Proverbs 11:11

A city is exalted by the blessing provided from ¹  the upright, but it is destroyed by the counsel ²  of the wicked. ³ 

Ge 41:38-42; Ge 45:8; 2Sa 20:1; 2Ch 32:20-22; Es 3:8-15; Es 9:1-16; Job 22:30; Pr 14:34; Pr 29:8; Ec 9:15; Jas 3:6

¹ tn Heb “the blessing of the upright.” This expression features either an objective or subjective genitive. It may refer to the blessing God gives the upright (which will benefit society) or the blessing that the upright are to the city. The latter fits the parallelism best: The blessings are the beneficent words and deeds that the righteous perform.

² tn Heb “mouth.” The term פֶּה (peh, “mouth”) functions as a metonymy of cause for counsel, as the parallelism suggests.

³ sn What the wicked say has a disastrous effect on society, endangering, weakening, demoralizing, and perverting with malicious and slanderous words. Wicked leaders, in particular, can bring destruction on a city by their evil counsel.