To Fine the Righteous Is Not Good

Proverbs 17:26 – “To impose a fine on a righteous man is not good, nor to strike the noble for their uprightness.”

Prisons cost lots of money, so until fairly recently most rulers used prisons only in special cases. In the Bible, for example, Joseph and two servants of Pharaoh, the prominent prophet Jeremiah, and Roman citizens Paul and Silas were imprisoned. For most people, however, the usual punishments were fines and flogging. Today it would be prisons and fines. Fining the righteous (i.e., the innocent) “is not good,” surely an understatement. The proverb’s second phrase, however, heightens our sense of its injustice: neither is it good to flog the noble for doing what is right.

This proverb almost seems unnecessary – of course it is not good to flog the noble for doing what is right! But powerful people can be astonishingly callous. When King Ahab offered to buy Naboth’s field near his Jezreel palace, noble Naboth answered, “The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers (I Kings 21:3).” As Ahab knew, Naboth had the law on his side (see Leviticus 25:23). So Ahab went home to sulk. When loving wife Jezebel saw him unhappy, she asked, “What’s wrong?” Ahab told her, and she answered incredulously, “Do you now govern Israel? I’ll get you the field (I Kings 21:7).” So Jezebel instructed the elders to accuse Naboth falsely of blasphemy and rebellion, and have him stoned. When it was done, Ahab took the field.

The world’s “little people,” of whom Leona Helmsley famously said, “Only the little people pay taxes,” all know cases when the powerful have punished noble people precisely for doing right. Two instances I know of: 1) a teacher fired at a ritzy private school for refusing to change a cheating student’s grade because the boy’s mother gave generously to the school; 2) a Christian school’s business manager fired after she told the Board that their new headmaster was stealing money and was then ostracized when the Board learned her charges were true and had to fire the headmaster.

“Not good” is very bad indeed in God’s eyes, and God will hinder the ways of the wicked. The first school soon lost its independence in a merger, and the principal his job. The Christian school has faced enrollment struggles ever since it did what is “not good.” God sent Elijah the prophet to meet Ahab. He prophesied the gruesome end to Ahab’s dynasty that Jehu later wrought. Let rulers know that there is a God in heaven who will judge those who fine the innocent, or flog the noble for his integrity. No matter how great a ruler is, he should know that doing such things is “not good.”

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Dr. Bill Edgar, former chair of the Geneva College Board of Trustees, former Geneva College President and longtime pastor in the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA)

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Opinions expressed in the Geneva Blog are those of its contributors and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official position of the College. The Geneva Blog is a place for faculty and contributing writers to express points of view, academic insights, and contribute to national conversations to spark thought, conversation, and the pursuit of truth, in line with our philosophy as a Christian, liberal arts institution.

Aug 3, 2020

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