Proverbs 27:5

Open rebuke is better than secret love.

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
Open	מְגֻלָּ֑ה me.gu.Lah	H1540	to denude (especially in a disgraceful sense) · verb, pual passive participle, feminine singular absolute
rebuke	תּוֹכַ֣חַת to.Kha.chat	H8433	chastisement · noun, common feminine singular absolute
better	ט֭וֹבָה Toah	H2896	good (as an adjective) in the widest sense · adjective, feminine singular absolute
secret	מְסֻתָּֽרֶת me.su.Ta.ret	H5641	to hide (by covering) · verb, pual passive participle, feminine singular absolute
love	מֵֽאַהֲבָ֥ה me.'a.ha.Vah	H160	affection (in a good or a bad sense) · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Proverbs 28:23 He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue.
1 Timothy 5:20 Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.
Galatians 2:14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew,…
Matthew 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast…
Leviticus 19:17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 27:5-6

Note, 1. It is good for us to be reproved, and told of our faults, by our friends. If true love in the heart has but zeal and courage enough to show itself in dealing plainly with our friends, and reproving them for what they say and do amiss, this is really better, not only than secret hatred (as Lev 19:17), but than secret love, that love to our neighbours which does not show itself in this good fruit, which compliments them in their sins, to the prejudice of their souls. Faithful are the reproofs of a friend, though for the present they are painful as wounds. It is a sign that our friends are faithful indeed if, in love to our souls, they will not suffer sin upon us, nor let us alone in i…

Read the whole note in the console

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 27:5

secret love--not manifested in acts is useless; and even, if its exhibition by rebukes wounds us, such love is preferable to the frequent (compare Margin), and hence deceitful, kisses of an enemy.

John Gill on Proverbs 27:5

Open rebuke is better than secret love. This is to be understood, not of rebuke publicly given; though Aben Ezra thinks public reproof is meant, which, arising from love, is better than that which is done in secret, though in love, as being more effectual; for rebuke among friends should be given privately, according to our Lord's direction, Matthew 18:15; but it signifies reproof given faithfully and plainly, with openness of heart, and without mincing the matter, and palliating the offence; but speaking out freely, and faithfully laying before a person the evil of his sin, in all the circumstances of it, as the Apostle Paul did to Peter, when he withstood him to the face, because he was to…

Read the whole note in the console

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 27:5

The third pair of proverbs passes over from this special love between husband and wife to that subsisting between friends: 5 Better is open accusation Than secret love. An integral distich; meeאהבה has Munach, and instead of the second Metheg Tarcha, after Thorath Emeth, p. 11. Zckler, with Hitzig, incorrectly: better than love which, from false indulgence, keeps concealed from his neighbour his faults, when he ought to tell him of them. That would require the phrase אהבה מסתּרת, not מסתּרת. Dchsel, in order to accommodate the text to this meaning, remarks: concealed censure is concealed love; but it is much rather the neglected duty of love - love without mutual discipline is weak, faint-he…

The Church Fathers

It is surely clear that concealing sin contributes to the death of the sick person, "for the sting of death is sin," says the Scripture, and also, "Open rebukes are better than hidden love." Let no one, therefore, conceal a sin in behalf of another, lest fratricide take the place of fraternal charity.
— Basil of Caesarea, THE LONG RULES 46

Better is open rebuke, etc. Hidden love in this place is called improper love, such as adulterous love, which due to its shamefulness is rightfully hidden from the wise to avoid reproach; to which rightfully open rebuke is preferred, as it is undoubtedly better to rebuke someone openly with the intent of correction than to sin secretly out of a shared intent.
— Bede, Commentary on Proverbs

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Reproof · Declared to be: Better than secret love — Declared to be: Better than secret love

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Proverbs 27:5

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 27:5-6

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 27:5

John Gill on Proverbs 27:5

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 27:5

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Proverbs 27:5

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 27:5-6

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 27:5

John Gill on Proverbs 27:5

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 27:5

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Proverbs 27:5

Rashi on Proverbs 27:4