Amsal 11:6

11:6 The righteousness of the upright will deliver them, ¹ 

but the faithless will be captured ²  by their own desires. ³ 

Amsal 12:21

12:21 The righteous do not encounter ⁴  any harm, ⁵ 

but the wicked are filled with calamity. ⁶ 

Amsal 17:26

17:26 It is terrible ⁷  to punish ⁸  a righteous person,

and to flog ⁹  honorable men is wrong. ¹⁰ 

[11:6]  ¹ sn The contrast is between being rescued or delivered (נָצַל, natsal) and being captured (לָכַד, lakhad). Righteousness is freeing; [evil] desires are enslaving.

[11:6]  ² tn Heb “taken captive” (so NRSV); NIV, TEV “are trapped.”

[11:6]  ³ tn Heb “but by the desire of the faithless are they taken captive.”

[12:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “is not allowed to meet to the righteous.”

[12:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “all calamity.” The proper nuance of אָוֶן (’aven) is debated. It is normally understood metonymically (effect) as “harm; trouble,” that is, the result/effect of wickedness (e.g., Gen 50:20). Rashi, a Jewish scholar who lived a.d. 1040-1105, took it as “wickedness,” its primary meaning; “the righteous will not be caught up in wickedness.”

[12:21]  ⁶ tn The expression רָע מָלְאוּ (malÿ’u ra’, “to be full of evil”) means (1) the wicked do much evil or (2) the wicked experience much calamity (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[17:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “not good.” This is an example of tapeinosis – an understatement that implies the worst-case scenario: “it is terrible.”

[17:26]  ⁸ tn The verb עָנַשׁ, here a Qal infinitive construct, properly means “to fine” (cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT) but is taken here to mean “to punish” in general. The infinitive functions as the subject of the clause.

[17:26]  ⁹ tn The form is the Hiphil infinitive construct from נָכָה (nakhah, “to strike; to smite”). It may well refer to public beatings, so “flog” is used in the translation, since “strike” could refer to an individual’s action and “beat” could be taken to refer to competition.

[17:26]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[is] against uprightness.” The expression may be rendered “contrary to what is right.”

[17:26]  sn The two lines could be synonymous parallelism; but the second part is being used to show how wrong the first act would be – punishing the righteous makes about as much sense as beating an official of the court for doing what is just.