Proverbs 17:26

It is terrible ¹  to punish ²  a righteous person, and to flog ³  honorable men is wrong. ⁴ 

It is not good to punish an innocent man, or to flog officials for their integrity.

It is also not good to fine the righteous, Nor to strike the noble for their uprightness.

It is wrong to fine the godly for being good or to punish nobles for being honest!

It's wrong to penalize good behavior, or make good citizens pay for the crimes of others.

To give punishment to the upright is not good, or to give blows to the noble for their righteousness.

To impose a fine on the innocent is not right, or to flog the noble for their integrity.

Also, to punish the righteous is not good, Nor to strike princes for their uprightness.

It is terrible ¹  to punish ²  a righteous person, and to flog ³  honorable men is wrong. ⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “not good.” This is an example of tapeinosis – an understatement that implies the worst-case scenario: “it is terrible.”

² tn The verb עָנַשׁ, here a Qal infinitive construct, properly means “to fine” (cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT) but is taken here to mean “to punish” in general. The infinitive functions as the subject of the clause.

³ tn The form is the Hiphil infinitive construct from נָכָה (nakhah, “to strike; to smite”). It may well refer to public beatings, so “flog” is used in the translation, since “strike” could refer to an individual’s action and “beat” could be taken to refer to competition.

⁴ tn Heb “[is] against uprightness.” The expression may be rendered “contrary to what is right.”

sn The two lines could be synonymous parallelism; but the second part is being used to show how wrong the first act would be – punishing the righteous makes about as much sense as beating an official of the court for doing what is just.