Proverbs 21:15 - Exposition

It is joy to the just to do judgment. The righteous feel real pleasure in doing what is right; they have the answer of a good conscience, and the feeling that they are, as far as they can, making God's will their will, and this brings deep comfort and stable joy (see some contrary experiences, Proverbs 21:10 and Proverbs 10:23 ; Proverbs 15:21 ). But destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity. The Authorized Version, by inserting "shall be," and making this clause a separate assertion, obscures the force of the original, which, as in Proverbs 10:29 (where see note), contrasts the effect of right-doing on the good and the evil. It is a joy to the former, "but destruction [or, 'terror'] to them that work iniquity." Et pavor operantibus iniquitatem, Vulgate. They cannot trust themselves to do rightly without fear; they cannot commit the result to God, as the righteous do; if ever they do act uprightly, it is against their inclination, and such action will, as they fear, bring them to ruin. Septuagint, "It is the joy of the righteous to do judgment; but a holy man is abominable ( ἀκάθαρτος ) among evil doers." So Wis. 2:15, "He [the rightous] is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men's, his ways are of another fashion … he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness ( ἀκαθαρσιῶν )."