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.
In whose eyes a vile person is contemned - "a vile person;" literally, 'one rejected (by God)' х nim'aac (H3988)], in contrast to "them that fear the Lord." So the same Hebrew is translated, Jeremiah 6:30, "Reprobate (rather, rejected) silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them."
But he honoureth them that fear the Lord - and that are therefore honoured by the Lord, in contrast to 'the rejected' by God in the first clause. A man's disposition is easily seen by his associates. The righteous man instinctively shrinks from the unrighteousness. Not all the wealth, learning, or power in the world can recommend their possessor if unrighteous.
On the other hand, he is drawn toward those of a congenial mind, in spite of every external disadvantage.
He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not - not as the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac, 'He that sweareth to his neighbour' (by a different Hebrew pointing). Thus the manifest reference to Leviticus 5:4 would be broken, where also the discourse is of an hasty oath. Hengstenberg translates for "changeth not" х yaamir (H4171)], 'exchanges not' (the usual meaning of the Hebrew): 'does not substitute' something else in place of what he had sworn, but keeps to his word, though to his loss (Ecclesiastes 8:2; Ecclesiastes 8:4; Judges 11:35). A vow to God of what was in itself sinful is better broken than kept, which would be adding a second sin to the original sin. But in all that is not sinful, even though entailing hurt to one's self, an oath, if freely taken, must be faithfully kept.