Proverbs 25:5

Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) His throne shall be established in righteousness—whereas violence and wrong pull it down. (Jeremiah 21:12; Jeremiah 22:3, sqq.; Zechariah 7:9, sqq.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:1-3 God needs not search into any thing; nothing can be hid from him. But it is the honour of rulers to search out matters, to bring to light hidden works of darkness. 4,5. For a prince to suppress vice, and reform his people, is the best way to support his government. 6,7. Religion teaches us humility and self-denial. He who has seen the glory of the Lord in Christ Jesus, will feel his own unworthiness. 8-10. To be hasty in beginning strife, will bring into difficulties. War must at length end, and might better be prevented. It is so in private quarrels; do all thou canst to settle the matter. 11,12. A word of counsel, or reproof, rightly spoken, is especially beautiful, as fine fruit becomes still more beautiful in silver baskets. 13. See what ought to be the aim of him that is trusted with any business; to be faithful. A faithful minister, Christ's messenger, should be thus acceptable to us. 14. He who pretends to have received or given that which he never had, is like the morning cloud, that disappoints those who look for rain. 15. Be patient to bear a present hurt. Be mild to speak without passion; for persuasive language is the most effectual to prevail over the hardened mind. 16. God has given us leave to use grateful things, but we are cautioned against excess.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The interpretation of the proverb of Proverbs 25:4. The king himself, like the Lord whom he represents, is to sit as "a refiner of silver" Malachi 3:3.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. before—or, "in presence of," as courtiers stood about a king.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

From before the king; from his court and councils.

Shall be established, by removing them who by their wicked counsels and practices provoked God’s displeasure against the king, and blasted his reputation, and alienated the hearts of his people from him.

Established in righteousness, by such impartial execution of justice.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Take away the wicked from before the king,.... Wicked ministers and counsellors; they are the "dross", worthless and useless; yea, hurtful and pernicious. The king is the "refiner", for whom the vessel is; the kingdom is the silver vessel refined; and which becomes much the better, when wicked men are removed from the court and cabinet council of kings; as well as the king is the happier, and his throne more firm and secure, as follows:

and his throne shall be established in righteousness; which he shall execute, wicked ministers being removed from him, who advised him to take unrighteous measures; and others being put in their room, who counsel him to do acts of justice; whereby his throne is secured, and he sits firm upon it, which before was tottering and shaking, and lie in great danger of being removed from it.

Geneva Study Bible

Take {g} away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.

(g) It is not enough that he is pure himself, but that he put away others who are corrupted.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - Take away the wicked from before the king. Let the wicked be removed from the presence of the king, as dross is separated from the pure silver (see the same metaphor, Isaiah 1:25; Jeremiah 6:29, etc.). And his throne shall be established in righteousness (Proverbs 16:12: 29:14). The king detects the evil and punishes them; and this confirms his rule and secures the continuance of his dynasty. Thus righteousness triumphs, and wickedness is properly dealt with. Septuagint, "Slay the ungodly from the face of the king, and his throne shall prosper in righteousness." Proverbs 25:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

There now follows an emblematic (vid., vol. i. p. 10) tetrastich:

4 Take away the dross from silver,

   So there is ready a vessel for the goldsmith;

5 Take away the wicked from the king,

   And his throne is established by righteousness.

The form הגו (cf. the inf. Poal הגו, Isaiah 59:13) is regarded by Schultens as showing a ground-form הגו; but there is also found e.g., עשׂו, whose ground-form is עשׂי; the verb הגה, R. הג (whence Arab. hajr, discedere), cf. יגה (whence הגה, semovit, 2 Samuel 20:13 equals Syr. âwagy, cf. Arab. âwjay, to withhold, to abstain from), signifies to separate, withdraw; here, of the separation of the סיגים, the refuse, i.e., the dross (vid., regarding the plena scriptio, Baer's krit. Ausg. des Jesaia, under Proverbs 1:22); the goldsmith is designated by the word צרף, from צרף morf, to turn, change, as he who changes the as yet drossy metal by means of smelting, or by purification in water, into that which is pure. In 5a הגה is, as at Isaiah 27:8, transferred to a process of moral purification; what kind of persons are to be removed from the neighbourhood of the king is shown by Isaiah 1:22-23. Here also (as at Isa. l.c.) the emblem or figure of Proverbs 25:4 is followed in Proverbs 25:5 by its moral antitype aimed at. The punctuation of both verses is wonderfully fine and excellent. In Proverbs 25:4, ויצא is not pointed ויצא, but as the consecutive modus ויּצא; this first part of the proverb refers to a well-known process of art: the dross is separated from the silver (inf. absol., as Proverbs 12:7; Proverbs 15:22), and so a vessel (utensil) proceeds from the goldsmith, for he manufactures pure silver; the ל is here similarly used as the designation of the subject in the passive, Proverbs 13:13; Proverbs 14:20. In Proverbs 25:5, on the contrary, ויּכּון (ויּכּן) is not the punctuation used, but the word is pointed indicatively ויכּון; this second part of the proverb expresses a moral demand (inf. absol. in the sense of the imperative, Gesen. 131, 4b like Proverbs 17:12, or an optative or concessive conjunction): let the godless be removed, לפני מלך, i.e., not from the neighbourhood of the king, for which the words are מלּפני מלך; also not those standing before the king, i.e., in his closest neighbourhood (Ewald, Bertheau); but since, in the absolute, הגה, not an act of another in the interest of the king, but of the king himself, is thought of: let the godless be removed from before the king, i.e., because he administers justice (Hitzig), or more generally: because after that Psalm (101), which is the "mirror of princes," he does not suffer him to come into his presence. Accordingly, the punctuation is בּצּדק, not בּצדק (Proverbs 16:12); because such righteousness is meant as separates the רשׁע from it and itself from him, as Isaiah 16:5 (vid., Hitzig), where the punctuation of בּחסד denotes that favour towards Moab seeking protection.