but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be uprooted.
Parallel translations
- WEB But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.
- KJV But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.
- NKJV But the wicked will be cut off from the earth, And the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.
- NASB But the wicked will be eliminated from the land, And the treacherous will be torn away from it.
- NLT But the wicked will be removed from the land, and the treacherous will be uprooted.
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 wicked and treacherous will be cut off and uprooted from the land. It matters because it warns that persistent wickedness ends in removal and judgment.
Overview
In contrast to verse 21, the wicked face being cut off and uprooted, a reversal of the security promised to the righteous. The two destinies frame the chapter's two ways. This sober conclusion affirms God's just governance and the final separation of the righteous and the wicked.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ps 52:5Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin; He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent; He will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
- Isa 3:10–11Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their labor.
- Deut 7:22The LORD your God will drive out these nations before you little by little. You will not be enabled to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals would multiply around you.
- Ps 37:28For the LORD loves justice and will not forsake His saints. They are preserved forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off.
- Deut 28:63–64Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and multiply, so also it will please Him to annihilate you and destroy you. And you will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.
- Prov 10:30The righteous will never be shaken, but the wicked will not inhabit the land.
- Ps 145:20The LORD preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy.
- Job 18:16–18The roots beneath him dry up, and the branches above him wither away.
- Prov 5:22–23The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
- Job 21:30Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.
- Ps 37:37–38Consider the blameless and observe the upright, for posterity awaits the man of peace.
- Ps 104:35May sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Bless the LORD, O my soul. Hallelujah!
- Ps 37:22Surely those He blesses will inherit the land, but the cursed will be destroyed.
- Ps 37:20But the wicked and enemies of the LORD will perish like the glory of the fields. They will vanish; like smoke they will fade away.
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 2:22 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.