9 He who covers an offense promotes love; but he who repeats a matter separates best friends.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Seeketh love - i. e., Takes the course which leads to his gaining it.
He that repeateth a matter - The warning is directed against that which leads a man to dwell with irritating iteration on a past offence instead of burying it in oblivion.
Separateth very friends - Better, alienateth his chief friend. The tale-bearer works injury to himself.
He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth [very] (d) friends.
(d) He that admonishes the prince of his fault makes him his enemy.
He that covereth a transgression seeketh love,.... He that hides the transgression of another, or of his friend, committed against himself or against another, which he is privy to; but the matter being made up, and the offence forgiven, he forgets it, and no more speaks of it to his friend, or upbraids him with it, nor spreads it among others: such a man shows that he loves his friend, and is desirous that love and friendship should be continued; and this is the way to continue it; and a man that thus seeks it finds it. Or it may be rendered, "he covereth a transgression who seeketh love" (i); for "love covereth all things", Proverbs 10:12;
but he that repeateth a matter; the matter of the transgression, the thing that has given the offence; that rakes it up again, when it has been covered; upbraids his friend with it, when it has been passed over and forgiven; will frequently hit him on the teeth with it, and talk of it wherever he comes, and spread the knowledge of it in all places: he
separateth very friends; he sets the best of friends at variance one with another by such a practice; for this pursued, friendship cannot subsist long among men: he separates his best friend from himself, and himself from him. The word signifies a prince, leader, or governor; See Gill on Proverbs 16:28; and Jarchi interprets it thus;
"he separates from himself the Governor of the world, the holy blessed God.''
(i) So Cocceius.
The way to preserve peace is to make the best of every thing; not to notice what has been said or done against ourselves.
seeketh love--(Compare Margin). The contrast is between the peace-maker and tale-bearer.
9 He covereth transgressions who seeketh after love,
And he who always brings back a matter separateth friends.
The pred. stands first in the simple clause with the order of the words not inverted. That מכסה פשׁע is also to be interpreted here as pred. (cf. 19a) is shown by Proverbs 10:12, according to which love covereth all transgressions. We write מכסּה־פּשׂע with Dag. forte conjunctivum of פ (as of ב in Ezekiel 18:6), and Gaja with the Sheva, according to the Meth.-Setzung, 37; the punctuation מכסּה פּשׁע also occurs. What the expression "to seek love" here means, is to be judged, with Hitzig, after Zephaniah 2:3; 1-Corinthians 14:1. It is in no case equivalent to seek to gain the love of another, rather to seek to preserve the love of men towards one another, but it is to be understood not after 9b, but after Proverbs 10:12 : he seeks to prove love who does not strike on the great bell when his neighbour has sinned however grievously against him, does not in a scandal-loving manner make much ado about it, and takes care not thereby to widen the breach between men who stand near to one another, but endeavours by a reconciling, soothing, rectifying influence, to mitigate the evil, instead of making it worse. He, on the contrary, who repeats the matter (שׁנה with ב of the obj., to come back with something, as Proverbs 26:11), i.e., turns always back again to the unpleasant occurrence (Theodotion, δευτερῶν ἐν λόγῳ; Symmachus, δευτερῶν λόγον, as Sir. 7:14; 19:7), divides friends (vid., Proverbs 16:28), for he purposely fosters the strife, the disharmony, ill-will, and estrangement which the offence produced; while the noble man, who has love for his motive and his aim, by prudent silence contributes to bring the offence and the division which it occasioned into forgetfulness.
Covereth - That conceals as far as he may, other mens faults.
*More commentary available at chapter level.