Proverbs 3:27 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Withhold not good Do not deny it, but readily and cheerfully impart it; from them to whom it is due Hebrew, מבעליו, literally, from the lords, or owners of it: which some refer to the restitution of goods gained unjustly; but the connection requires that we understand the clause in a more extensive sense. The good here spoken of must be considered as being applicable to any thing that is good, either counsel, comfort, reproof, or the good things of the present life. And by the lords, or owners of it, we must understand those who have any kind of right to it, whether by the law of justice and equity, or by the great and sovereign law of love, which God hath written on the hearts of men by nature, and hath frequently and solemnly enjoined in his word. So that this place not only commands the payment of just debts, and the restitution of things taken from others by fraud or violence, or of things committed to our trust; but it obliges every man, according to his ability and opportunity, to pity and relieve such as are in real want or misery, and to do all the good in his power, temporal or spiritual, to his fellow-creatures. Say not, &c. The preceding verse forbade the denial, and this forbids the delay of this duty; unto thy neighbour Unto any man, as the word neighbour is commonly used in Scripture; Go, and come again to-morrow, and I will give Namely, what is thy due, in the manner before expressed, or what thou needest; for the word נתן, here used, is generally meant of free or charitable gifts, and not of debts due in justice or equity.