He who walks with integrity will be kept safe, but whoever is perverse in his ways will suddenly fall.
Parallel translations
- WEB Whoever walks blamelessly is kept safe; but one with perverse ways will fall suddenly.
- KJV Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved: but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once.
- NKJV Whoever walks blamelessly will be saved, But he who is perverse in his ways will suddenly fall.
- NASB One who walks blamelessly will receive help, But one who is crooked will fall all at once.
- NLT The blameless will be rescued from harm, but the crooked will be suddenly destroyed.
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 person of blameless conduct is kept safe, but the crooked will suddenly fall. It contrasts the security of integrity with the ruin of deceit.
Overview
Walking blamelessly brings protection, while perverse and crooked ways lead to sudden collapse. The verse assures that integrity is a path of safety under God's care. Ultimate safety is found not in our own perfection but in being clothed with the righteousness of Christ, in whom we are truly kept (Jude 24).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Prov 10:9He who walks in integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his ways will be found out.
- Prov 28:6Better a poor man who walks with integrity than a rich man whose ways are perverse.
- Rev 3:3Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you.
- Prov 11:3–6The integrity of the upright guides them, but the perversity of the faithless destroys them.
- Ps 84:11For the LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.
- Num 22:32The angel of the LORD asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you, because your way is perverse before me.
- 1 Th 5:3While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
- Ps 73:18–20Surely You set them on slick ground; You cast them down into ruin.
- 2 Pet 2:1–3Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.
- Ps 125:5But those who turn to crooked ways the LORD will banish with the evildoers. Peace be upon Israel.
- Prov 10:25When the whirlwind passes, the wicked are no more, but the righteous are secure forever.
- Ps 26:11But I will walk with integrity; redeem me and be merciful to me.
- Ps 25:21May integrity and uprightness preserve me, because I wait for You.
- Gal 2:14When I saw that they were not walking in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
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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 28:18 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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