This verse follows thoughts already expressed in verses 3, 5, and 6.

“The righteous is delivered from trouble”: “Is delivered” translates the passive form of a verb meaning to rescue or save. “Trouble” refers to distress, difficulties, or misfortune. Languages that cannot use a passive construction in this line may have to supply a subject, for example, “The Lord rescues the righteous from their troubles” or “The Lord gets the upright out of trouble.”

“And the wicked gets into it instead” is literally “and the wicked enters [in] his place.” This sounds as if the wicked is made to suffer in the place of the righteous. However, the sense of this line is that eventually the righteous is rescued while the wicked gets into trouble. Toy takes the sense of “instead” here as “reversal of positions.” See Good News Translation for a model translation.

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 .