28 When the wicked rise, men hide themselves; but when they perish, the righteous thrive.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
When the wicked rise, men hide themselves,.... When wicked men are raised to places of power and authority, rich men hide themselves, lest they should become a prey to them; and good men hide themselves, that they may not be put to death by them; or as ashamed to behold their evil actions; See Gill on Proverbs 28:12;
but when they perish; wicked men, either by a natural or violent death; or perish as to their authority and power, being turned out of their places:
the righteous increase; such who before hid themselves appear, and, being put into the places of the wicked, encourage truth and righteousness, by which means the number of good men is multiplied; and which is a great happiness to a nation, and shows the usefulness and advantage that good magistrates are of unto it.
When power is put into the hands of the wicked, wise men decline public business. If the reader will go diligently over this and the other chapters, in many places where at first he may suppose there is least of Christ, still he will find what will lead to him.
The elevation of the wicked to power drives men to seek refuge from tyranny (compare Proverbs 28:12; Proverbs 11:10; Psalm 12:8).
The following proverb resembles the beginnings Proverbs 28:2, Proverbs 28:12. The proverbs Proverbs 28:28; Proverbs 29:1-3, form a beautiful square grasp, in which the first and third, and the second and fourth, correspond to one another.
28 When the godless rise up, men hide themselves;
And when they perish, the righteous increase.
Line first is a variation of 12b. Since they who hide themselves are merely called men, people, the meaning of ירבּוּ is probably not this, that the righteous then from all sides come out into the foreground (Hitzig), but that they prosper, multiply, and increase as do plants, when the worms, caterpillars, and the like are destroyed (Fleischer); Lwenstein glosses ירבּוּ by יגדלו, they become great = powerful, but that would be Elihu's style, Job 33:12, which is not in common use; the names of masters and of those in authority, רב, רבּי, רבּן, רבּנוּת, are all derived from רבב, not from רבה. The increase is to be understood of the prosperous growth (to become great = to increase, as perhaps also Genesis 21:10) of the congregation of the righteous, which gains in the overthrow of the godless an accession to its numbers; cf. Proverbs 29:2, and especially Proverbs 29:16.
Men - Righteous men are afraid to appear publickly.
*More commentary available at chapter level.