Proverbs 28:1

“The wicked flee when no man pursueth, etc.] Through the terrors of a guilty conscience, as in Cain and others; who fear where no immediate cause of fear is, are frightened with their own shadows; and as Gaal was with the shadow of the mountains, he took for an army of men, as his friend told him, (<070936>Judges 9:36); they are chased with the sound of a shaken leaf, and fancy men are at their heels to destroy them, and therefore with all haste flee to some place of safety; (see <032617>Leviticus 26:17,36) (<052807>Deuteronomy 28:7,25); but the righteous are bold as a lion; which turns not away from any creature it meets with, nor mends its pace when it is pursued, but walks on intrepidly,…”

“(Pro. 28:1-28) A bad conscience makes men timid; the righteous are alone truly bold (Pro 14:26; Psa 27:1).”

“28:1 The wicked experience God’s curse for breaking his covenant (see Lev 26:14-17, 36-37).”

“wicked: Lev 26:17, Lev 26:36; Deu 28:7, Deu 28:25; Kg2 7:6, Kg2 7:7, Kg2 7:15; Psa 53:5; Isa 7:2; Jer 20:4 the righteous: Exo 11:8; Psa 27:1, Psa 27:2, Psa 46:2, Psa 46:3, Psa 112:7; Isa 26:3, Isa 26:4; Dan 3:16-18, Dan 6:10, Dan 6:11; Act 4:13, Act 14:3; Th1 2:2 Proverbs 28:2”

“1 The godless flee without any one pursuing them; But the righteous are bold like a lion. We would misinterpret the sequence of the accents if we supposed that it denoted רשׁע as obj.; it by no means takes ואין־רדף as a parenthesis. רשׁע belongs thus to נסוּ as collective sing. (cf. e.g., Isa 16:4); (Note: The Targum of Pro 28:1 is, in Bereschith rabba, c. 84, ערק רשּׁיעא ולא רריפין להּ; that lying before us is formed after the Peshito.) in 1b, יבטח, as comprehensive or distributive (individualizing) singular, follows the plur. subject. One cannot, because the word is vocalized כּכפיר and not כּכּפיר, regard יבטח as an attributive clause thereto (Ewald, like Jerome, quasi leo confidens); but…”