Pay attention to where you land.

Proverbs 11:31 Pay attention! If the righteous receive what is coming to them on earth, how much more (is this so for) the ungodly and the sinner! {Synthetic Version = a vernacular blend of 17 English language translations.}

Here is an example of a poor translation that only gets worse.  How in the world did anyone get the idea that the “ungodly and sinner” get what is coming to them on this earth? 

As a translator, the difficulty one faces is trying to make sure that the sense of what has been stated in another language is truly reflected in the new tongue.  ß Take a look at what I’ve just written and imagine that a translator into some other language focused on the word “tongue” from a technical perspective, the physical human tongue.  If that imaginary translator ignored the idea of “tongue” as meaning “language,” and shifted the meaning toward the tongue in someone’s mouth, the meaning would be skewed.  When the translators of 16 out of 17 of the versions polled for the verse in Proverbs (ironically, the New Living Translation was the closest to a correct translation…) chose to use the word “earth” for the Hebrew aretz, they ignored the falseness of the ultimate outcome of the verse’s meaning. 

Again, how on earth did anyone get the idea that the “ungodly and sinner” get what is coming to them on this earth?  There are millions of “ungodlies” and “sinners” that do not get what is coming to them on this earth.  In some ways, we as believers in Jesus Christ are forbidden from helping them GET what is coming to them…(Romans 12:19).  In some ways, we as believers in Jesus Christ are continually thankful that we do not always get what is coming to us on this earth.  (I am, of course, not taking a calvinist perspective where they postulate that no one actually ever does anything on earth but are robotically controlled by God to be totally ok or totally evil.  This idea is evolutionary and precludes any capacity for “humans” to deserve any recompense for their actions – especially since their actions just happen or were pre-programmed from before creation).

So, let’s rewrite the verse with the proper word for “earth.”

If the righteous receive what is coming to them in the land, how much more (is this so for) the ungodly and the sinner!

Now we have an opportunity to get at the meaning of the author by evaluating the poetry he is using.  When we consider that he is a Hebrew, then we can cast about for parallel verses that will help explain what he is saying.  There certainly are many that are excellent candidates.  My personal favorite is Ezekiel 26:20:

Then will I bring thee down

with them that descend into the pit,

to the people of old time,

and will make thee to dwell

in the nether parts of the earth,

in the places that are desolate of old,

with them that go down to the pit,

that thou be not inhabited;

and I will set glory

in the land of the living:

Obviously, there are two lands that stand in opposition to one another.  The land of the living where there is glory and everything that goes with the Glorious One. This land is not described.  The land of the dead is inhabited by its proper citizens, the twice dead.  They are twice dead because they were dead in their trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1-3) but refused to be delivered by Jesus Christ from that condition after he joined them in that land (Isaiah 53:12, Mark 15:28) to lead them forth to the Glorious One in the Glorious Land. By the way, His deliverance came AFTER the cross…not before old creation.  No doubt the idea that the author was trying to get at was that the repayment mentioned in Romans 12:19 would be final and appropriate. 

There is one place where any weary traveler on this earth who wishes to enter the rest that is promised in that Glorious Land may come.  Jesus Christ has made a way home through His death on the cross.

Come to the cross.