SEV Biblia, Chapter 28:2
¶ Por la rebelión de la tierra sus príncipes son muchos; mas por el hombre entendido y sabio permanecerá sin mutación.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Proverbs 28:2
Verse 2. Many are the princes ] Nations, as nations, cannot be judged in a future world; therefore, God judges them here. And where the people are very wicked, and the constitution very bad, the succession of princes is frequent-they are generally taken off by an untimely death. Where the people know that the constitution is in their favour, they seldom disturb the prince, as they consider him the guardian of their privileges. But by a man of understanding ] Whether he be a king, or the king's prime minister, the prosperity of the state is advanced by his counsels.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 2. For the transgression of a land many [are] the princes thereof , etc.] Either together; that is, reigning princes, such as lay claim to the crown, and usurp it; otherwise it is a happiness to a nation to have many princes of the blood, to inherit in succession, to support the crown in their family, and defend a nation, and study the good of it; but it is a judgment to a nation when many rise up as competitors for rule, or do rule, as at Athens, where thirty tyrants sprung up at once; by which factions and parties are made, and which issue in oppression, rapine, and murder: or successively, very quickly, one after another, being dethroned the one by the other: or removed by death, as in the land of Israel, in the times of the judges, and of the kings of Israel and Judah, after the revolt of the ten tribes; which frequent changes produce different administrations, new laws, and fresh taxes, disagreeable to the people; and oftentimes children come to be their princes, which is always reckoned an infelicity to a nation; see ( Ecclesiastes 10:16 Isaiah 3:12); and all this is usually for some national sin or sins indulged to, which draw upon a people the divine resentment, and provoke God to suffer such changes among there; but by a man of understanding [and] knowledge the state [thereof] shall be prolonged , either by a set of wise and understanding, good and virtuous men, who will oppose the growing vice and immoralities of a people, and form themselves into societies for the reformation of manners; the word “man” being taken collectively for a body of men: or by a wise and prudent minister or ministry, or a set of civil magistrates, who will show themselves to be terrors to evildoers, and a praise to them that do well: or by a wise and prudent prince, who seeks to establish his throne by judgment and mercy; who will take care that justice and judgment be executed in the land, and that vice and profaneness be discouraged; by means of such, the state of a kingdom, which seemed near to ruin, will be prolonged, and the happiness and prosperity of it secured and established; and God, in mercy to it, may long preserve the life of their king, will being a good one, a long reign is always a happiness to a nation. And to this sense is the Vulgate Latin version, “the life of the prince shall be longer”; and the Targum, which is, “and the sons of men that understand knowledge shall endure;” (see Ecclesiastes 9:15).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 2 - National sins disturb the public repose.
Original Hebrew
בפשׁע 6588 ארץ 776 רבים 7227 שׂריה 8269 ובאדם 120 מבין 995 ידע 3045 כן 3651 יאריך׃ 748
