Proverbs 28:4

Bible in Basic English (1941)

Those who have no respect for the law give praise to the evil-doer; but such as keep the law are against him.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

עֹזְבֵ֣י ת֭וֹרָה יְהַֽלְל֣וּ רָשָׁ֑ע וְשֹׁמְרֵ֥י ת֝וֹרָ֗ה יִתְגָּ֥רוּ בָֽם׃

Transliteration

ʿōzḇê tôrāh yəhaləlû rāšāʿ wə-šōmərê tôrāh yiṯgārû ḇām

Grammar Details

• *ʿōzḇê*: Qal participle, masculine plural construct - those forsaking/abandoning
• *tôrāh*: noun, feminine singular - law/teaching/instruction
• *yəhaləlû*: Piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural - they praise
• *rāšāʿ*: adjective/noun, masculine singular - wicked/evil person
• *wə-šōmərê*: conjunction + Qal participle, masculine plural construct - and those keeping/observing
• *yiṯgārû*: Hithpael imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural - they contend/struggle
• *ḇām*: preposition + 3rd person masculine plural suffix - against them

Word Meanings

• *ʿōzḇê*: those forsaking/those abandoning/those leaving
• *tôrāh*: law/teaching/instruction
• *yəhaləlû*: they praise/they commend
• *rāšāʿ*: wicked person/evil one/guilty one
• *šōmərê*: those keeping/those observing/those guarding
• *yiṯgārû*: they contend with/they struggle against/they engage in conflict

