Proverbs 13:21 Explained in Context

Read It With

• Proverbs 13:20–23

Read Proverbs 13:21 with 13:20–23. Read alone, “Evil pursueth sinners: but to the righteous good shall be…” could turn a compressed observation, warning, comparison, or command into a guarantee or complete policy. The full unit establishes: uses contrastive parallelism to place “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise” against “a companion of fools shall be destroyed”; by 13:23, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “Much food is in the tillage of the poor” against “there is that is destroyed for want of judgment”. Together the unit concentrates on justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, wealth, poverty, provision, and economic power, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries within “First Solomonic sentence-saying collection.”

Why It Needs Context

Proverbs 13:21 uses contrastive parallelism to place “Evil pursueth sinners” against “to the righteous good shall be repayed”. Because this line supplies setup, support, continuation, or result, “Justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation — He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a…” provides the meaning it cannot responsibly carry alone.