righteous, righteousness

The Greek, Hebrew, and Latin terms that are translated in English mostly as “righteous” as an adjective or personified noun or “righteousness” (also as “upright(ness)” and “just(ice)”) are most commonly expressed with concept of “straightness,” though this may be expressed in a number of ways. (Click or tap here to see the details)

Following is a list of (back-) translations of various languages:

  • Bambara, Southern Bobo Madaré, Chokwe (ululi), Amganad Ifugao, Chol, Eastern Maninkakan, Toraja-Sa’dan, Pamona, Batak Toba, Bilua, Tiv: “be straight”
  • Laka: “follow the straight way” or “to straight-straight” (a reduplicated form for emphasis)
  • Sayula Popoluca: “walk straight”
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl, Kekchí, Muna: “have a straight heart”
  • Kipsigis: “do the truth”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “do according to the truth”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “have truth”
  • Yine: “fulfill what one should do”
  • Indonesian: “be true”
  • Navajo (Dinė): “do just so”
  • Anuak: “do as it should be”
  • Mossi: “have a white stomach” (see also happiness / joy)
  • Paasaal: “white heart” (source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
  • (San Mateo del Mar Huave: “completely good” (the translation does not imply sinless perfection)
  • Nuer: “way of right” (“there is a complex concept of “right” vs. ‘left’ in Nuer where ‘right’ indicates that which is masculine, strong, good, and moral, and ‘left’ denotes what is feminine, weak, and sinful (a strictly masculine viewpoint!) The ‘way of right’ is therefore righteousness, but of course women may also attain this way, for the opposition is more classificatory than descriptive.”) (This and all above from Bratcher / Nida except for Bilua: Carl Gross; Tiv: Rob Koops; Muna: René van den Berg)
  • Central Subanen: “wise-good” (source: Robert Brichoux in OPTAT 1988/2, p. 80ff. )
  • Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac: “live well”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “goodness before the face of God” (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl: “the result of heart-straightening” (source: Nida 1947, p. 224)
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “entirely good” (when referred to God), “do good” or “not be a debtor as God sees one” (when referred to people)
  • Carib: “level”
  • Tzotzil: “straight-hearted”
  • Ojitlán Chinantec: “right and straight”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “walk straight” (source for this and four previous: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22)
  • Makonde: “doing what God wants” (in a context of us doing) and “be good in God’s eyes” (in the context of being made righteous by God) (note that justify / justification is translated as “to be made good in the eyes of God.” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Aari: The Pauline word for “righteous” is generally rendered by “makes one without sin” in the Aari, sometimes “before God” is added for clarity. (Source: Loren Bliese)
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “having sin taken away” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 144)
  • Nyamwezi: wa lole: “just” or “someone who follows the law of God” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Venda: “nothing wrong, OK” (Source: J.A. van Roy in The Bible Translator 1972, p. 418ff. )
  • Ekari: maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (the same word that is also used for “truth“; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
  • Guhu-Samane: pobi or “right” (also: “right (side),” “(legal) right,” “straightness,” “correction,” “south,” “possession,” “pertinence,” “kingdom,” “fame,” “information,” or “speech” — “According to [Guhu-Samane] thinking there is a common core of meaning among all these glosses. Even from an English point of view the first five can be seen to be closely related, simply because of their similarity in English. However, from that point the nuances of meaning are not so apparent. They relate in some such a fashion as this: As one faces the morning sun, south lies to the right hand (as north lies to the left); then at one’s right hand are his possessions and whatever pertains to him; thus, a rich man’s many possessions and scope of power and influence is his kingdom; so, the rich and other important people encounter fame; and all of this spreads as information and forms most of the framework of the people’s speech.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in Notes on Translation 1964, p. 11ff.)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Gerechtheit, a neologism to differentiate it from the commonly-used Gerechtigkeit which can mean “righteousness” but is more often used in modern German as “fairness” (Berger / Nord especially use Gerechtheit in Letter to the Romans) or Gerechtestun, also a neologism, meaning “righteous deeds” (especially in Letter to the Ephesians)
  • “did what he should” (Eastern Highland Otomi)
  • “a clear man, good [man]” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004)

See also respectable, righteous, righteous (person), devout, and She is more in the right(eous) than I.

