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11 Rescue those who are led away to the death
    and those who stagger to the slaughter. If you hold back,
12 if you say, “Look, we do not know this,”
    does not he who weighs hearts perceive it?
    And he who keeps your soul,[a]
    he knows and will repay humankind according to his deeds.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 24:12 Or “life,” or “inner self”

11 Deliver those being taken away to death,
and hold back those slipping to the slaughter.[a]
12 If you say, “But we did not know about this,”
won’t[b] the one who evaluates[c] hearts discern it?
Won’t the one who guards your life realize[d]
and repay each person according to his deeds?[e]

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 24:11 tn The idea of “slipping” (participle from מוֹט, mot) has troubled some commentators. G. R. Driver emends it to read “at the point of” (“Problems in Proverbs,” ZAW 50 [1932]: 146). But the MT as it stands makes good sense. The reference would be general, viz., to help any who are in mortal danger or who might be tottering on the edge of such disaster—whether through sin, or through disease, war, or danger. Several English versions (e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV) render this term as “staggering.”sn God holds people responsible for rescuing those who are in mortal danger. The use of “death” and “slaughter” seems rather strong in the passage, but they have been used before in the book for the destruction that comes through evil.
  2. Proverbs 24:12 tn Heb “Will he not?” The verb is an imperfect stative and so should be understood as future or modal. Likewise the verb in the next line.
  3. Proverbs 24:12 tn Heb “weighs” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV) meaning “tests” or “evaluates.”
  4. Proverbs 24:12 tn The imperfect of the stative verb יָדַע (yadaʿ, “to know”) means “will know/come to know,” thus “will learn, find out, realize.”
  5. Proverbs 24:12 sn The verse completes the saying by affirming that people will be judged responsible for helping those in mortal danger. The verse uses a series of rhetorical questions to affirm that God knows our hearts and we cannot plead ignorance.

20 For there will not be a future for the evil;
    the lamp of the wicked will die out.

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20 for the evil person has no future,[a]
and the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 24:20 tn Heb “there is no end [i.e., future] for the evil.”
  2. Proverbs 24:20 sn The saying warns against envying the wicked; v. 19 provides the instruction, and v. 20 the motivation. The motivation is that there is no future hope for them—nothing to envy, or as C. H. Toy explains, there will be no good outcome for their lives (Proverbs [ICC], 449). They will die suddenly, as the implied comparison with the lamp being snuffed out signifies.