Also, to punish the righteous is not good, Nor to strike princes for their uprightness.
Parallel translations
- WEB Also to punish the righteous is not good, nor to flog officials for their integrity.
- KJV Also to punish the just is not good, nor to strike princes for equity.
- BSB It is surely not good to punish the innocent or to flog a noble for his honesty.
- NASB It is also not good to fine the righteous, Nor to strike the noble for their uprightness.
- NLT It is wrong to punish the godly for being good or to flog leaders for being honest.
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
Punishing the innocent or righteous is plainly wrong. It is an injustice to penalize people for their integrity.
Overview
This proverb condemns the perversion of justice that fines or flogs the righteous and upright officials precisely because of their integrity. It exposes how wickedness inverts moral order, punishing good rather than evil. Scripture honors those who suffer for righteousness' sake (1 Pet. 3:14), and ultimately Christ Himself, the wholly innocent One, was unjustly condemned (Isa. 53:9), securing salvation for the guilty.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Prov 17:15He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to Yahweh.
- Prov 18:5To be partial to the faces of the wicked is not good, nor to deprive the innocent of justice.
- John 18:22When he had said this, one of the officers standing by slapped Jesus with his hand, saying, “Do you answer the high priest like that?”
- Job 34:18–19Who says to a king, ‘Vile!’ or to nobles, ‘Wicked!’?
- 2 Sam 3:39I am weak today, though anointed king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah are too hard for me. May Yahweh reward the evildoer according to his wickedness.”
- Mic 5:1Now you shall gather yourself in troops, daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.
- Gen 18:25Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”
- 2 Sam 16:7–8Shimei said when he cursed, “Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, and base fellow!
- 2 Sam 3:23–25When Joab and all the army who was with him had come, they told Joab, “Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he has sent him away, and he has gone in peace.”
- 2 Sam 19:7Now therefore arise, go out, and speak to comfort your servants; for I swear by Yahweh, if you don’t go out, not a man will stay with you this night. That would be worse to you than all the evil that has happened to you from your youth until now.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 17:26 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.