Most of our English translations (the exception is the NIV) obscure a significant point in the translation of these three verses. All three use a form of a Hebrew word that means to scoff or mock. To demonstrate the connection between the verses, we can translate as follows:
A worthless witness will scoff at judgment, And the mouth of the wicked will swallow iniquity. Judgments are being prepared for scoffers, And blows for the back of fools. Wine is a scoffer, strong drink a brawler, And whoever goes astray in it will not be wise.
According to other passages in Proverbs the scoffer is arrogant, scoffs at sin and will not listen to rebuke. He is worse than the fool because he is hardened in sin. He is like the Pharaoh who would not let Israel go even though the Lord was destroying his land and people. He is also like Jezebel, who, upon hearing of the great miracle Elijah had performed at Mt. Carmel and the death of the prophets of Baal, threatened Elijah’s life.
Chapter 19:28 is not directly about scoffers, but instead about a worthless witness. The word for worthless here is the Hebrew word belial, which the KJV sometimes, though not here, transliterates directly into English. One example is found in 1 King 21. If you look at verses 10 and 13 in the KJV you will see the word belial. This is a good example of the proverb. The men called sons or children of belial were worthless men whom Jezebel the queen had summoned to accuse Naboth falsely so that Ahab could seize his vineyard. They were not sons of belial, worthless men, simply because of their false witness, but were well known in their city before this as worthless men. They were the riff raff of society, the deadbeats, the scum of the earth.
Therefore, the worthless witness in Proverbs 19 is not just someone who has given false testimony once or twice, but one whose character has already been established as a worthless man, and who, like the two men in the history of Naboth, can be counted on to give false testimony if it is in his interest to do so. Broadly speaking, he is an habitual liar, one who has no regard for truth and says whatever he thinks will be for his immediate advantage.
This worthless witness scoffs at judgment. He makes a mockery of the whole process of judgment among men, and he scoffs at the idea that God is a righteous judge who will some day wreak vengeance on him for his wickedness.
He is a wicked man who swallows iniquity. That is, he makes iniquity his regular portion. He takes in and works out iniquity as regularly as he eats food. He is, in fact, greedy for the doing of iniquity. He loves it, delights in it, and seeks it. He hates righteousness and revels in opposition to God and his cause in the world.
This is what we all are by nature, apart from the redeeming grace of God in Jesus Christ.
In verse 28, many of our translations use the word justice instead of judgment, but I think it is better to use the word judgment, because it is the very same word that we find in the next verse. “Judgments are being prepared for scoffers…” He scoffs at judgment, but judgments are being prepared for him. God is at work even now to bring back on his head the violence of his mouth, the wickedness of his tongue and the perversity of his lips. Proverbs repeats this idea so often that we tend to grow indifferent towards it, but it is a simple statement of fact. Our Lord Jesus Christ is even now enthroned at God’s right hand and is coming for the final judgment. But even more than that, he is working out his judgments in the world right now through all kinds of providential circumstances. Indeed, according to Psalm 73, he uses even the good that the wicked have to set them in slippery places.
Scoffers are fools. They do not fear God or keep his commandments. There will be blows for their backs.
Let all those who speak falsehood and scoff at judgment beware. They should not say, “God has forgotten; He hides his face; He will never see (Psalm 10:11).” He has seen. He will repay it by his hand.
In chapter 20:1 Solomon gives us a specific example of the kind of thing that leads men to scoff. “Wine is a scoffer, strong drink a brawler, and everyone who goes astray in it will not be wise.” Solomon does not mean to say that wine and strong drink are themselves evil. He is talking about those who go astray in them. They are the ones “who linger long at the wine,” “who look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly (Proverbs 23:30-31),” and who say, “when shall I awake, that I may seek another drink (v.35)?”
Drunkenness leads men to scoffing and brawling, making a mockery of judgment and getting into stupid fights with their neighbors. Drunkenness loosens the tongue, breaks down inhibitions against wickedness, confuses the mind, and leads to many sins that conscience and shame would otherwise prevent.
Whoever is led astray by wine and strong drink will not be wise. He does not fear God or keep his commandments, and he will not learn to do so until he has repented of his drunkenness.
Let the drunkard beware lest he fall into the company of scoffers for whom God is preparing judgment and beatings.