James Trimm’s Nazarene Commentary on Proverbs Chapter 14

14:34

34 Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.
(Proverbs 14:34 HRV)

צְדָקָ֥ה תְרֹֽומֵֽם־ גֹּ֑וי וְחֶ֖סֶד לְאֻמִּ֣ים חַטָּֽאת׃

The Hebrew word חסד (Strong’s 2617) can mean “reproach” but can also mean “loving kindness” so that the sages understood this to verse to mean: “Righteousness exalteth a nation, but the kindness of the nations is sin.”

The Talmud quotes this verse as follows:

Rabban Johanan b. Zakkai said to his disciples: My sons, what is the meaning of the verse, Righteousness exalteth a nation, but the kindness of the nations is sin? (Prov. 14:34) R. Eliezer answered and said: ‘Righteousness exalteth a nation:’ this refers to Israel of whom it is written, Who is like thy people Israel one nation in the earth? (2Sam 7:23) But ‘the kindness of the peoples is sin’: all the charity and kindness done by the heathen is counted to them as sin, because they only do it to magnify themselves”(b.Babba Batra 10b)

And the Tanya cites this portion of Talmud saying:

…all the good that the nations do, is done from selfish motives. So the Gemara comments on the verse, “The kindness of the nations is sin,”— that all the charity and kindness done by the nations of the world is only for their own self-glorification, and so on.(Tanya; Likutei Amarim 1)

This traditional Jewish understanding of Proverbs 14:34 is telling us that the heathen nations do in fact perform acts of loving kindness, but they do so with selfish motives.  In other words they perform acts of kindness, motivated by the yetzer ra (evil inclination). 

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