If the righteous receive their due on earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner!
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, the righteous shall be repaid in the earth; how much more the wicked and the sinner!
- KJV Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner.
- NKJV If the righteous will be recompensed on the earth, How much more the ungodly and the sinner.
- NASB If the righteous will be repaid on the earth, How much more the wicked and the sinner!
- NLT If the righteous are rewarded here on earth, what will happen to wicked sinners?
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
If even the righteous are repaid on earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner. God's dealings with His own people warn of surer judgment on the ungodly.
Overview
The proverb reasons from the lesser to the greater: if the righteous experience God's discipline and reward in this life, the wicked will certainly not escape. It sobers any presumption that evil will go unanswered. The New Testament cites this verse to urge perseverance, reminding believers of the gravity of final judgment.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- 1 Pet 4:17–18For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God?
- Jer 25:29For behold, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears My Name, so how could you possibly go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the LORD of Hosts.’
- 1 Cor 11:30–32That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.
- Prov 13:21Disaster pursues sinners, but prosperity is the reward of the righteous.
- 2 Sam 12:9–12Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own, for you have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites.
- 2 Sam 7:14–15I will be his Father, and he will be My son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.
- 1 Kgs 13:24As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 11:31 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.