The thought in this saying is similar to that in 11.20, although the Lord is not mentioned here. This saying affirms that good and wicked people do not like each other.

“An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous”: “An unjust man” refers to an evil, wicked person. For “abomination” see the comments on 3.32. Translators may find it is necessary to restructure this line to say, for example, “Good people hate the wicked” or “People who are honest do not like evil people.”

“But he whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked”: “He whose way is straight” is literally “the upright of way,” meaning “those whose way of living is upright.” For “upright” see 2.7. This line reverses the order of the first. Here the wicked people hate the good ones. See Good News Translation for a simple model for the whole verse. Contemporary English Version reduces the two lines to “Good people and criminals can’t stand each other.”

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 .