Discovery BoxProverbs 11:5-8 
Context11:5 The righteousness of the blameless will make straight their way, 1
but the wicked person will fall by his own wickedness. 2
11:6 The righteousness of the upright will deliver them, 3
but the faithless will be captured 4 by their own desires. 5
11:7 When a wicked person dies, his expectation perishes, 6
and the hope of his strength 7 perishes. 8
11:8 The righteous person is delivered 9 out of trouble,
and the wicked turns up in his stead. 10
1 tn Heb “his way.”
2 sn The righteous will enjoy security and serenity throughout life. Righteousness makes the path straight; wickedness destroys the wicked.
3 sn The contrast is between being rescued or delivered (נָצַל, natsal) and being captured (לָכַד, lakhad). Righteousness is freeing; [evil] desires are enslaving.
4 tn Heb “taken captive” (so NRSV); NIV, TEV “are trapped.”
5 tn Heb “but by the desire of the faithless are they taken captive.”
6 tn The first colon features an imperfect tense depicting habitual action, while the second has a perfect tense verb depicting gnomic action.
sn The subject of this proverb is the hope of the wicked, showing its consequences – his expectations die with him (Ps 49). Any hope for long life and success borne of wickedness will be disappointed.
7 tc There are several suggested changes for this word אוֹנִים (’onim, “vigor” or “strength”). Rashi, a Jewish scholar who lived
8 tc The LXX adds an antithesis to this: “When the righteous dies, hope does not perish.” The LXX translators wanted to see the hope of the righteous fulfilled in the world to come.
9 tn The verb is the Niphal perfect from the first root חָלַץ (khalats), meaning “to draw off; to withdraw,” and hence “to be delivered.”
sn The verse is not concerned with the problem of evil and the suffering of the righteous; it is only concerned with the principle of divine justice.
10 tn The verb is masculine singular, so the subject cannot be “trouble.” The trouble from which the righteous escape will come on the wicked – but the Hebrew text literally says that the wicked “comes [= arrives; turns up; shows up] in the place of the righteous.” Cf. NASB “the wicked takes his place”; NRSV “the wicked get into it instead”; NIV “it comes on the wicked instead.”
