Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Proverbs 11:18 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 18. 18The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wicked worketh a deceitful work” against “to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward”.
Read It With
- Proverbs 11:16–19
Follow Proverbs 11:16–19, not verse 11:18 alone. This line uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wicked worketh a deceitful work” against “to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward”, while the complete unit distinguishes a normal moral direction from a guaranteed outcome.
Why This Verse Appears Here
At verse 11:18, Proverbs uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wicked worketh a deceitful work” against “to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward”. The line belongs to “Justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation — A gracious woman retaineth honour: and strong men retain...” and remains governed by the unit's source limits and misuse boundaries.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth...”
In plain language: justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation
This verse uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wicked worketh a deceitful work” against “to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward”.
Why it matters: This wording gives the verse its distinct role inside the cluster.
How certain? strongWhat Remains True
Wisdom requires honest judgment and active regard for people who can be exploited, ignored, or misrepresented. In Proverbs 11:18, that bounded truth is expressed through “The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth...,” not through a promise detached from its literary form.
How It Can Shape Life
- Use verifiable evidence, fair procedure, proportionate response, and meaningful access for the person with less power. For Proverbs 11:18, preserve the sequence: verse role (uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wicked worketh a deceitful work” against “to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward”) -> contextual meaning in Proverbs 11:16–19 -> proportionate truth -> this accountable response.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Proverbs 11:16–19 — Justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation — A gracious woman retaineth honour: and strong men retain...Sources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
Where care is needed
This sentence saying states a context-shaped moral pattern. Its small-cluster boundary and degree of generality remain reviewable; exceptional outcomes do not make the observation meaningless or turn it into a guarantee.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, canonical order, paragraph flags, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: Proverbs 11:16–19, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Proverbs
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology used only for the exact unit's lexical, grammatical, parallel, superscription, number-saying, and acrostic questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Prov.xml, OSIS 11:16-11:19
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Proverbs with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-attached textual, lexical, grammatical, syntactic, parallelism, and older-English controls for the exact range.
Exact location: NET Bible Proverbs PDF, printed pp. 1107-1111, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 11:16–19
Open source ↗