What Does Proverbs 24:24 Mean in the King James?
He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous; him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Calling the wicked righteous does not align them; it exposes the speaker’s judgment.
THE MEANING
When you name what is misaligned as right, the name does not make it so; it reveals a failure of judgment. Communities recoil because shared trust depends on words staying connected to what they describe.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that calling wrongdoing righteous can make it harmless or preserve peace; false approval instead breaks trust in the words people rely on to recognize what is right.
THE ROOT
צַדִּיק
tsaddiq
GROWS FROM
צדק
To be just, in the right, aligned.
“Righteous” carries the sense of alignment: being in keeping with what is right. The verse’s shock is that the speaker calls a wicked person aligned, as though the word itself could erase the misalignment.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Justice; what is right.
צֶדֶק
It shows that the word applied to the wicked carries a standard of rightness, not just a flattering label.
tsedaqah: Righteousness; justice.
צְדָקָה
This branch keeps the verse’s claim tied to right order: the speaker’s words assign that standing where it does not belong.
רָשָׁע
rasha
GROWS FROM
רשע
To act wickedly or be guilty.
“wicked” in this verse is rasha. The root can describe both wrongdoing and the person marked by it. That makes the false naming sharper: the speaker does not merely praise a person, but calls what is guilty aligned.
ALSO GROWS
resha: Wickedness; guilt.
רֶשַׁע
The noun keeps the wrongdoing itself in view beneath the person-label “wicked.”
rish'ah: Wickedness; guilt.
רִשְׁעָה
This related form reinforces that the word reaches beyond reputation to the act and its character.
THE PATTERN
When judgment reverses what is right and wrong, the words that hold a community together lose their trust.
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.THE THREAD
He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.This verse uses the same Hebrew words for “wicked” (rasha) and “just” (tsaddiq), then turns the judgment both ways: making the wicked just and condemning the just. The pairing reveals the deeper fracture as judgment reversed, not merely praise given to the wrong person.
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