What Does Proverbs 18:5 Mean?
It is not good to regard the faces of the wicked, to bend the aligned one in judgment.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
It is not good to accept the person of the wicked, to overthrow the righteous in judgment.THE KEY
Favor lifts the wicked while bending the aligned person out of true judgment.
THE MEANING
When a ruling gives the wicked special favor and bends the aligned person, judgment itself becomes crooked. The verse names this as not good because giving one face extra weight changes the measure applied to everyone.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a favorable face or high standing leaves a verdict fair: the act of favoring already bends judgment.
THE ROOT
שְׂאֵת פְּנֵי
se'et penei
GROWS FROM
נשא
n-ś-ʾ
Lift, carry, or bear; here, lift a face by showing it favor.
“regard the faces” in this verse is se'et penei. English “accept the person” can sound like neutral recognition, but Hebrew pictures a face being lifted or favored. The same root means to carry and bear: partiality gives one person extra weight by raising them above the shared measure.
ALSO GROWS
nasa avon: Bear or remove crookedness; forgive it.
נָשָׂא עָוֹן
The same verb can describe bearing away crookedness; here, it shows how favor carries one person upward in judgment.
nasi: Chief or prince.
נָשִׂיא
A nasi is a leader or chief, a figure of standing; this verse warns against letting rank become the reason a face is lifted.
לְהַטּוֹת
lehatot
GROWS FROM
נטה
n-ṭ-h
Stretch out, incline, or turn aside.
“bend” in this verse is lehatot. The verb makes the distortion active: judgment is inclined. This root can describe stretching or turning aside, so the ruling is pictured as bent away from its proper line.
ALSO GROWS
netuyah: Stretched out or extended.
נְטוּיָה
The same root describes something extended; here, the judgment is moved off its straight course.
matteh: Staff or rod; also tribe.
מַטֶּה
This related word carries the sense of an extended staff; the verse uses the root’s movement to picture a ruling bent away from its line.
צַדִּיק
tsaddiq
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
Alignment, rightness, or justice.
“aligned one” in this verse is tsaddiq. צַדִּיק is the aligned person in this legal scene. The verse sets two distortions against that alignment: lifting the wicked and bending judgment.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Rightness, justice, alignment.
צֶדֶק
This branch shows that the righteous person is aligned with justice in the case, not simply favored by status.
tsedaqah: Righteousness or justice; also acts of justice and charity.
צְדָקָה
The same root extends from right alignment into its enactment, so a bent verdict damages justice itself.
THE PATTERN
Judgment loses its integrity when status or favor bends its measure.
You shall not bend judgment. You shall not recognize faces, nor take a bribe, for the bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the aligned.You shall do no crookedness in judgment; you shall not lift up the face of the bowed down, nor adorn the face of the great; but in alignment shall you judge the one beside you.My brothers, do not hold the trust of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Lord of weight, by receiving faces.THE THREAD
For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, the awe-inspiring, who does not lift up the face of any and does not take a bribe.The Hebrew נשא פנים (nasa panim, “lift a face”) is the same phrase behind “regardeth not persons” and the favor named in Proverbs. Deuteronomy shows the standard in God’s nature: no face is lifted above another in judgment.
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