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This emphatic reproduction of the old rule of Deuteronomy 25:13-14 is perhaps a trace of the danger of dishonesty incidental to the growing commerce of the Israelites. The stress laid upon the same sin in Proverbs 16:11; Proverbs 20:10; bears witness to the desire of the teacher to educate the youth of Israel to a high standard of integrity, just as the protest of Hosea against it Hosea 12:7 shows the zeal of the prophet in rebuking what was becoming more and more a besetting sin.

A just weight - literally, as in the margin, indicating a time when stones rather than metal were used as a standard of weight. Compare Deuteronomy 25:13.

A rabbinic paraphrase of the second clause is: "Lowly souls become full of wisdom as the low place becomes full of water."

The day of wrath - Words true in their highest sense of the great "diesirae" of the future, but spoken in the first instance (compare Zephaniah 1:15-18) of any "day of the Lord," any time of judgment, when men or nations receive the chastisement of their sins. At such a time "riches profit not."

Significant words, as showing the belief that when the righteous died, his "expectation" (i. e., his hope for the future) did not perish. The second clause is rendered by some, "the expectation that brings sorrow."

Through knowledge - Better, By the knowledge of the just, shall they (i. e., the neighbors) be delivered.

The blessing of the upright - Probably the prayers which he offers for the good of the city in which he dwells, and which avail to preserve it from destruction (compare Genesis 18:23-33); or "the blessing which God gives the upright."

None but the man "void of wisdom" will show contempt for those about him. The wise man, if he cannot admire or praise, will at least know how to be silent.

The man who comes to us with tales about others will reveal our secrets also. Faithfulness is shown, not only in doing what a man has been commissioned to do, but in doing it quietly and without garrulity.