The wicked flee when no one pursues—The wicked person is always afraid, to the point that he flees when no one pursues. Moreover, when even one wicked person is found among the people, fear falls upon them all and they all flee. But the righteous are like a young lion that is confident even when pursuers come against it, as it says, “As the lion and the young lion growl over their prey,” etc.

Because of a land’s rebellion, its rulers are many—Sometimes, when a land rebels against its king, the people think they are casting off the yoke of one man; as a result, many tyrannical rulers rise over it, all governing and oppressing the land.

Only if there is then an understanding man who knows what is right—that is, one who knows the principles of justice and can halt the flood of rebellion—will he prolong it, meaning that he will bring healing and a cure to this illness.

A poor man who oppresses the needy—That is, sometimes the rulers do not prevail; rather, the poor prevail through their rebellion, and all the people rule over one another. Those poor people who have nothing oppress the needy, whose property was depleted through the rebellion.

This resembles a sweeping rain: when rain comes through the bursting of clouds, a torrent of water breaks forth and sweeps everything away, until there is no bread. Instead of bringing bread, the rain carries everything away, and no bread comes because of it. So too, the flood of impoverished oppressors sweeps everything away like mighty rushing waters.

The same metaphor appears in Job 13.

Those who forsake the Torah praise the wicked—Those who forsake the Torah envy the wicked person’s success and praise his deeds. But those who keep the Torah understand that his deeds are evil and that he will ultimately be punished, and they contend with those who praise the wicked.

It may also refer back to what was stated above: in a time of transgression and rebellion, a wicked man rises to rule the people. Those who forsake the Torah praise his conduct of violence and plunder, while those who keep the Torah enter into contention and war with the wicked ruler and the faction that supports him.

Evil men do not understand justice—According to the first interpretation, evil men praise the wicked because they do not understand the Lord’s justice, by which He repays the wicked according to his wickedness. Those who keep the Torah, being seekers of the Lord, understand all the Lord’s ways as righteous and just, and therefore contend with them. According to the second interpretation, evil men praise a wicked ruler who robs justice and governs by murder because they do not understand justice: since they persist in evil, the opposite of the ways of justice, they do not recognize the value of justice at all. But seekers of the Lord understand and teach everyone the ways of justice and the evil of the wicked ruler’s conduct.

Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in his ways, though he is rich—This depicts two roads. One begins with thorns and ends in level ground; the poor man travels it, and it is the straight road to the desired destination. Though he is poor now, he walks in integrity and its end is level. The rich man twists his ways and travels a road whose beginning is level but which is crooked because it ends in thorns; in the end, he will become poor.

One who keeps the Torah is an understanding son—The understanding son does not pursue gluttony and desire, because he keeps the Torah, which restrains his desires. But the son who turns rebelliously from the ways of the Torah associates with gluttons and shames his father who begot him, for it would have been better had he not come into the world. The Torah has testified to his end: ultimately he will rob people.

One who increases his wealth—All these verses explain “Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity.” He first explained that if the beginning is thorny because one restrains desire, the end is level, whereas the opposite course ends in thorns. Now he explains this regarding the accumulation of wealth: one who follows a crooked road whose beginning is level, increasing wealth through interest and usury, will ultimately lose it and see his money vanish. The one who is gracious to the poor by lending to them without charge, whose beginning is thorny, will receive the wealth accumulated through interest; his end will be level and he will become rich.

One who turns his ear away from hearing Torah—If a person turns away his ear and refuses to hear Torah study, even if he does so because the time for prayer has arrived, his prayer too is an abomination. Thus the Sages related in Shabbat 10a that Rabbi Yirmeyah was sitting before Rabbi Zeira when the time for prayer arrived and Rabbi Yirmeyah began to hurry; Rabbi Zeira applied to him the verse, “One who turns his ear away,” etc., because Torah is eternal life, while prayer concerns temporal life.

One who leads the upright astray onto an evil path—In the literal illustration, if a person sees upright people and leads them from the straight road onto an evil road so as to cast them into the pit he prepared, he himself will fall into his own pit: one who digs a pit will fall into it. But the wholehearted, who do not deceive, will inherit good, for one who had the opportunity to sin but refrained is rewarded. In the allegory, the verse speaks of the path of reasoning, for uprightness belongs to understanding. Although upright people follow a straight path, they may suffer an intellectual error—this is the meaning of “to err”—through someone who misleads their understanding. His punishment will be to fall into his own pit, for the corruption is attributed to the one who incites and leads astray, not to the person misled by him. The wholehearted, however, cannot be led into error in this way, for they do not rely upon their own understanding at all; they walk in wholehearted faith and live through faith. They inherit good like an inheritance that cannot be taken from them and that does not result from their own labor, for they rely not on the understanding of their hearts but on the inheritance of their faith.

