Bird's-eye view
This proverb presents a tight, two-part parallel that describes the inner character and the outward manifestation of a particular kind of wicked man. The first line deals with his formal contempt for God's standards of justice, seen in the legal setting of a courtroom. The second line reveals the informal, personal appetite that drives this contempt. He is not simply mistaken about justice; he actively despises it. And he does not merely stumble into sin; he consumes it with gusto. The verse paints a picture of a man whose entire being is oriented toward lawlessness. His public function (as a witness) is corrupt because his personal desire (his mouth) is corrupt. This is a portrait of deep-seated rebellion, where the hatred of God's order is so profound that iniquity becomes the man's daily bread.
The "vile witness" is literally a "witness of Belial," connecting him to the worthless, rebellious, and satanic spirit of lawlessness. His scoffing is not a lighthearted jest but a profound mockery of the very foundation of a godly society. The image of his mouth "swallowing up iniquity" is visceral. Sin is not an occasional mistake for him; it is his food, his sustenance, his delight. This proverb, then, is a stark warning about the man who has given himself over to wickedness, showing how a debased heart inevitably produces a destructive mouth, and how a love for evil ultimately corrupts every aspect of a man's life, especially his words.
Outline
- 1. The Character of the Lawless Man (Prov 19:28)
- a. His Public Contempt: The Scoffing Witness (Prov 19:28a)
- b. His Private Appetite: The Sin-Swallowing Mouth (Prov 19:28b)
Context In Proverbs
Proverbs 19 is a collection of antithetical and synthetical couplets that contrast the righteous and the wicked, the wise and the foolish. This particular verse, 28, fits squarely within this pattern. It follows verses that deal with the consequences of folly, the importance of discipline, and the danger of straying from knowledge. It is immediately followed by a declaration that "Judgments are established for scoffers" (Prov 19:29), providing the divine answer to the problem presented in our verse. If a man scoffs at justice, God has a form of justice prepared specifically for him. The theme of true and false witness is a recurring one in Proverbs (Prov 6:19; 12:17; 14:5, 25), as justice in the gate was a cornerstone of Israelite society. This verse intensifies the theme by describing not just a false witness, but a witness who fundamentally despises the entire judicial process because he is, at his core, a man who loves and consumes evil.
Key Issues
- The Meaning of "Belial"
- The Connection Between Character and Testimony
- The Nature of Scoffing
- The Metaphor of Consuming Iniquity
- The Biblical Doctrine of Justice
The Man of Belial
The Hebrew for "a vile witness" is ed beliyyaal, a "witness of Belial." This is more than just calling him a nasty fellow. Belial is a potent Old Testament word for worthlessness, wickedness, and rebellion against all legitimate authority. It is later used in the New Testament as a name for Satan himself (2 Cor 6:15). A son of Belial is not just a run-of-the-mill sinner; he is a man who has enlisted in the cause of chaos. He is a revolutionary against the created order. So when Solomon speaks of a "witness of Belial," he is describing a man whose testimony in court is an extension of his satanic opposition to God's law and order. He is not just telling a lie to get out of a jam. He is lying as an act of war against the very concept of justice. His goal is not simply to distort a particular outcome, but to subvert and mock the entire system of righteousness that God has established. He is an agent of cosmic treason, and his lies are his weapons.
Verse by Verse Commentary
28A A vile witness scoffs at justice,
The first clause sets the scene in a formal, public, and civic context. We are in court, or "at the gate," where justice is to be administered. The integrity of this process depends entirely on the truthfulness of witnesses. But this witness is not just unreliable; he is vile, a man of Belial. His defining action is that he "scoffs at justice." The word for scoff here means to mock, to deride, to treat with contempt. He sees the whole judicial proceeding as a joke. The oaths, the standards of evidence, the authority of the judge, the very concept of an objective right and wrong, are all contemptible to him. Why? Because justice represents a transcendent standard to which he must submit, and his entire nature as a man of Belial rebels against submission. He lies under oath not with a tremor of fear, but with a smirk. He perjures himself as a way of demonstrating his own autonomy and his contempt for God's authority. This is the man who believes he can create his own reality with his words, and he despises the reality God has already created and defined through His law.
28B And the mouth of the wicked swallows up iniquity.
The second clause moves from the man's public performance to his private appetite. It explains the "why" behind his scoffing. Why does he hate justice? Because he loves iniquity. The parallelism is brilliant. The "vile witness" is now identified simply as "the wicked," and his formal "scoffing" is revealed to be the overflow of a ravenous "mouth." And what does this mouth do? It "swallows up iniquity." The imagery is graphic and instructive. Iniquity, or evil, is not something he tolerates or dabbles in. It is his food. He craves it, he seeks it out, he consumes it, and he is nourished by it. Just as a hungry man devours a meal, the wicked man devours sin. This tells us that his false testimony in the first line was not an isolated act. It was part of his diet. Lying, cheating, slandering, and defrauding are the things that make him feel alive. Therefore, a system of "justice" that would put his food supply in jeopardy is naturally his mortal enemy. He must mock it and tear it down, because his life depends on a steady supply of what justice forbids. He has an inverted morality because he has an inverted appetite. Good is his poison, and evil is his feast.
Application
This proverb is a diagnostic tool for the church. It reminds us that what comes out of a man's mouth is a direct reflection of what he has been eating. When we see a man in the church, or a leader, who plays fast and loose with the truth, who engages in slander, who twists words, and who seems to relish conflict and destruction, we are not to chalk it up to a simple personality quirk. We are seeing the fruit of a particular diet. Such a man is feasting on iniquity, and what we are hearing is the theological belch.
The application for each of us is to examine our own appetites. What do we savor? Do we delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night? Or do we find a secret thrill in gossip, in slander, in seeing an enemy fall, in a clever but dishonest argument? Do we hunger and thirst for righteousness, or for the fatty meats of worldly wickedness? You cannot scoff at justice in one area of your life and expect to be a man of integrity in another. The mouth that swallows iniquity on Saturday night will not be a source of true witness on Sunday morning.
Ultimately, this proverb drives us to the Gospel. We are all born with a taste for iniquity. We are all by nature children of Belial, scoffing at God's perfect justice. The only cure for this condition is a radical, supernatural change of appetite, which is what the new birth is. God must give us a new heart that loathes the taste of sin and craves the pure milk of the Word. Christ is the true and faithful witness who never scoffed at justice but rather satisfied it completely on the cross. He drank the full cup of God's just wrath against our sin so that we, in turn, could be invited to His feast, where we no longer swallow iniquity, but rather feast on Him, the Bread of Life, by faith.