Proverbs 12:5

The thoughts of the righteous are right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) The thoughts of the righteous are right.—Or, justice. (Comp. Matthew 12:35.)

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 12:5-7. The thoughts of the righteous are right — His constant purpose is to be upright before God, and just and true in all his dealings with men. But the counsels of the wicked are deceit — His great care and contrivance are to deceive and wrong others by fair pretence and cunning artifices. The words of the wicked are to lie in wait, &c. — Are designed and ordered to entrap or deceive others, and to destroy them; but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them — Namely, from those that lie in wait for them: either, 1st, By prayer to God for their deliverance; or, 2d, By bearing witness for them, and pleading their righteous cause, with such wisdom and arguments as cannot be gainsaid. The wicked are overthrown, and are not — They and their families shall suddenly perish; but the house — The family and posterity, of the righteous shall stand — On a firm basis, notwithstanding the attempts of their enemies to overthrow them. They shall stand when they that assaulted them are quite extinct.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:1 Those who have grace, will delight in the instructions given them. Those that stifle their convictions, are like brutes. 2. The man who covers selfish and vicious designs under a profession of religion or friendship, will be condemned. 3. Though men may advance themselves by sinful arts, they cannot settle and secure themselves. But those who by faith are rooted in Christ, are firmly fixed. 4. A wife who is pious, prudent, and looks well to the ways of her household, who makes conscience of her duty, and can bear crosses; such a one is an honour and comfort to her husband. She that is the reverse of this, preys upon him, and consumes him. 5. Thoughts are not free; they are under the Divine knowledge, therefore under the Divine command. It is a man's shame to act with deceit, with trick and design. 6. Wicked people speak mischief to their neighbours. A man may sometimes do a good work with one good word. 7. God's blessing is often continued to the families of godly men, while the wicked are overthrown. 8. The apostles showed wisdom by glorying in shame for the name of Christ. 9. He that lives in a humble state, who has no one to wait upon him, but gets bread by his own labour, is happier than he that glories in high birth or gay attire, and wants necessaries.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Virtuous - The word implies the virtue of earnestness, or strength of character, rather than of simple chastity.

A crown - With the Jews the sign, not of kingly power only, but also of joy and gladness. Compare Sol 3:11.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. thoughts—or, "purposes."

are right—literally, "are judgment," that is, true decisions.

counsels—(Compare Pr 11:14).

deceit—contrary to truth and honesty.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The thoughts of the righteous are right; his constant purpose is to deal justly and truly with God and with men.

The counsels of the wicked are deceit; his great care and contrivance is to wrong and deceive others by fair pretences and cunning artifices.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The thoughts of the righteous are right,.... Or "judgment" (o). The thoughts of men's hearts are naturally evil, nor can any think a good thought of themselves; but the thoughts of the righteous are directed and influenced by the grace of God, and are formed according to that Word which is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; their thoughts concerning God and religion, concerning Christ and his Gospel, his ways and worship, his truths and ordinances, they are judiciously framed according to the rule of God's word, the revelation he has made, and so are right; and such are their resolutions and designs to serve the Lord their God, and him only, and to cleave to him with full purpose of heart

but the counsels of the wicked are deceit; the designs, schemes, and contrivances of wicked men, are to trick, and overreach, and defraud their neighbours in civil affairs; and of false teachers, to deceive the hearts of the simple in religious ones. The coming of the man of sin was with all deceivableness; and all the gaudy show and pageantry he makes, and pretended miracles he works, are to deceive the inhabitants of the earth; and by his sorceries all nations are deceived, 2 Thessalonians 2:10.

(o) "judicium", Pagninns, Montanus, Mercerus, Cocceius, Gejerus.

Geneva Study Bible

The thoughts of the righteous are right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - The thoughts of the righteous are right; literally, judgments; i.e. just and fair, much more then words and actions. St. Gregory ('Mor. in Job,' lib. 25) takes another view, seeing in "judgments" the stings of conscience, and a rehearsal of the day of account. "The righteous," he says, "approach the secret chambers of the Judge in the recesses of their own hearts; they consider how smartly he smites at last, who long patiently bears with them. They are afraid for the sins which they remember they have committed; and they punish by their tears the faults which they know they have perpetrated. They dread the searching judgments of God, even in those sins which perchance they cannot discover in themselves. And in this secret chamber of inward judgment, constrained by the sentence of their own conduct, they chasten with penitence that which they have committed through pride" (Oxford transl.). But the counsels of the wicked - which they offer to others - are deceit. The mere "thoughts" are contrasted with the mature, expressed "counsels" Septuagint, "The wicked steer (κυβερνῶσι) deceits." (For "counsels," see notes, Proverbs 1:5 and Proverbs 20:18.) Proverbs 12:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

5 The thoughts of the righteous are justice,

   The counsels of the godless are deceit.

They are so, that is, in their contents and their aim. To the righteous are ascribed מחשׁבות, namely, simple and clear; to the godless, תּחבּות, carefully thought out, prudently thought through schemes and measures, but on that very account not simple, because with a tendency; for the righteous have an objective rule, namely, that which is right in the sight of God and of men, but the godless have only a selfish purpose, which they seek to attain by deceiving, and at the cost of, their neighbour.