Proverbs 22:12 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

The eyes of the Lord preserve, God by the watchful eye of his providence maintains and defends, knowledge, to wit, men of knowledge; the abstract being put for the concrete, as pride is put for a proud man, Psalms 36:11, deceit for the deceitful, as Proverbs 12:17: so here knowledge for knowing and good men, such as the last verse spoke of, whose hearts are pure, and speeches gracious; not only the king shall be their friend, as he said there, but God also, which he adds here, The words; their false and flattering speeches, whereby they designed and expected to gain the favour and friendship of great men, which are opposed to the sincere and gracious speeches of good men, implied in the first cause of this verse, and expressed in the foregoing verse; or, as others render it, and the word is very commonly used, the matters; all his counsels, hopes, enterprises, and concerns.