The righteous [is] more excellent than his neighbour: but the way of the wicked seduceth them.
Ver. 26. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour.] Let him dwell by whomsoever; he is ever a better man than his neighbours; he is "a prince of God" among them, as Abraham was among the Hittites. The Jews say that those seventy souls that went with Jacob into Egypt, were as much worth as all the seventy nations in the world. Nemo me maior, nisi qui iustior, said Agesilaus, when he heard the king of Persia styled the great king, i.e., I acknowledge none more excellent than myself, unless more righteous; none greater, unless better: "Upon all the glory shall be a defence," Isa 4:5 that is, upon all the righteous, those only glorious, those "excellent of the earth," Psa 16:3 that are "sealed up to the day of redemption." Eph 4:30 Now, whatsoever is sealed with a seal, that is excellent in its own kind, as Isaiah 28:25 hordeum signatum, excellent barley. The poorest village is an ivory palace, in quo est pastor et credentes aliqui, saith Luther, if it have in it but a minister and a few good people.
But the way of the wicked seduceth them,] i.e., The wicked will not be persuaded of the just man's excellence; he cannot discern, nor will be drawn to believe, that there is any such gain in godliness, any such worth in well doing, any such difference between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. He therefore goes another way to work, but is fearfully frustrated; for "who ever yet hardened himself against God and prospered?" Job 9:4 They think themselves far better than the righteous; and so they were indeed, if they could find that felicity in wicked ways which their deceitful hearts promise them. But this they can never do.