In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. [He that] sweareth to [his own] hurt, and changeth not.
Ver. 4. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned] An abject, a reprobate, as one rendereth it; be he as high as Haman; see Esther's character of him, Esther 7:6, and Mordecai's slighting of him, Esther 3:2 (Josephus). Be he as great as Antiochus Epiphanes, to whom the Samaritans, excusing themselves that they were no Jews, wrote thus, To Antiochus, the great god. Daniel counted and called him a vile person, Daniel 11:21. So Elisha despised Jehoram the king, 2 Kings 3:14; we also must despise the wicked; yet non virum, sed vitium, et salvo cuique loci sui honore, giving honour, befitting their places, to whom honour is due, Romans 13:7 ., but shunning that partiality taxed by St James, James 2:3,4. The burgess of the New Jerusalem, reprobos reprobat, et probes probat, he cannot flatter any man, nor fancy such as in whom he findeth not aliquid Christi, something of the image of God. A golden colosse, stuffed with rubbish, he cannot stoop to.
But he honoureth them that fear the Lord] As the only earthly angels, though never so mean and despicable in the world's eye. Mr Fox, being asked whether he remembered not such a poor servant of God who had received help from him in time of trouble? answered, I remember him well; I tell you I forget lords and ladies to remember such. Ingo, an ancient king of Draves and Veneds, set his pagan nobles, at a feast, in his hall below, and a company of poor Christians with himself in his presence chamber, entertaining them with the royalest cheer and kingliest attendance that might be. At which when his nobles wondered, he told them, this he did not as he was king of the Draves, but as he was king of another world, wherein these should be his companions and fellow princes (Aeneas Sylv. cap. 20).
He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not] Covetousness he so hateth that, first, he will rather suffer loss than be worse than his oath or honest word; secondly, he lendeth, looking for nothing again; thirdly, he taketh no reward against the innocent, either as a judge or as a pleader. Of many swearers it may be said, that they can play with oaths as children do with nuts; or as monkeys do with their collars, which they can slip off at their pleasure. And of many promisers, that they are like the peacock, all in changeable colours, as often changed as moved; but this is not the guise of God's people. The Jews at this day keep no oath unless they swear upon their own Torah, or law, brought out of their synagogues (Tertul.). The Turks keep no oath further than may stand with their own convenience. The Papists hold that faith is not to be kept with heretics; and they practise accordingly. But the old Romans had a great care always to perform their word, whatever it cost them; insomuch that the first temple built in Rome was dedicated to the goddess Fidelity. In after times indeed, Romanis promittere promptum erat, promissis autem, quanquam iuramento firmarls, minime stare: The Romans were forward to promise and swear, but careless to perform, if Mirrhanes, the Persian general, may be believed (Procop. de Bel. Persic. lib. 1). But an oath was ever held among all nations a sacred bond, and obligatory, unless it were contra bones mores, against good morals, as the lawyers speak. Joshua and the elders kept their oath to the Gibeonites, though to their inconvenience. Zedekiah was punished for not keeping touch with the king of Babylon. And one of the laws of the knights of the band in Spain was, that if any of them broke his promise he went alone by himself, and nobody spake to him, nor he to any.