Key Verse Spotlight
Proverbs 21:7 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: World English Bible — Catholic Edition
" The violence of the wicked will drive them away, because they refuse to do what is right. "
Proverbs 21:7
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
5 The plans of the diligent surely lead to profit; and everyone who is hasty surely rushes to poverty.
6 Getting treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor for those who seek death.
7 The violence of the wicked will drive them away, because they refuse to do what is right.
8 The way of the guilty is devious, but the conduct of the innocent is upright.
9 It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop than to share a house with a contentious woman.
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Here we see, first, what injustice is like. Getting money by lying, as in the previous verse (Proverbs 21:6), is no better than open robbery. Cheating is stealing. You might as well pick a man’s pocket as trick him with a lie in a business deal, where he had only your honesty to protect him. It is no excuse to say that he could have chosen not to believe you, because truth is something we owe to all people.
Second, we see the root of injustice. People refuse to do what is right. They will not give others what they are due, but hold it back. Small acts of neglect lead to bigger sins, and at last they come to robbery itself. Those who refuse to do justice will choose to do wrong.
Third, we see the result of injustice. It will come back on the sinner’s own head. The violence of the wicked will terrify them, as some understand it. Others take it to mean that their conscience will fill them with horror and tear them apart. Either way, it will ruin them now and forever. That is why the previous verse says, “They seek death” (Proverbs 21:6).
From This Chapter
Proverbs 21:1
"The king’s heart is in the LORD’s hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires."
Proverbs 21:2
"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts."
Proverbs 21:3
"To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice."
Proverbs 21:4
"A high look and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin."
Proverbs 21:5
"The plans of the diligent surely lead to profit; and everyone who is hasty surely rushes to poverty."
Proverbs 21:6
"Getting treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor for those who seek death."
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