(11–12) A rich man is wise in his own eyes; when the righteous rejoice, glory is great—It has already been explained that one who is wise in his own eyes is worse than a dullard. The dullard deviates from the ways of wisdom because of desire but knows that his ways deviate from wisdom; one who is wise in his own eyes thinks that his evil ways are the ways of wisdom and mocks the laws and concerns of wisdom. This can occur in many ways, one of them through great wealth: seeing his ways prosper and God not punishing his evil deeds, he thinks his deeds are desirable and conform to wisdom. But a poor man who has understanding, through which he can explain matters and uncover hidden truths, will examine him and understand that this is not so. Although the rich man prospers, his success is not true success, for wealth and the pleasures of this world are successes only for the animal body, which is not the true human being but a man disguised and clothed in animal form, like other creatures that readily find all their needs—indeed, none is richer than the pig. Such success is not glory for the true human being. But when the righteous rejoice—the verb “rejoice” always denotes the soul’s joy in spiritual matters—the righteous rejoice before God with spiritual joy through their righteousness, and in this glory is great, for their happiness is human happiness and brings glory to humanity. But when the wicked rise, a man disguises himself: the essential human being disguises and changes himself in his clothing, for the wicked person’s success belongs to the animal body, and the man disguises himself in animal garb; such people leave the category of man and become animals in human form.

One who conceals his transgressions will not prosper—A person who busies himself concealing his transgressions will not succeed in hiding them, for his evil will be revealed publicly; then people will not have mercy on him, having seen that he does not regret his evil but seeks to hide it from human beings even though it is known to God. But one who confesses his transgressions and undertakes to abandon his way thereby shows that he regrets and repents, and will be shown mercy.

Fortunate is the man who makes himself fearful always—

There is a difference between one who fears, expressed in the simple verbal form, and one who makes himself fearful, expressed in the intensive form. The latter acts fearfully even where no actual cause for fear is present.

One who is actually afraid thereby shows that he has sinned, as it says, “Sinners in Zion were afraid” (Isaiah 33:14), and as the Sages said in Berakhot 60a: when one Sage saw another afraid, he told him, “You are a sinner.”

But fortunate is the person who makes himself fearful: although his heart is sound because he has not sinned, he makes himself fear lest he sin in the future, and thereby guards himself from sin and weighs his ways. One who hardens his heart is the opposite: he sees himself afflicted with suffering and has reason to fear, yet hardens his heart, like Pharaoh, who hardened his heart and did not fear the Lord. Such a person hardens his heart and will have no recovery.

A roaring lion and a ravenous bear—A lion roars when it has prey, but it growls when it has no prey and groans from distress; then it is very dangerous, for it will tear apart whatever it finds to satisfy its hunger. Likewise, a ravenous bear thirsts for blood. Such is a wicked ruler over a poor people. If he rules over the rich, from whom he has something to rob, he resembles a lion roaring over its prey and is not so dangerous; but over a poor people he continually growls for flesh, thirsts for blood, and destroys everyone he encounters.

A ruler lacking understanding and great in oppression—If a wicked ruler is not greatly oppressive, some people under his government will still earn money and survive. Even if he is greatly oppressive, if he possesses understanding, he will leave merchants who make profits in place, so that he can take taxes and gifts from them while they accumulate wealth for him. But if he also lacks understanding, then as soon as he sees a person who has gained profit and money, he kills him to take his wealth. He does not plan to preserve wealthy people and merchants in his realm, for he lacks the understanding to consider future days. Then only one who hates gain will prolong his days: only one who neither profits nor earns, and therefore appears poor, is not in danger of death; but one who profits and earns will not live long. The next verse explains this.

A man oppressed through the blood of a life—The person oppressed by this foolish ruler is oppressed unto bloodshed: the ruler not only seizes his money but spills his lifeblood. Even if the victim wishes to flee from the wicked ruler, he will flee until the pit, and no one will support him, for all are afraid to help him after the ruler has sentenced him to death because of his wealth, like Naboth the Jezreelite, who was killed so that Ahab could inherit his property.

One who walks wholeheartedly will be saved, but one crooked in two ways will fall in one—In every matter there are two paths, a path to the right and a path to the left. For example, among the paths of character traits:

The paths of pride and humility;

Generosity and stinginess;

Courage and cowardice.

A person must conduct himself on every path according to wisdom—for example, being humble toward the righteous and proud against the wicked—and similarly with all the other traits.

These two paths are called “two ways,” using the dual form, because they are paired, one corresponding to the other.

One must walk each path wholeheartedly, and then he will be saved.

But one who is crooked in both ways is crooked in each of the paired paths. For example:

He is humble before the wicked but exalts himself over the righteous;

He is generous for a sinful purpose but stingy for a mitzvah.

Then he will fall in one—that is, in each one of the two paths he will fall into a snare.

He will now explain an example of this.

