Proverbs 11:7-9
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
7 When a person dies, hope is destroyed;(A)
expectation pinned on wealth is destroyed.[a]
8 The just are rescued from a tight spot,
but the wicked fall into it instead.
9 By a word the impious ruin their neighbors,(B)
but through their knowledge the just are rescued.[b]
Footnotes
- 11:7 An ancient scribe added “wicked” to person in colon A, for the statement that hope ends at death seemed to deny life after death. The saying, however, is not concerned with life after death but with the fact that in the face of death all hopes based on one’s own resources are vain. The aphorism is the climax of the preceding six verses; human resources cannot overcome mortality (cf. Ps 49:13).
- 11:9 What the wicked express harms others; what the righteous leave unsaid protects. Verses 9–14 are related in theme: the effect of good and bad people, especially their words, on their community.
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