closes this group, as also the foregoing is closed, and its commencement is related in form and in its contents to Pro 28:2 : 12 When righteous men triumph, the glory is great; And when the godless rise, the people are searched for.
The first line of this distich is parallel with Pro 29:2; cf. Pro 11:10, Pro 11:11 : when the righteous rejoice, viz., as conquerors (cf. e.g., Psa 60:8), who have the upper hand, then תּפארת, bright prosperity, is increased; or as Fleischer, by comparison of the Arab. yawm alazynt (day of ornament = festival day), explains: so is there much festival adornment, i.e., one puts on festival clothes, signum pro re signata: thus all appears festal and joyous, for prosperity and happiness then show themselves forth. רבּה is adj. and pred. of the substantival clause; Hitzig regards it as the attribute: “then is there great glory;” this supposition is possible (vid., Pro 7:26, and under Psa 89:51), but here it is purely arbitrary. 28a is parallel with 12b: “if the godless arise, attain to power and prominence, these men are spied out, i.e., as we say, after Zep 1:12, they are searched for as with lamps. יחפּשׂ אדם is to be understood after Obadiah, Oba 1:6, cf. Pro 2:4 : men are searched out, i.e., are plundered (in which sense Heidenheim regards חפשׂ as here a transposition from חשׂף), or, with reference to the secret police of despotism: they are subjected to espionage. But a better gloss is יסּתר אדם 28a: the people let themselves be sought for, they keep themselves concealed in the inside of their houses, they venture not out into the streets and public places (Fleischer), for mistrust and suspicion oppress them all; one regards his person and property nowhere safer than within the four walls of his house; the lively, noisy, variegated life which elsewhere rules without, is as if it were dead.
Verse 13
Pro 28:13 13 He that denieth his sin shall not prosper; But he that acknowledgeth and forsaketh it shall obtain mercy.
Thus is this proverb translated by Luther, and thus it lives in the mouth of the Christian people. He who falsely disowns, or with self-deception excuses, if he does not altogether justify his sins, which are discernible as פּשׁעים, has no success; he remains, after Psa 32:1-11, in his conscience and life burdened with a secret ban; but he who acknowledges (the lxx has ἐξηγούμενος
