What Does Proverbs 21:15 Mean?
Doing judgment is joy for the aligned one, but shattering is for the workers of nothingness.
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
It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.THE KEY
The same justice that brings the aligned joy becomes ruin to those who work against it.
THE MEANING
For the aligned, doing justice is joy. The work of wickedness leads to ruin for those who practice it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Justice is not merely a burden imposed on the good; the verse presents doing it as the aligned person’s joy.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
ש־פ־ט
sh-p-t
To judge, govern, or decide a case.
“judgment” in this verse is mishpat. Mishpat is more than a verdict: it names an order that gets enacted. The verse says doing that justice is joy for the aligned, while wickedness meets ruin within that order.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: To judge or govern.
שָׁפַט
It shows judgment as an active work of ordering, not only a decision at the end of a dispute.
shophet: A judge or ruler.
שֹׁפֵט
The same root links justice to the one who puts order into practice.
צַדִּיק
tsaddiq
GROWS FROM
צ־ד־ק
ts-d-q
To be right or aligned.
“aligned one” in this verse is tsaddiq. The word translated “just” belongs to a root family about alignment. Here that alignment is active: the just person finds joy in doing justice.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Righteousness or alignment.
צֶדֶק
It connects the person called just with the order they delight in enacting.
tsedaqah: Righteous action or justice.
צְדָקָה
It shows alignment expressed through action, echoing the verse’s “to do judgment.”
מְחִתָּה
mechittah
GROWS FROM
ח־ת־ת
ch-t-t
To be shattered, broken down, or dismayed.
“shattering” in this verse is mechittah. The word carries the sense of ruin and terror, giving the verse’s final contrast a sharper edge. The work of wickedness does not stand untouched by the justice the aligned enact with joy.
ALSO GROWS
chathath: To be shattered or dismayed.
חָתַת
This verb reveals the brokenness carried in the word for destruction.
mechittah: Ruin, destruction, or terror.
מְחִתָּה
This noun names the shattering that the verse sets against the joy of doing justice.
THE PATTERN
Justice is joy to those aligned with it, while the work of wickedness carries ruin.
Clouds and thick darkness are around him; alignment and judgment are the footing of his throne.The way of the LORD is a stronghold to the whole; but shattering is for the workers of crookedness.Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.THE THREAD
Clouds and thick darkness are around him; alignment and judgment are the footing of his throne.The same word, mishpat, appears as “judgment,” paired with righteousness as the structure of the throne. Proverbs makes that same order personal: the aligned find joy in doing it, while wickedness meets ruin.
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