LEV611 The first category [of flatterers] is [one] who recognizes or sees or knows that his fellowman's hand is [tainted] with iniquity and that he embraces deceit (Yirmeyahu 8:5), or that he sins through lashon hara or verbal abuse – – but smooth-talks him with an evil tongue and says, 'You have committed no wrong." Not only has the flatterer committed the transgression of withholding reproof, as [this verse] says ... but he further sins by saying, "You have not sinned, as the pasuk says (Yirmeyahu 23:14), "They have strengthened the hands of evildoers." This is a serious transgression (Iyov 31:28) in the hand of the foolish flatterer; for he is not a zealous for the truth, but abets falsehood, declaring evil to be good and making light into darkness. He also places a pitfall before the sinner from two vantage points: firstly -- [as a result of this] the sinner does not regret his evil; secondly -- he repeats his foolishness the next day since the wicked flatterer has praised him and his heart's desire (Tehillim 10:3; I.e., has praised him for doing whatever he wants). Besides this, he will bear punishment for the harm he caused to the person whom the sinner wronged, by justifying the one who sinned against him; and aside from that, he will be punished for [his] false words, as the pesukim says, "You will destroy speakers of deceit" (Tehillim 5:7), and "One who justifies an evildoer and who condemns a righteous person -- both are an abomination of Hashem" (Mishlei 17:15). This applies even more so if the iniquity of his fellowman is public knowledge; for when the flatterer says to him before others, "You are pure, without iniquity," he has desecrated and demeaned both the law and justice. (Continued at [[DEUT15]] Deuteronomy 1:17 afraid GATES 375).