Proverbs 20:30

30 Blows that wound cleanse away evil; beatings make clean the innermost parts.

Proverbs 20:30 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 20:30

The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil
Rubs it off and scours it away, as the word F13 signifies, or is a clearing and rubbing it off; some men must be beaten black and blue, or must have very sore correction, before they can be reclaimed and reformed from their evil ways; so some interpret it of the evil man F14: sanctified afflictions to God's people are the means of purging away their iniquities, their dross, and their sin; but there is nothing so effectually cleanses from sin as the blood of Jesus, or heals or cures of it as his blue wounds and stripes; see ( Isaiah 27:9 ) ( 53:5 ) ; so [do] stripes the inward part of the belly;
or heart and conscience; by means of corrections and chastisement men are brought to an inward sense of sin; they are shown their transgressions wherein they have exceeded, and are commanded to return from iniquity, ( Job 36:9 Job 36:10 ) ; they lament and mourn over sin, confess it and forsake it; and then may the inwards of the heart, the mind and conscience, defiled with them, be said to be cleansed from them; especially when led by these stripes and corrections to the stripes, wounds, and blood of Christ which, being applied, cleanse from all, sin inwardly and outwardly.


FOOTNOTES:

F13 (qyrmt) "abstesio", Piscator, Mercerus, Cocceius; "detersio", Montanus, Michaelis; "effricatio", Schultens.
F14 (erb) "in malo, sub, homine", Vatablus, Mercerus, Gejerus, Michaelis; "in malo (homine nequam)", Schultens, so Aben Ezra.

Proverbs 20:30 In-Context

28 Loyalty and faithfulness preserve the king, and his throne is upheld by righteousness.
29 The glory of youths is their strength, but the beauty of the aged is their gray hair.
30 Blows that wound cleanse away evil; beatings make clean the innermost parts.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.