Proverbs 10:6

Blessings [are] upon the head of the just,.... That seeks for righteousness, not by the works of the law, but by faith; that lives by faith upon the righteousness of Christ, and is justified by it,

Blessings are upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. Blessings are upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked - (cf.

Blessings are upon the head of the just; all sorts of blessings are wished to them by men, and conferred upon them by God. He saith, upon their head, either to show that these blessings come from above; and that openly, in the sight of the world, so that he can confidently speak of them to God’ s praise, and to his own comfort and honour; or because blessings were commonly pronounced by men with this ceremony, by laying their hands upon the head of the party blessed. Violence covereth the mouth of the wicked; violence (either, 1. Their own violence or injustice, which may be here put for the fruit or punishment of it, as iniquity is oft put for the punishment of iniquity. Or, 2. Violence, or the violent, and injurious, and mischievous practices of others against them, deserved by their own violence committed against others, and inflicted upon them by the curse and righteous judgment of God) shall cover the mouth of the wicked, i.e. shall fall upon them. This phrase of covering their mouth is used, either, 1. With allusion to the ancient custom of covering the mouths and faces of condemned malefactors; of which see . Or, 2. To signify that the curse and judgment of God upon them should be so manifestly just, that their mouths should be stopped, and they not be able to speak a word against God, or for themselves. Or, 3. To intimate that God’ s judgment upon them should be public and evident to all that behold them, as any covering put upon a man’ s mouth or face is, as for the same reason the blessings of the just were said to be upon their heads. And the mouth may be put for the face or countenance, by a synecdoche. But this clause is otherwise rendered by divers learned interpreters, the mouth of the wicked covereth (i.e. concealeth or smothereth within itself, and doth not utter that) violence or injury, which he meditateth in his heart, and designeth to do to others, and therefore shall be accursed and miserable. But this suits not so well with the former clause, wherein the blessings of the just are not meant actively, of those blessings which they wish or give to others, but passively, of those blessings which others wish or give to them; and consequently this violence is not understood of that which they do to others, but of that which is done to them by others.

Proverbs 10:6 Blessings [are] upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.Ver. 6. Blessings are upon the head.] Plentifully and conspicuously; they shall abound with blessings. As the fear of the Lord is not only in them, but upon them, so blessings of all sorts, a confluence of all spiritual and temporal comforts and contentments, shall be not only with them, but upon them, so that nothing shall hinder it. See Galatians 6:16. They are blessed, and they shall be blessed, neither shall any roaring or repining Esau be able to reverse it. But violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.] They shall be certainly shamed, condemned, executed, as Haman, whose face they covered, and shortly after strangled; and as Sir Gervaise Ellowayes, lieutenant of the Tower, hanged on Tower Hill for poisoning Sir Thomas Overbury, his prisoner. This Sir Gervaise being on the gallows, freely confessed that he had oft, in his playing at cards and dice, wished that he might be hanged if it were not so and so, and therefore confessed it was just upon him.

(6) Violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.—Curses and deeds of violence have proceeded from his mouth, but God frustrates them, they “return unto him void” (Isaiah 55:11), and, as it were, stop his mouth, reducing him to silence.

Verse 6. Violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.] As blessings shall be on the head of the just, so the violence of the wicked shall cover their face with shame and confusion. Their own violent dealings shall be visited upon them. The mouth forsoth of unpitious men wickidnesse covereth. - Old MS. Bible. "The forehead of the ungodly is past shame, and presumptuous."-Coverdale.

6. violence covereth &c.] This, which is the rendering both of A.V. and R.V. text, is to be preferred to the rendering of R.V. marg., “the mouth of the wicked covereth violence,” i.e. in what he says there is a covert purpose of violence, which he endeavours to conceal. So rendered it may mean either (a) the violence of the wicked man himself covers his mouth—he never opens it without pouring forth violence; and then perhaps we are to complete the parallelism by supplying from the first clause, “you may judge therefore what comes upon his head”; or (b) in more obvious parallelism, instead of the blessings which all men pour upon the head of the just, the mouth of the wicked they cover with violence, with reproaches, and it may be with blows (Acts 23:2). To this, however, it is objected that the Heb. word always connotes wrongful treatment. The idea of covering the mouth as a sign of condemnation is farfetched, and it is not borne out by the passages cited in support of it (Esther 7:8; Leviticus 13:45; Ezekiel 24:17; Micah 3:7), in all of which it is the “lip” or the “face,” and not the “mouth” which is covered.

Covereth ... - The meaning is perhaps, the violence which the wicked has done is as a bandage over his mouth, reducing him to a silence and shame, like that of the leper Leviticus 13:45; Micah 3:7 or

6. Blessings — αψλεϊ, (berakhoth,) the plural of intensity, abundant blessings, blessings from God and man.