Proverbs 11:6
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Cross References
Ecclesiastes 10:8
8He who digs a pit may fall into it; and whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake.
Psalms 7:15-16
15He has dug a hole, and has fallen into the pit which he made. 16The trouble he causes shall return to his own head. His violence shall come down on the crown of his own head.
1 Kings 2:44
44The king said moreover to Shimei, “You know in your heart all the wickedness that you did to David my father. Therefore the LORD will return your wickedness on your own head.
Proverbs 5:22
22The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
1 Samuel 12:3-4
3Here I am. Witness against me before the LORD and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Of whose hand have I taken a bribe to make me blind my eyes? I will restore it to you.”
4They said, “You have not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither have you taken anything from anyone’s hand.”
3 more
1 Kings 2:32-33
32The LORD will return his blood on his own head, because he fell on two men more righteous and better than he, and killed them with the sword, and my father David didn’t know it: Abner the son of Ner, captain of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the army of Judah. 33So their blood will return on the head of Joab and on the head of his offspring[+] forever. But for David, for his offspring, for his house, and for his throne, there will be peace forever from the LORD.”
Genesis 30:33
33So my righteousness will answer for me hereafter, when you come concerning my hire that is before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be considered stolen.”
Genesis 31:37
37Now that you have felt around in all my stuff, what have you found of all your household stuff? Set it here before my relatives and your relatives, that they may judge between us two.
Study
No verse-level note here; see the section overviews below.
Section overviews (1)
This section is called The Proverbs of Solomon. It mostly contains short pieces of advice and observations. These sayings often use antithetical parallelism to compare wisdom and righteousness with foolishness and wickedness. The proverbs seem to be arranged randomly, similar to Egyptian and Mesopotamian wisdom literature. Some proverbs repeat:
Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25
Proverbs 18:8 and 26:22
Proverbs 19:24 and 26:15
Proverbs 20:16 and 27:13
Proverbs 21:9 and 25:24
Proverbs 22:3 and 27:12
Sometimes, a group of proverbs shares a similar theme (for example, Proverbs 16:1–11).
deliver them--that is, from evil, which the wicked suffer by their own doings (Pro 5:22; Psa 9:16).
These two verses are, in effect, the same, and both to the same purport with Pro 11:3. For the truths are here of such certainty and weight that they cannot be too often inculcated. Let us govern ourselves by these principles.
I. That the ways of religion are plain and safe, and in them we may enjoy a holy security. A living principle of honesty and grace will be, 1. Our best direction in the right way, in every doubtful case to say to us, This is the way, walk in it. He that acts without a guide looks right on and sees his way before him. 2. Our best deliverance from every false way: The righteousness of the upright shall be armour of proof to them, to deliver them from the allurements of the devil and the world, and from their menaces.
The ways of wickedness are dangerous and destructive: The wicked shall fail into misery and ruin by their own wickedness, and be taken in their own naughtiness as in a snare. O Israel! thou hast destroyed thyself. Their sin will be their punishment; that very thing by which they contrived to shelter themselves will make against them.
The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them,.... From death, as in Proverbs 11:4; and from falling by sin, totally and finally; or into it, so as to perish eternally; as well as it shall deliver those out of Babylon, who are the Lord's people, that will be found therein when that is about to fall; see Revelation 18:4;
but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness; in the very act of sin, and be punished for it; taken in it as in a net, and which they have spread for others, or as in a pit, which they have dug for others; taken as wild beasts are taken, to be destroyed; and that in the very midst of their wickedness, when fighting against God and the Lamb, as the beast and false prophet will, Revelation 19:20.
Shall deliver them from many snares and dangers.
6 The rectitude of the upright saveth them,
And in their own covetousness are the faithless taken.
The integrity of those who go straight forward and straight through, without permitting themselves to turn aside on crooked ways, delivers them from the snares which are laid for them, the dangers they encounter; while, on the contrary, the faithless, though they mask their intentions ever so cunningly, are ensnared in their passionate covetousness: the mask is removed, they are convicted, and are caught and lost. Regarding הוּה, abyss, overthrow, also stumbling against anything = covetousness, vid., at Pro 10:3, and under Psa 5:10. The form of the expression 6b follows the scheme, "in the image of God created He man," Gen 9:6. The subject is to be taken from the genitive, as is marked by the accentuation, for it gives Mugrash to the וּבהוּת, as if it were the principal form, for וּבהוּה.