“No ill befalls the righteous”: “Ill” translates a word in this context meaning “harm,” “injury,” or “misfortune.” The form of the verb rendered “befalls” means “allows or permits to happen.” In some translations this is expressed as “comes to” or “happens to.” The unnamed subject is the Lord. “The righteous”, as generally in Proverbs, refers to good people in contrast to the wicked.

“But the wicked are filled with trouble”: “Filled with trouble”, as used here, means these people “have nothing but trouble” (Good News Translation) or “always have trouble.” This is sometimes rendered “they get trouble all the time.” “Trouble” refers to misery, affliction, or misfortune and is clearly parallel to “ill” in line 1.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .