The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.
Parallel translations
- WEB The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.
- BSB The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.
- NKJV The memory of the righteous is blessed, But the name of the wicked will rot.
- NASB The mentioning of the righteous is a blessing, But the name of the wicked will rot.
- NLT We have happy memories of the godly, but the name of a wicked person rots away.
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
The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked rots. A godly life leaves a lasting, honored legacy; wickedness fades to shame.
Overview
This proverb contrasts the enduring, blessed remembrance of the righteous with the decay and disgrace of the wicked's name. How we live shapes the legacy we leave behind. For the believer, the truest and most enduring memory is to have one's name written in the Lamb's book of life (Revelation 20:15).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 112:6Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.
- Luke 1:48For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
- Mark 14:9Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.
- Ps 109:13Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
- 2 Chr 24:16And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God, and toward his house.
- Ps 109:15Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
- Ps 9:5–6Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.
- Job 18:17His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.
- 1 Kgs 11:36And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light alway before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there.
- 2 Kgs 19:34For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
- Eccl 8:10And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.
- Job 27:23Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.
- Jer 17:13O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.
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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 10:7 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
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