for the LORD detests the perverse, but He is a friend to the upright.
Parallel translations
- WEB For the perverse is an abomination to Yahweh, but his friendship is with the upright.
- KJV For the froward is abomination to the LORD: but his secret is with the righteous.
- NKJV For the perverse person is an abomination to the Lord, But His secret counsel is with the upright.
- NASB For the devious are an abomination to the Lord; But He is intimate with the upright.
- NLT Such wicked people are detestable to the Lord, but he offers his friendship to the godly.
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 crooked person is detestable to the LORD, but he takes the upright into his confidence. God's intimate friendship belongs to the righteous.
Overview
This verse gives the reason not to envy the violent: their crooked ways are an abomination to God, while the upright enjoy his friendship and counsel. The contrast is between divine rejection and divine intimacy. Such fellowship with God is the believer's privilege, opened fully through Christ, who calls his own friends (John 15:14-15).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ps 25:14The LORD confides in those who fear Him, and reveals His covenant to them.
- Prov 11:20The perverse in heart are an abomination to the LORD, but the blameless in their walk are His delight.
- John 15:15No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you.
- Prov 17:15Acquitting the guilty and condemning the righteous—both are detestable to the LORD.
- Prov 8:13To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.
- Matt 13:11He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.
- John 14:21–24Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”
- Ps 18:26to the pure You show Yourself pure, but to the crooked You show Yourself shrewd.
- Matt 11:25At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
- Job 29:4when I was in my prime, when the friendship of God rested on my tent,
- Luke 16:15So He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable before God.
- Rev 2:17He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name, known only to the one who receives it.
- Prov 6:6–19Walk in the manner of the ant, O slacker; observe its ways and become wise.
- Prov 14:10The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares in its joy.
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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 3:32 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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