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22 for suddenly their destruction will overtake them,[a]
and who knows the ruinous judgment both the Lord and the king can bring?[b]

Further Sayings of the Wise

23 These sayings also are from the wise:

To show partiality[c] in judgment is terrible:[d]
24 The one who says to the guilty,[e] “You are innocent,”[f]
peoples will curse him, and nations will denounce[g] him.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 24:22 tn Heb “will rise” (so NASB).
  2. Proverbs 24:22 tn Heb “the ruin of the two of them.” Judgment is sent on the rebels both by God and the king. The term פִּיד (pid, “ruin; disaster”) is a metonymy of effect, the cause being the sentence of judgment (= “ruinous judgment” in the translation; cf. NLT “punishment”). The word “two of them” is a subjective genitive—they two bring the disaster on the rebels. The referents (the Lord and the king) have been specified in the translation for clarity.sn The reward for living in peace under God in this world is that those who do will escape the calamities that will fall on the rebellious. Verse 21a is used in 1 Peter 2:17, and v. 22 is used in Romans 13:1-7 (v. 4). This is the thirtieth and last of this collection.
  3. Proverbs 24:23 tn Heb “to recognize faces”; KJV, ASV “to have respect of persons”; NLT “to show favoritism.”
  4. Proverbs 24:23 tn Heb “not good.” This is a figure known as tapeinosis—a deliberate understatement to emphasize a worst-case scenario: “it is terrible!”
  5. Proverbs 24:24 tn The word means “wicked; guilty” or “criminal”; the contrast could be “wicked—righteous” (cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB) or “innocent—guilty” (cf. NIV, TEV, CEV). Since this line follows the statement about showing partiality in judgment, it involves a forensic setting. Thus the statement describes one who calls a guilty person innocent or acquitted.
  6. Proverbs 24:24 tn Or “righteous”; the same Hebrew word may be translated either “innocent” or “righteous” depending on the context.
  7. Proverbs 24:24 tn The verb means “to be indignant.” It can be used within the range of “have indignation,” meaning “loathe” or “abhor,” or express indignation, meaning “denounce” or “curse.” In this passage, in collocation with the previous term “curse,” the latter is intended (cf. NAB, NIV, NLT).