Translation commentary on Proverbs 21:12

The authors of this Handbook believe that the subject of this saying is God himself. The theme is that God knows about the evil that people do and brings evildoers to their ruin. With God as the subject, there is a natural progression in thought from the first line to the second.

“The righteous observes the house of the wicked”: “The righteous” (one) is taken by New Revised Standard Version (“the Righteous One”) and most other versions to refer to God, although it could refer to a righteous human person. As Kidner says, the verse “yields sense most easily if we take this Righteous One to be God.” Translators can make this perfectly clear by following Good News Translation, “God, the righteous one,” or saying something like “The Lord always does what is right; he knows. . ..” The verb “observes” means more than just to look at something; it is the same verb rendered “is instructed” in verse 11 and has the sense of “considers” or “takes note of” (New International Version). Good News Translation gets the sense well with “knows what goes on,” as does Contemporary English Version “knows what the wicked do.” “The house of the wicked” may mean that God sees what goes on inside the house, away from what other people see; Good News Translation expresses this thought with “in the homes of the wicked,” while others say “knows everything the wicked do inside their houses.” But, as it often does in the Old Testament, the expression may refer to all the people in a household; so Revised English Bible refers to “the wicked household.”

“The wicked are cast down to ruin”: After identifying God as the subject of the previous line, New Revised Standard Version revises this line to say “he casts the wicked down to ruin”; and most other versions do something similar. The sense of the verb “cast down” is “turn upside down” or “bring to ruin.” The final term “ruin” is a common Hebrew word meaning “evil,” “distress,” “adversity,” or “injury” (see “evil” in 1.33). Most versions say “. . . to [their] ruin,” but some combine this term with the verb and say “he will destroy them” or “will punish them” (Contemporary English Version).

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 .

complete verse (Proverbs 21:12)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 21:12:

  • Kupsabiny: “God knows how/where a sinner is,
    and (he) is able to destroy that sinner.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “God, who is most righteous,
    knows all about what goes on
    in the house of the wicked,
    He brings them to ruin.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The righteous God knows what the household of the wicked are-doing, and he will-punish them.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “God is just/righteous. He knows what sinners are doing and he will punish them.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • English: “God, the one who is completely righteous, knows what happens inside the houses of wicked people,
    and he will cause those people to be completely ruined/destroyed.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Honorary "are" construct denoting God (“lead/guide”)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, michibik-are-ru (導かれる) or “lead/guide” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 21:12

21:12

In this proverb, the first line describes the careful evaluation of a wicked person’s household. The second line describes the resulting punishment.

12a The Righteous One considers the house of the wicked

12b and brings the wicked to ruin.

21:12a

The Righteous One: There are two ways to interpret the Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as The Righteous One :

(1) It refers to the LORD, who is righteous. For example:

God, the righteous one (Good News Translation)

(2) It refers to a person who is righteous. For example:

A righteous person (God’s Word)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), along with most versions and scholars. The Righteous One does not occur elsewhere in Proverbs as a title for the LORD. However, his role in judging the wicked is mentioned in a number of verses. No verses say that righteous people observe the households of the wicked in order to bring them to ruin.

Righteous: In the context of judging the wicked, the word Righteous indicates that the LORD always acts in a way that is right and just.

In some languages, it may be necessary to translate the phrase “The Righteous One” as a separate sentence. For example:

The Lord always does what is right.
-or-
God is always fair! (Contemporary English Version)

considers the house of the wicked: In Hebrew, this phrase indicates that the LORD carefully observes, watches, or evaluates the household of a wicked person. The phrase probably refers to the household or family as a whole, including the wicked person. Some other ways to translate this phrase are:

knows what is going on in the homes of the wicked (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
carefully observes the actions of a wicked family
-or-
He knows what the wicked do (Contemporary English Version)

21:12b

and brings the wicked to ruin: In Hebrew, this phrase is literally “and twists/overturns wicked (people) to calamity/distress.” In this context, it implies that the LORD changes the direction of wicked people’s lives so that they experience disaster instead of prosperity. Some other ways to translate this phrase are:

he will bring disaster on them (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
and will punish them (Contemporary English Version)

© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.