When a wicked person comes, contempt also comes, And with dishonor comes taunting.
Parallel translations
- WEB When wickedness comes, contempt also comes, and with shame comes disgrace.
- KJV When the wicked cometh, then cometh also contempt, and with ignominy reproach.
- BSB With a wicked man comes contempt as well, and shame is accompanied by disgrace.
- NKJV When the wicked comes, contempt comes also; And with dishonor comes reproach.
- NLT Doing wrong leads to disgrace, and scandalous behavior brings contempt.
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
Wickedness brings contempt, shame, and disgrace in its train. Sin carries with it a cluster of dishonor.
Overview
This proverb links wickedness with the scorn, shame, and reproach that inevitably accompany it, showing that sin degrades both the sinner and the social fabric. Wrongdoing does not occur in isolation but drags disgrace along with it. The gospel reverses this trajectory, for Christ bore our shame on the cross (Heb. 12:2) so that the guilty might be clothed instead with honor and acceptance before God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Pet 4:14If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed; because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. On their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified.
- Prov 22:10Drive out the mocker, and strife will go out; yes, quarrels and insults will stop.
- 1 Pet 4:4They think it is strange that you don’t run with them into the same excess of riot, blaspheming:
- Prov 11:2When pride comes, then comes shame, but with humility comes wisdom.
- Prov 29:16When the wicked increase, sin increases; but the righteous will see their downfall.
- Ps 69:20Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.
- Neh 4:4“Hear, our God; for we are despised; and turn back their reproach on their own head, give them up for a plunder in a land of captivity;
- 1 Sam 20:30Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse rebellious woman, don’t I know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness?
- Ps 69:9For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
- Ps 123:3–4Have mercy on us, Yahweh, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt.
- Matt 27:39–44Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads,
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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 18:3 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.