A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue.

Wesley's Notes

17:4 False lips - To false accusations and calumnies, which give him occasion and encouragement to do mischief.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. Wicked doers and speakers alike delight in calumny.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:4. Flatterers, especially false teachers, are welcome to those that live in sin. 5. Those that laugh at poverty, treat God's providence and precepts with contempt. 6. It is an honour to children to have wise and godly parents continued to them, even after they are grown up and settled in the world. 7. A fool, in Solomon's Proverbs, signifies a wicked man, whom excellent speech does not become, because his conversation contradicts it.

Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary

Verse 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. Those that take the liberty to tell lies take a pleasure in hearing them told: A liar gives heed to a malicious backbiting tongue, that he may have something to graft his lies upon, and with which to give them some colour of truth and so to support them. Sinners will strengthen one another's hands; and those show that they are bad themselves who court the acquaintance and need the assistance of those that are bad.