6 The words of the wicked are about lying in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Shall deliver them - i. e., The righteous themselves.
The words of the wicked [are] to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall (b) deliver them.
(b) As their conscience is upright, so will they be able to speak for themselves against their accusers.
The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood,.... Which some understand of perjury and false witness, as Jarchi, whereby the lives of innocent persons are taken away: or it may be interpreted either of the smooth words and fair speeches, and secret artifices, antichrist and his emissaries make use of to entrap the innocent, and draw them into their net, to their ruin; see Psalm 10:7; as the Jews attempted to deal with Christ, Luke 20:20; or of the laws and edicts of the beast, that such should be killed who would not worship his image; and with the blood of these innocent ones the whore of Rome is said to be drunk, Revelation 13:15;
but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them: the innocent laid in wait for; either by their prayers to God, which are of great avail with him, and through whose importunity he will avenge his elect, and deliver them; or through their apologies for them, and defences of them, as in the times of Pagan persecution; or rather through the doctrines of the reformation, whereby many simple and unwary souls were delivered, who were in danger of being ensnared; and whereby the eyes of many princes were opened, and were stirred up to protect those innocent ones, and prevent their blood being shed.
Wicked people speak mischief to their neighbours. A man may sometimes do a good work with one good word.
The words--or, "expressed designs" of the wicked are for evil purposes.
the mouth--or, "words" of the righteous delivering instead of ensnaring men.
6 The word of the godless is to lie in wait for the blood of others,
But the mouth of the upright delivereth them.
Our editions have דברי רשׁעים, but the right sequence of the accents (in Cod. 1294 and elsewhere) is דברי רשׁעים; the logical relation in this transformation, which is only rhythmically conditioned, remains the same. The vocalization wavers between ארב־, which would be imper., and ארב־, which is infin., like אמר־, Proverbs 25:7, ענשׁ־, Proverbs 21:11, אכל־, Genesis 3:11. However one punctuates it, the infin. is intended in any case, in which the expression always remains sketchy enough: the words of the godless are lying in wait for blood, i.e., they are calculated to bring others to this, into the danger of their lives, e.g., before the tribunal by false charges and false witness. דּם is the accus. of the object; for instead of ארב לדם (Proverbs 1:11), to lurk for blood, a shorter expression, ארב דּם, is used (Ewald, 282a). The suffix of יצּילם
(Note: Elias Levita, in his note to the root פה in Kimchi's Wrterbuch, reads תּצּילם, and so also do 6 codd. in Kennicot. But פּה is masculine.)
might appear, after Proverbs 11:6, to refer back to the ישׁרים; but the thought that their mouth saves the upright, that they thus know to speak themselves out of the danger, is by far less appropriate (vid., on the contrary, בדעת, Proverbs 11:9) than the thought that the mouth of the upright delivereth from danger those whose lives are threatened by the godless, as is rightly explained by Ewald, Bertheau, Elster. The personal subject or object is in the Mashal style often to be evolved from the connection, e.g., Proverbs 14:26; Proverbs 19:23.
Lie in wait - Are designed to entrap others, and to destroy them. Deliver them - From those that lie in wait for them.
*More commentary available at chapter level.