Proverbs 28:23 (BSB)

He who rebukes a man will later find more favor than one who flatters with his tongue.

From Proverbs 28. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 28:23

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 28:23: Note, 1. Flatterers may please those for a time who, upon second thoughts, will detest and despise them. If ever they come to be convinced of the evil of those sinful courses they were flattered in, and to be ashamed of the pride and vanity which were humoured and gratified by those flatteries, they will hate the fawning flatterers as having had an ill design...
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 28:23: He that rebuketh a man,.... His friend and acquaintance, for any fault committed by him; which reproof he gives in a free and faithful manner, yet kind, tender, and affectionate. The word rendered "afterwards", which begins the next clause, according to the accents belongs to this, and is by some rendered, "he that rebuketh a man after me" (b); after my directions, according to the...
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (Reformed), Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible on Proverbs 28:23: (Compare Pro 9:8-9; Pro 27:5). Those benefited by reproof will love their monitors.
• Keil & Delitzsch (Lutheran), Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament on Proverbs 28:23: Pro 28:23 23 He that reproveth a man who is going backwards, Findeth more thanks than the flatterer. It is impossible that aj can be the suffix of אחרי; the Talmud, Tamid 28a, refers it to God; but that it signifies: after my (Solomon’s) example or precedence (Aben Ezra, Ahron b. Josef, Venet., J. H.