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Hezekiah's Collection
Proverbs › Chapter 29 › Proverbs 29:27

What Does Proverbs 29:27 Mean?

An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous,And he who is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked.Proverbs 29:27 · NKJV

Closes the chapter and Collection V.

Quick answer

The revulsion runs both ways. The book's largest collection ends by saying the two kinds of people cannot stand each other, and it says it symmetrically.

Read both lines

The symmetry is the craft, and it is deliberate. תּוֹעֲבָה sits at the head of both halves, the strongest word this book has, and the second line simply reverses the subjects. The righteous find the unjust detestable; the wicked find the upright equally so.

That second half is the one worth sitting with, because it is easy to assume the reaction only runs one direction. An upright life is not neutral to the people it stands beside; it is an accusation, and they experience it as one, which is what 29:10 said at the top of this chapter when the bloodthirsty hated the blameless for no cause at all.

Ending 138 verses of Hezekiah's collection here is a strange choice until you notice what it does. The book has spent five chapters on rulers, poverty, justice, correction and speech, and it closes by saying the division underneath all of it is not going to be negotiated away. That is not despair. It is the reason the instruction was necessary.

Related: Proverbs 29:10 · Proverbs 28:4 · Proverbs 11:20 · Proverbs 15:9

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.