This saying expresses the belief that people get from life what their own conduct prepares them for, whether for good or for bad.

“The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight”: “The righteousness of the blameless” is a complex expression because it is formed from two closely related terms, and the whole is made to function as the subject of the sentence. We may need to restructure this to say, for example, “Whoever is honest and has good will” or “Whoever is truly good.” “Blameless” comes from the same Hebrew root as the term rendered “integrity” in verse 3. “Keeps . . . straight” translates the same verb as in 3.6. See there for comments and model translations.

“But the wicked falls by his own wickedness”: For “wicked” see 2.22. “Falls” here and in 11.14 is used figuratively to mean that the wicked is caused to fail or suffer a downfall, that is, to meet with disaster due to his or her own evil.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .