Proverbs 17:4

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

Ver. 4. A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips.] It is an ill sign of a vicious nature to be apt to believe scandalous reports of godly men. If men loved not lies, they wonld not listen to them. Some are of the opinion that Solomon having said, "God trieth the hearts," doth in this and the two next following verses instance some particular sins so accounted by God, which yet pass among men for no sins, or peccadilloes at the utmost, seeing no man seems to receive wrong by them - such as these are, to listen to lying lips, to mock the poor, to rejoice at another man's calamity, and the like. Lo, they that do thus, though to themselves and others they may seem to have done nothing amiss, yet God that tries the hearts will call them to account for these malicious miscarriages.