Proverbs 11:18 Explained in Context

Read It With

• Proverbs 11:16–19

Read Proverbs 11:18 with 11:16–19. Read alone, “The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth…” could turn a compressed observation, warning, comparison, or command into a guarantee or complete policy. The full unit establishes: opens with “A gracious woman retaineth honour” and develops the line through “and strong men retain riches”; by 11:19, it opens with “As righteousness tendeth to life” and develops the line through “so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death”. Together the unit concentrates on justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, wealth, poverty, provision, and economic power, gendered imagery, sexual fidelity, consent, and household agency within “First Solomonic sentence-saying collection.”

Why This Verse Appears Here

Proverbs 11:16–19 forms a reviewed local cluster inside “First Solomonic sentence-saying collection.” Its lines concentrate on justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, wealth, poverty, provision, and economic power, gendered imagery, sexual fidelity, consent, and household agency, while each sentence proverb retains its own force and the neighboring database unit does not supply its meaning. Within that relationship, this verse uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wicked worketh a deceitful work” against “to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward”.