But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.
Parallel translations
- WEB But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.
- BSB but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be uprooted.
- 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 52:5God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.
- Isa 3:10–11Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
- Deut 7:22And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.
- Ps 37:28For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.
- Deut 28:63–64And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
- Prov 10:30The righteous shall never be removed: but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth.
- Ps 145:20The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
- Job 18:16–18His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.
- Prov 5:22–23His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
- Job 21:30That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.
- Ps 37:37–38Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.
- Ps 104:35Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD.
- Ps 37:22For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off.
- Ps 37:20But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
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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 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
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