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Proverbs of Solomon
Proverbs › Chapter 10 › Proverbs 10:30

What Does Proverbs 10:30 Mean?

The righteous will never be removed,But the wicked will not inhabit the earth.Proverbs 10:30 · NKJV

Quick answer

The righteous are permanent; the wicked have no lasting tenancy. A rootedness proverb, spoken in the long tense of God's government, not the short tense of tomorrow's news.

Read both lines

"Never be removed" is the language of something anchored, a planted tree, a foundation stone: the righteous belong to the world God is keeping, so their permanence is settled even when their circumstances are anything but. The wicked "will not inhabit the earth," however much ground they currently hold: occupation is not inheritance. Read in the short tense, the proverb is falsifiable by any morning's headlines. Read in the tense it was written in, the long tense of Psalm 37, it holds: "yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more" (Psalm 37:10), and Jesus set that psalm's thesis in the Beatitudes: the meek inherit the earth. Judge tenancy by the end of the lease, not the middle.

Related: Psalm 37:9–11 · Matthew 5:5 · Proverbs 2:21–22

New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.

Go Deeper

If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.