The way of the Lord is strength for the upright, But destruction will come to the workers of iniquity.
Parallel translations
- WEB The way of Yahweh is a stronghold to the upright, but it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity.
- KJV The way of the LORD is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.
- BSB The way of the LORD is a refuge to the upright, but destruction awaits those who do evil.
- NASB The way of the Lord is a stronghold for the upright, But ruin to the workers of injustice.
- NLT The way of the Lord is a stronghold to those with integrity, but it destroys the wicked.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God's way is a refuge for the upright but ruin for evildoers. The same path of the Lord protects the righteous and destroys the wicked.
Overview
The 'way of Yahweh'-His governing order and revealed will-functions as a fortress to those who walk in it but as judgment to those who oppose it. The verse shows that one's relationship to God determines whether His ways are safety or peril. The gospel echoes this: Christ is a cornerstone of salvation to believers but a stone of stumbling to those who reject Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Prov 21:15It is joy to the righteous to do justice; but it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity.
- Rom 2:8–9but to those who are self-seeking, and don’t obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath and indignation,
- Phil 4:13I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
- Isa 40:31But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
- Zech 10:12I will strengthen them in Yahweh; and they will walk up and down in his name,” says Yahweh.
- Ps 92:7though the wicked spring up as the grass, and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever.
- Ps 84:7They go from strength to strength. Everyone of them appears before God in Zion.
- Ps 37:20But the wicked shall perish. The enemies of Yahweh shall be like the beauty of the fields. They will vanish — vanish like smoke.
- Ps 36:12There the workers of iniquity are fallen. They are thrust down, and shall not be able to rise.
- Luke 13:26–27Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’
- Ps 1:6For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.
- Job 31:3Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity?
- Matt 7:22–23Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 10:29 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.