuphrius (the Pope’ s biographer), doth Hildebrand or Gregory VII, in five books written of his noble acts and great virtues; whom Cardinal Benno truly describeth to have been a murderer, an adulterer, a conjurer, a schismatic, a heretic, and every way as bad as might be. Epiphanius tells us that there were a sort of brain sick heretics that extolled Cain, and were therefore called Cainites. They also commended the Sodomites, Korah, Judas the traitor, &c. In the book of Judith, the act of Simeon and Levi upon the Shechemites is extolled; and there was one Bruno that wrote an oration in commendation of the devil. But they that keep the law contend with them.] Moved with a zeal of God, they cannot be silent. As Croesus’ s dumb son, they cry out, Wilt thou kill my father, dishonour nay God, &c.? Good blood will never belie itself; good metal will appear. How did young David bristle against blackmouthed Goliath, and enter the lists with him! "Do not I hate thmn that hate thee?" saith he, "yea, I hate them with a perfect hatred." I cast down the gauntlet of defiance against them; I count them mine enemies. Asa cannot bear with idolatry, no, not in his own mother. Our Edward VI would by no means yield to a toleration for his sister Mary, though solicited thereunto by Cranmer and Ridley, for political respects. Mihi quidem Auxentius non alius erit quam diabolus, quamdiu Arianus, said Hilary; I shall look upon Auxentius as a devil, so long as he is an Arian. It was the speech of blessed Luther, who though he was very earnest to have the communion administered in both kinds, contrary to the doctrine and custom of Rome, yet if the Pope, saith he, as pope, commanded me to receive it in both kinds, I would but receive it in one kind; since to obey what he commands as pope, is a receiving of the mark of the beast. Epiphan., Haeret., 38.

(4) They that forsake the law praise the wicked.—The mark of extreme wickedness. (Comp. Romans 1:32.) But such as keep the law contend with them.—Just as the sight of ill-doing was the one thing which roused our Lord to wrath, while insults and wrongs offered to Himself were passed by unnoticed.

Verse 4. They that forsake the law] He that transgresses says, in fact, that it is right to transgress; and thus other wicked persons are encouraged.

4. the law] not in its Jewish form, “The Law,” sc. of Moses, but in its wider sense; and so in Proverbs 28:7; Proverbs 28:9, below. See Introd. p. 13.

4. Contend with them — “Are angry with.” — Gesenius. “Rouse up themselves against them.” — Stuart. “Make war upon them.” — Miller. Some think this proverb relates to the preceding.