Proverbs 14:34
in Proverbs 14Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Righteousness exalteth a nation; But sin is a reproach to any people.
KJV
Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.
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This verse in Proverbs 14
Commentary
4 notes on this verseRighteousness exalteth a nation,.... Administered by the government, and exercised by subjects towards one another; doing justice between man and man: this exalts a nation, as it did the people of Israel, while practised among them; this sets a people above their neighbours, and high in the esteem of God and men; and is attended with privileges and blessings, which make a nation great and honourable. Some understand this of aims deeds, or beneficence to the poor; which, both in the Hebrew and Greek languages, is called righteousness; See Gill on Mat 6:
This site's exposition
Righteousness exalts a nation
on Proverbs 14:34-35
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” closes the chapter on its public turn. The closing proverb narrows the same principle to one court: “A king delights in a wise servant, but his anger falls on the shameful”.
The record, by era
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
But sin is a reproach to any people - I am satisfied this is not the sense of the original, וחסד לאמים חטאת vechesed leummim chattath; which would be better rendered, And mercy is a sin-offering for the people. The Vulgate has, Miseros autem facit populos peccatum, “sin makes the people wretched.” Ελασσονουσι δε φυλας ἁμαρτιαι; “But sins lessen the tribes.” - Septuagint. So also the Syriac and Arabic. The plain meaning of the original seems to be, A national disposition to mercy appears in the sight of God as a continual sin-offering.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Reproach - The word so rendered has this sense in the Targum of Lev 20:17. Its more usual meaning is “mercy,” “piety;” hence, some have attached to the word rendered “sin” the sense of “sin-offering,” and so get the maxim “piety is an atonement for the people.”
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| צְדָקָ֥ה | tzedakah | righteousness | H6666 → | 157 times |
| תְרֽוֹמֵֽם־ | teromem- | it exalts | H7311 → | 190 times |
| גּ֑וֹי | goy | a nation | H1471 → | |
| וְחֶ֖סֶד | vechesed | and [is] a shame | H2617 → | 247 times |
| לְאֻמִּ֣ים | leumim | to a people | H3816 → | 31 times |
| חַטָּֽאת׃ | chatat | sin | H2403 → | 295 times |
צְדָקָ֥הrighteousness
tzedakahH6666 →157 times
תְרֽוֹמֵֽם־it exalts
teromem-H7311 →190 times
גּ֑וֹיa nation
goyH1471 →
וְחֶ֖סֶדand [is] a shame
vechesedH2617 →247 times
לְאֻמִּ֣יםto a people
leumimH3816 →31 times
חַטָּֽאת׃sin
chatatH2403 →295 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 107:34and fruitful land into fields of salt, because of the wickedness of its dwellers.
it leads to
- Genesis 14:3
The latter five came as allies to the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea).
- Genesis 13:10
And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was…
- Deuteronomy 29:23–28
All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the…
- Ezekiel 47:11
But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt.
- Genesis 13:13
But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning greatly against the LORD.
- Genesis 14:3
Where this verse is studied
About Proverbs
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.