It’s going to sound like Solomon is beating the same drums over and over. However, it is our cultural insensitivity that keeps us from recognizing that this is a different song. There is a subtle shift in emphasis that is not easily noticed in English translations.
Most of us have experienced a betrayal of trust. Few of us have ever experienced living in a community built on such a high degree of trust as required by the Covenant of Moses. It’s not as if biblical morality doesn’t recognize a cynical distrust of human nature, but that God designed us to operate in a high trust environment. We are fallen, and a critical element in redemption is learning to value trust.
So the first first section (verses 1-5) of this chapter is actually about a blind business investment. It was anathema to invest in a partnership in which you were not personally involved. A fundamental concept of biblical morality is that you cannot take a profit where you did not invest your own time and effort. Thus, the warning is not simply about co-signing a loan, but an impersonal investment in some business where you cannot watch how your money is used. Did it become blood money, cursed by God? Unless you know for sure, you might as well invest in wanton evil. Solomon says it’s worth it to surrender your pride and beg your way out of such a deal, once you realize the nature of things.
The next few verses continue on a related theme, suggesting that indirect investment is sheer laziness. You could read it like a sarcastic song, mocking the indolence of someone who expects to profit without doing any work. From there it’s just a short step in the next few verses to the sort of immorality that seeks idle entertainment to fill empty days for an empty soul. This is the same sort of person who sees no problem with entertaining themselves at the expense of others. That is, they don’t hesitate at sinfully mocking righteousness or simply making fun of misfortune. It’s heartless and destroys a community where trust is necessary to survive.
Solomon offers a short list of things God hates in our fallen human natures. First is the sort of arrogance that reflexively views others as dirt. Second is not just deception, but senseless lying over trifles, rather as a habit of mind without bothering to actually calculate whether it matters. Third is the casual disrespect of life — notice this is innocent blood, not a just execution of murderous criminals. Fourth is something that translates poorly across the cultural chasm. Keep in mind that Hebrew presumes a sensory heart that guides the mind. Thus, this is the case of reversing that proper order by enslaving the heart to plotting vanity or senseless immorality. Fifth is the related idea of finding perversion so entertaining that it takes priority over other activities. Sixth is someone who will invest significant effort in maintaining a falsehood for any number of selfish motives. Seventh is someone who delights in stirring up destructive drama between people who are close to each other. We’ve all met someone who simply cannot tolerate the unconscious guilt of seeing people who actually care about each other, so they destroy anything peaceful because they find soap opera conflicts more entertaining, more “genuine.”
Thus, we have a neat little list of predatory immorality that destroys a community. It’s a good reminder of the ultimate good in God’s moral laws — social stability is a primary meaning of shalom. In this context, Solomon goes off on adultery again. It’s not just destructive to your own life, but it destroys shalom by betraying that essential community trust. It makes you the enemy of God, the covenant community and Creation itself.
