What Does Proverbs 17:15 Mean?
He who aligns the wicked, and he who convicts the aligned one, both are loathed by the LORD.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.THE KEY
The verse condemns the same distortion in both directions: making the wicked appear aligned and the aligned appear wicked.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now wherever judgment gives the wicked the standing of the just, or treats the just as guilty. It calls both verdicts abhorrent to the LORD because each makes judgment speak against what is true.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that it is only wrong to condemn an innocent person: declaring the wicked just is given the same abhorrent verdict.
THE ROOT
מַצְדִּיק
matsdiq
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
Alignment; being in the right.
“aligns” in this verse is matsdiq. “Justifieth” (מַצְדִּיק, matsdiq, justifies) and “just” (צַדִּיק, tsaddiq, aligned) carry the same seed: alignment. The verdict becomes corrupt when it gives the aligned name to the wicked and a guilty name to the just.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Justice; alignment.
צֶדֶק
This related form names the order a verdict should recognize: the aligned person is not made guilty by the judgment.
tsedaqah: Righteousness; alignment.
צְדָקָה
This form keeps righteousness joined to alignment, illuminating what is distorted when the verdict assigns that standing to the wicked.
מַרְשִׁיעַ
marshia
GROWS FROM
רשע
r-sh-ʿ
To act wickedly; to be guilty.
“convicts” in this verse is marshia. The act translated “condemneth” and the person called “wicked” both draw on the same root. The verse’s two halves mirror one another: judgment names a person, then makes that name false by assigning it to the opposite person.
ALSO GROWS
rasha: Wicked; guilty.
רָשָׁע
This is the word for the person whom the verse says must not be given the standing of the just.
rishʿah: Wickedness; guilt.
רִשְׁעָה
This related form names the condition that the false verdict disguises when it calls the wicked just.
THE PATTERN
A verdict becomes detestable when it reverses the names of the wicked and the just.
If there be a striving between men, and they come to judgment, that the judges may judge them, then they shall align the aligned, and condemn the restless.Who align the wicked for a bribe, and take the alignment of the aligned one from him!And he said to them, You are the ones who align yourselves before the faces of people, but God knows your hearts, for what is lifted up among people is a stench before the face of God.THE THREAD
If there be a striving between men, and they come to judgment, that the judges may judge them, then they shall align the aligned, and condemn the restless.Deuteronomy 25:1 uses the same Hebrew roots for “justify” (צדק, tsedeq, alignment) and “condemn” (רשע, rasha, wickedness) as Proverbs 17:15. There they assign the just and wicked their proper standing; here, the same root-pairs expose the abhorrence of swapping it.
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