“Exaltatio oculorum est dilatatio cordis ; lucerna impiorum peccatum.”
“An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin. An: Heb. Haughtiness of eyes the plowing: or, the light”
“Haughty eyes and a proud heart—the guides of the wicked—are sin.”
“A high look, and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin.”
“A high look, and a proud heart, Even the lamp of the wicked, is sin.”
Heart. Or when it is proud, it causes the eyes to appear so too. (Calmet) — Lamp. Protestants, “ploughing of the wicked is sin.” When it is done with a bad motive, out of pride. Hebrew, “the haughtiness of the eyes, and the enlarging of the heart, are the labour (“tillage,” Montanus; “thought,” Pagnin) of the wicked; yea, sin.” (Haydock) — Those things are their employment, and their sin. (Calmet) — Septuagint and Vulgate may also mean, “sin is the lamp and exultation of the wicked.” (Haydock)
Note, 1. We are all apt to be partial in judging of ourselves and our own actions, and to think too favourably of our own character, as if there was nothing amiss in it: Every way of a man, even his by-way, is right in his own eyes. The proud heart is very ingenious in putting a fair face upon a foul matter, and in making that appear right to itself which is far from being so, to stop the mouth of conscience. 2. We are sure that the judgment of God concerning us is according to truth. Whatever our judgment is concerning ourselves, the Lord ponders the heart. God looks at the heart, and judges of men according to that, of their actions according to their principles and intentions; and his judgment of that is as exact as ours is of that which we ponder most, and more so; he weighs it in an unerring balance, ch. 16 2.