Bible Strands
Proverbs 21:15
Justice executed is a joy to the righteous, but a terror to the workers of iniquity.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The wisdom author positions this observation between a warning against secret bribery (21:14) and a declaration about straying from understanding (21:16), addressing readers making moral choices.
The words — מִשׁפָּט (mishpat) = justice, set against אָוֶן ('aven) = wickedness, establishes the verse’s structural and thematic contrast.
The thread — The justice-iniquity dichotomy runs through Proverbs 10:29, which contrasts refuge for the upright with destruction for the evil, and Matthew 7:23, which condemns “workers of lawlessness.”
Why it lands — The text states that righteous conduct produces stability while iniquity produces ruin, requiring readers to abandon secret compromise and align with justice.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 10:29 The way of the LORD is a refuge to the upright, but destruction awaits those who do evil.
- Matthew 7:23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’
- Ecclesiastes 3:12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and do good while they live,
- Isaiah 64:5 You welcome those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. Surely You were angry, for we sinned. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins?
- Job 29:12 because I rescued the poor who cried out and the fatherless who had no helper.
- Psalms 40:8 I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”
- Matthew 13:41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom every cause of sin and all who practice lawlessness.
- Psalms 112:1 Hallelujah! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in His commandments.
- Psalms 119:16 I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.
- Proverbs 5:20 Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?