(19–20) One who works his land will be satisfied with bread; a faithful man abounds in blessings—The illustration contrasts diligence and idleness, and in each there is wholeheartedness and crookedness. On the path of diligence there is wholeheartedness when a person works his land and enjoys the labor of his hands; he will be satisfied with bread, and this is the good aspect of diligence. Conversely, one who pursues empty things and does nothing will be satisfied with poverty, the evil path of idleness. Yet there is also a good aspect of idleness: a person should not be excessively diligent and rush to become rich through robbery and murder, for such diligence is evil and crooked. Here idleness is good: after working his land, he should adopt the path of restraint, become a faithful man, and trust that God will send blessing upon the seed he planted and the produce of his vineyard. Then he will abound in blessings, for God will send him His blessing. But one who hastens to become rich will not go unpunished; this is the crookedness within the path of diligence. Thus one road begins with thorns and ends in level ground: one who works his land first toils and labors, but its end is level, for he then rests and trusts, and afterward is satisfied with bread from God’s blessing and the fruit of his hands. The other road begins level and ends in thorns: one pursues empty things, then hastens to become rich through violence; therefore he will not go unpunished, and in the end will be satisfied with poverty.

Showing favoritism is not good—Even if you recognize someone as trustworthy, you cannot always rely upon your recognition of his face, because sometimes, under pressure and lacking bread, even a strong man who ordinarily masters his impulse may transgress for a piece of bread because of poverty. Following this introduction, Scripture now addresses the miserly.

A miserly man hastens after wealth—The miserly person, unwilling to give to others, hastens after wealth; therefore poverty will come upon him, for wicked people will rise and plunder his money. If even a faithful man may fail under the pressure of hunger, all the more so the masses. This is also the meaning of the sequence above (22:6–7): “The borrower is servant,” “One who sows injustice,” “One with a good eye will be blessed,” etc. Alternatively, the deprivation he caused will come upon him: through his miserly hoarding of grain to accumulate wealth, he deprived the poor of bread; that very deprivation will come upon him and his wealth will be plundered. On the allegorical level, this may also mean, “The salt that preserves money is diminution”: wealth comes to a person specifically through giving some away, not through hoarding.

One who rebukes a person will afterward find more favor than one who flatters with his tongue—Ordinarily, people favor one who does not rebuke their sins, especially one who smooths his tongue to praise and flatter their deeds. Thus the Sages said of a Torah scholar beloved by his townspeople that this may be because he does not rebuke them regarding heavenly matters. It would therefore seem that the flatterer finds more favor than the rebuker. But this is true only at first. Later, if punishment comes for their evil deeds, they will realize that the rebuker admonished them for their own good while the flatterer harmed them. Then, afterward—after matters have reached their conclusion and the end of the affair—the rebuker will find more favor than the flatterer.

One who robs his father and mother and says, “There is no transgression”—This illustrates the flatterer. A person robs his father and mother, an especially evil act: robbery is intrinsically evil, and robbing one’s parents is worse still, for instead of guarding his father’s property and honoring his father with his own money, he robs him. Nevertheless, the flatterer says, “There is no transgression,” smoothing his tongue and flattering until he declares even the gravest sin no offense. Such a flatterer is a companion to a destroyer: he is a companion of the robber who corrupted his way, and also a companion of the destroyer who comes to destroy the sinner and exact his punishment, for the flatterer caused the punishment. How, then, could he find favor?

A broad-souled person stirs up strife—One whose soul’s appetite is exceedingly broad and who finds no limit to his desire stirs up quarrels and complaints against God’s governance, because he does not obtain all he desires. He thinks the whole world was created to harm him and constantly protests God’s attributes. But one who trusts in the Lord, who does not crave excessively but is satisfied with what he has and trusts that God will provide what is necessary for his livelihood, will be made prosperous, for he will find his needs, as Maimonides explains regarding the verse, “God made man upright, but they sought many calculations”; see there.

One who trusts in his own heart is a dullard—It has already been explained that the impulse of the human heart is evil from youth, for the heart’s images incline toward desire and oppose the laws of wisdom. A person must follow the laws of wisdom, through which he escapes being trapped by the images of his heart. But one who trusts in his heart and follows wherever it inclines, according to its evil images, is a dullard, for the dullard deviates from the laws of wisdom because of his desires, as it says, “A dullard does not desire understanding, but only the revelation of his heart.” But one who walks in wisdom will escape the evil images of the heart’s impulse, for wisdom will guide him beside still waters in the struggle against those impulses.

One who gives to the poor—One who gives charity to the poor will suffer no lack, for because of this deed the Lord will bless him; moreover, his wealth will not diminish, for the “salt” that preserves money is giving some of it away. Conversely, one who hides his eyes from charity will not merely forfeit blessing; many curses will also be sent upon him.

When the wicked rise—When the wicked rise to rule, then one who is truly a man hides himself, for people deny Providence, abandon the way of the Lord, and become like beasts; the righteous man must hide from those who mock and persecute him. But when they perish, everyone afterward recognizes the Lord’s Providence and punishment, and thereby the righteous increase.