Proverbs 17:4 (BSB)

A wicked man listens to evil lips; a liar gives ear to a destructive tongue.

From Proverbs 17. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 17:4

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 17:4: Note, 1. Those that design to do ill support themselves by falsehood and lying: A wicked doer gives ear, with a great deal of pleasure, to false lips, that will justify him in the ill he does, to those that aim to make public disturbances, catch greedily at libels, and false stories, that defame the government and the administration. 2.
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 17:4: A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips,.... A man of an ill spirit, of a mischievous disposition, that delights in doing wickedness; he carefully attends to such as speak falsehood; he listens to lies and calumnies, loves to hear ill reports of persons, and takes pleasure in spreading them to the hurt of their characters; and men of bad hearts and lives give heed...
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (Reformed), Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible on Proverbs 17:4: Wicked doers and speakers alike delight in calumny.
• Keil & Delitzsch (Lutheran), Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament on Proverbs 17:4: Pro 17:4 4 A profligate person giveth heed to perverse lips; Falsehood listeneth to a destructive tongue. The meaning, at all events, is, that whoever gives ear with delight to words which are morally reprobate, and aimed at the destruction of neighbours, thereby characterizes himself as a profligate. Though מרע is probably not pred.