13:6

Notice the parallel parts that contrast in meaning:

6a
Righteousness guards the man of integrity,

6b but wickedness undermines the sinner.

This proverb contrasts the security of a consistently good person who lives a righteous life with the insecurity of a sinful person who lives a wicked life.

13:6a–b

Righteousness guards…wickedness undermines: These are both examples of personification (see 10:2b for a similar example of personified righteousness). Righteousness and wickedness are described as if they were people who guarded or overthrew someone. These phrases mean that a person who consistently does what is right will be protected ⌊from evil, harm or destruction⌋ by his own righteous way of life. By contrast, a sinner’s wicked way of life will cause him to be overthrown/ruined.

If personification is not natural or clear in your language, you may express the meaning in different ways. For example:

6a Because he does what is right, a person who wholeheartedly obeys the LORD will have no cause to fear/worry.

6b But a sinner does what is evil, and for this reason, ruin will be the outcome of his life.

Also see the second and third meaning lines in the Display for 13:6a and 13:6b.

13:6a

Righteousness: As in many other verses in Proverbs, Righteousness refers to doing what is right, living in conformity to God’s law. See the note on 10:2b.

guards the man of integrity: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the man of integrity is literally “the blameless of way.” Here this phrase represents a person whose conduct is blameless. It is a person who consistently does what is right. See the note on “blameless” in 10:29a, where the Berean Standard Bible translates the term as “upright.”

13:6b

but wickedness undermines the sinner: In Hebrew, this clause is literally “wickedness overthrows sin/sinfulness.” There are two ways to interpret the subject of the clause:

(1) Wickedness is the subject. The object “sinfulness” represents a sinful person. For example:

wickedness brings sinners down (Revised English Bible)

(2) Sin/Sinfulness is the subject. The object wickedness represents a wicked person. For example:

but sin overthrows the wicked (Revised Standard Version)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), along with most versions and scholars.

wickedness: The word wickedness contrasts with the parallel word “righteousness” in 13:6a. It refers to the evil/wicked conduct of the sinner.

undermines: The word undermines means to cause the ruin, destruction, or downfall of someone. This may be expressed as:

wickedness brings sinners down (Revised English Bible)
-or-
doing evil ruins the sinner (New Century Version)

© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.