Referenced Verses

• Eph 5:11 : 11 And have no company with the works of the dark, which give no fruit, but make their true quality clear;
• Matt 3:7 : 7 But when he saw a number of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, Offspring of snakes, at whose word are you going in flight from the wrath to come?
• Rom 1:32 : 32 Who, though they have knowledge of the law of God, that the fate of those who do these things is death, not only go on doing these things themselves, but give approval to those who do them.
• 1 Kgs 18:18 : 18 Then he said in answer, I have not been troubling Israel, but you and your family; because, turning away from the orders of the Lord, you have gone after the Baals.
• Matt 14:4 : 4 Because John had said to him, It is not right for you to have her.
• Ps 10:3 : 3 For the evil-doer is lifted up because of the purpose of his heart, and he whose mind is fixed on wealth is turned away from the Lord, saying evil against him.
• Ps 49:18 : 18 Though he might have pride in his soul in his life-time, and men will give you praise if you do well for yourself,
• 1 Kgs 18:21 : 21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long will you go on balancing between two opinions? if the Lord is God, then give worship to him; but if Baal, give worship to him. And the people said not a word in answer.
• 1 Kgs 20:41-42 : 41 Then he quickly took the head-band from his eyes; and the king of Israel saw that he was one of the prophets. 42 And he said to him, These are the words of the Lord: Because you have let go from your hands the man whom I had put to the curse, your life will be taken for his life, and your people for his people.
• 1 Kgs 21:19-20 : 19 Say to him, The Lord says, Have you put a man to death and taken his heritage? Then say to him, The Lord says, In the place where dogs have been drinking the blood of Naboth, there will your blood become the drink of dogs. 20 And Ahab said to Elijah, Have you come face to face with me, O my hater? And he said, I have come to you because you have given yourself up to do evil in the eyes of the Lord.
• 1 Kgs 22:19-28 : 19 And he said, Give ear now to the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord seated on his seat of power, with all the army of heaven in their places round him at his right hand and at his left. 20 And the Lord said, How may Ahab be tricked into going up to Ramoth-gilead to his death? And one said one thing and one another. 21 Then a spirit came forward and took his place before the Lord and said, I will get him to do it by a trick. 22 And the Lord said, How? And he said, I will go out and be a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Your trick will have its effect on him: go out and do so. 23 And now, see, the Lord has put a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the Lord has said evil against you. 24 Then Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, came near and gave Micaiah a blow on the side of the face, saying, Where is the spirit of the Lord whose word is in you? 25 And Micaiah said, Truly, you will see on that day when you go into an inner room to keep yourself safe. 26 And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon, the ruler of the town, and to Joash, the king's son; 27 And say, It is the king's order that this man is to be put in prison and given prison food till I come again in peace. 28 And Micaiah said, If you come back at all in peace, the Lord has not sent his word by me.
• 2 Kgs 3:13-14 : 13 But Elisha said to the king of Israel, What have I to do with you? go to the prophets of your father and your mother. And the king of Israel said, No; for the Lord has got these three kings together to give them up into the hands of Moab. 14 Then Elisha said, By the life of the Lord of armies whose servant I am, if it was not for the respect I have for Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I would not give a look at you, or see you.
• Neh 5:7-9 : 7 And after turning it over in my mind, I made a protest to the chiefs and the rulers, and said to them, Every one of you is taking interest from his countryman. And I got together a great meeting of protest. 8 And I said to them, We have given whatever we were able to give, to make our brothers the Jews free, who were servants and prisoners of the nations: and would you now give up your brothers for a price, and are they to become our property? Then they said nothing, answering not a word. 9 And I said, What you are doing is not good: is it not the more necessary for you to go in the fear of our God, because of the shame which the nations may put on us? 10 Even I and my servants have been taking interest for the money and the grain we have let them have. So now, let us give up this thing. 11 Give back to them this very day their fields, their vine-gardens, their olive-gardens, and their houses, as well as a hundredth part of the money and the grain and the wine and the oil which you have taken from them. 12 Then they said, We will give them back, and take nothing for them; we will do as you say. Then I sent for the priests and made them take an oath that they would keep this agreement. 13 And shaking out the folds of my robe, I said, So may God send out from his house and his work every man who does not keep this agreement; even so let him be sent out and made as nothing. And all the meeting of the people said, So be it, and gave praise to the Lord. And the people did as they had said.
• Neh 13:8-9 : 8 And it was evil in my eyes: so I had all Tobiah's things put out of the room. 9 Then I gave orders, and they made the rooms clean: and I put back in them the vessels of the house of God, with the meal offerings and the perfume. 10 And I saw that the Levites had not been given what was needed for their support; so that the Levites and the music-makers, who did the work, had gone away, everyone to his field. 11 Then I made protests to the chiefs, and said, Why has the house of God been given up? And I got them together and put them in their places.
• Neh 13:15 : 15 In those days, I saw in Judah some who were crushing grapes on the Sabbath, and getting in grain and putting it on asses; as well as wine and grapes and figs and all sorts of goods which they took into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day: and I gave witness against them on the day when they were marketing food.
• Neh 13:17-20 : 17 Then I made protests to the chiefs of Judah, and said to them, What is this evil which you are doing, not keeping the Sabbath day holy? 18 Did not your fathers do the same, and did not our God send all this evil on us and on this town? but you are causing more wrath to come on Israel by not keeping the Sabbath holy. 19 And so, when the streets of Jerusalem were getting dark before the Sabbath, I gave orders for the doors to be shut and not to be open again till after the Sabbath: and I put some of my servants by the door so that nothing might be taken in on the Sabbath day. 20 So the traders in all sorts of goods took their night's rest outside Jerusalem once or twice.
• Neh 13:23-26 : 23 And in those days I saw the Jews who were married to women of Ashdod and Ammon and Moab: 24 And their children were talking half in the language of Ashdod; they had no knowledge of the Jews' language, but made use of the language of the two peoples. 25 And I took up the cause against them, cursing them and giving blows to some of them and pulling out their hair; and I made them take an oath by God, saying, You are not to give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26 Was it not in these things that Solomon, king of Israel, did wrong? among a number of nations there was no king like him, and he was dear to his God, and God made him king over all Israel: but even he was made to do evil by strange women.
• Neh 13:28 : 28 And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib, the chief priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite: so I sent him away from me.
• Jer 5:30 : 30 A thing of wonder and fear has come about in the land;
• 1 Sam 15:14-24 : 14 And Samuel said, What then is this sound of the crying of sheep and the noise of oxen which comes to my ears? 15 And Saul said, They have taken them from the Amalekites: for the people have kept the best of the sheep and of the oxen as an offering to the Lord your God; all the rest we have given up to destruction. 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, Say no more! Let me give you word of what the Lord has said to me this night. And he said to him, Say on. 17 And Samuel said, Though you may seem little to yourself, are you not head of the tribes of Israel? for the Lord with the holy oil made you king over Israel, 18 And the Lord sent you on a journey and said, Go and put to the curse those sinners, the Amalekites, fighting against them till every one is dead. 19 Why then did you not do the orders of the Lord, but by violently taking their goods did evil in the eyes of the Lord? 20 And Saul said, Truly, I have done the orders of the Lord and have gone the way the Lord sent me; I have taken Agag, the king of Amalek, and have given the Amalekites up to destruction. 21 But the people took some of their goods, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which were put to the curse, to make an offering of them to the Lord your God in Gilgal. 22 And Samuel said, Has the Lord as much delight in offerings and burned offerings as in the doing of his orders? Truly, to do his pleasure is better than to make offerings, and to give ear to him than the fat of sheep. 23 For to go against his orders is like the sin of those who make use of secret arts, and pride is like giving worship to images. Because you have put away from you the word of the Lord, he has put you from your place as king. 24 And Saul said to Samuel, Great is my sin: for I have gone against the orders of the Lord and against your words: because, fearing the people, I did what they said.
• 1 Sam 22:14-15 : 14 Then Ahimelech answering said to the king, Who among all your servants is so true to you as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and is a captain of your armed men, and has a place of honour in your house? 15 Is this the first time I have got directions from God for him? Far be the thought! let the king make no such statement against his servant or my father's family, for your servant has no knowledge, great or small, of this thing.
• 1 Sam 23:19-21 : 19 Then the Ziphites came up to Gibeah to see Saul, and said, Is not David living secretly among us in the strong places in Horesh, in the hill of Hachilah to the south of the waste land? 20 So now, O king, have your soul's desire and come down, and we, for our part, will give him up into the king's hands. 21 And Saul said, The Lord's blessing will be yours, for you have had pity on me.
• Acts 12:22 : 22 And the people, with loud cries, said, It is the voice of a god, not of a man.
• Acts 15:2 : 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had had no little argument and discussion with them, the brothers made a decision to send Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them to the Apostles and the rulers of the church at Jerusalem about this question.
• Acts 19:9 : 9 But because some of the people were hard-hearted and would not give hearing, saying evil words about the Way before the people, he went away from them, and kept the disciples separate, reasoning every day in the school of Tyrannus.
• Acts 24:2-4 : 2 And when he had been sent for, Tertullus, starting his statement, said, Because by you we are living in peace, and through your wisdom wrongs are put right for this nation, 3 In all things and in all places we are conscious of our great debt to you, most noble Felix. 4 But, so that I may not make you tired, I make a request to you of your mercy, to give hearing to a short statement.
• Gal 2:3-6 : 3 But not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was made to undergo circumcision: 4 And that because of the false brothers let in secretly, who came searching out our free condition which we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might make servants of us; 5 To whom we gave way not even for an hour; so that the true words of the good news might still be with you. 6 But from those who seemed to be important (whatever they were has no weight with me: God does not take man's person into account): those who seemed to be important gave nothing new to me;
• Matt 3:15 : 15 But Jesus made answer, saying to him, Let it be so now: because so it is right for us to make righteousness complete. Then he gave him baptism.
• 1 Thess 2:2 : 2 But after we had first undergone much pain and been cruelly attacked as you saw, at Philippi, by the help of God we gave you the good news without fear, though everything was against us.
• 1 John 4:5 : 5 They are of the world, so their talk is the world's talk, and the world gives ear to them.
• Jude 1:3 : 3 My loved ones, while my thoughts were full of a letter which I was going to send you about our common salvation, it was necessary for me to send you one requesting you with all my heart to go on fighting strongly for the faith which has been given to the saints once and for ever.