The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.
Parallel translations
- WEB The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don’t know what they stumble over.
- BSB But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they do not know what makes them stumble.
- NKJV The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know what makes them stumble.
- NASB The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know over what they stumble.
- NLT But the way of the wicked is like total darkness. They have no idea what they are stumbling over.
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 way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not even see what trips them. Sin blinds people to their own ruin.
Overview
Opposite the brightening path of the righteous, the wicked stumble in darkness, unaware of what causes their fall. Sin not only leads to ruin but blinds its victims to the danger. This recalls the New Testament theme of spiritual blindness from which only Christ, the light of the world, can deliver (John 8:12; 12:35).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- John 12:35Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
- Isa 59:9–10Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
- Job 18:5–6Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.
- Jer 23:12Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.
- 1 Sam 2:9He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.
- Jer 13:16Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.
- Job 18:18He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
- Prov 2:13Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;
- Job 12:25They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.
- John 11:10But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.
- Job 5:14They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope in the noonday as in the night.
- Matt 7:23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
- Matt 15:14Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
- 1 Jn 2:11But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 4:19 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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