Proverbs - 18:3



3 When wickedness comes, contempt also comes, and with shame comes disgrace.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Proverbs 18:3.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
When the wicked cometh, then cometh also contempt, and with ignominy reproach.
When the wicked cometh, there cometh also contempt, And with ignominy cometh reproach.
The wicked man when he is come into the depth of sins, contemneth: but ignominy and reproach follow him.
With the coming of the wicked come also hath contempt, And with shame, reproach.
When the wicked comes, then comes also contempt, and with ignominy reproach.
When the evil-doer comes, a low opinion comes with him, and with the loss of honour comes shame.
The impious, when he has arrived within the depths of sin, thinks little of it. But ill repute and disgrace follow him.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

With ignominy - Better, "together with baseness comes reproach." The outer shame follows close upon the inner.

When the wicked cometh, etc. - would it not be better to read this verse thus? "When the wicked cometh contempt cometh; and with ignominy cometh reproach." A wicked man is despised even by the wicked. He who falls under ignominy falls under reproach.

When the wicked cometh, [then] cometh also (c) contempt, and with ignominy reproach.
(c) Meaning, such a one as condemns all others.

When the wicked cometh, then cometh also contempt,.... When he comes into the world, as Aben Ezra; as soon as he is born, he is liable to contempt, being born in sin; but this is true of all: rather, as the Vulgate Latin, and with which the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions agree, when he cometh into the depth of sin, or to the height of his wickedness; he commences a scoffer at, and condemner of all that is good: when he comes into the house of God, it may be said, "there comes contempt"; for he comes not to hear the word, in order to receive any profit by it, but to contemn it, and the ministers of it;
and with ignominy reproach: or, "with the ignominious man reproach" (l): he that despises all that is good, and treats divine things in a ludicrous way, will not spare to reproach the best of men, and speak evil of them falsely, for the sake of religion. Or the meaning of the whole is, that wicked men, sooner or later, come into contempt, ignominy, and reproach, themselves; they that despise the Lord are lightly esteemed by him; and a vile person is contemned in the eyes of a good man: such bring shame and disgrace upon themselves and families while they live; and, when they die, they are laid in the grave with dishonour; an infamy rests upon their memories, and they wilt rise to everlasting shame and contempt.
(l) "viro ignominioso, venit opprobriunu", Pagninus; "cum ignominioso probrum", Junis & Tremeilius; "cum probroso opprobrium", Schultens, so Vatablus, Mercerus, Gejerus.

As soon as sin entered, shame followed.

So surely are sin and punishment connected (Proverbs 16:4).
wicked, for "wickedness," answers to
ignominy, or the state of such; and
contempt, the feeling of others to them; and to
reproach, a manifestation of contempt.

The group beginning with Proverbs 18:3 terminates in two proverbs (Proverbs 18:6 and Proverbs 18:7), related to the concluding verse of the foregoing:
3 If a godless man cometh, then cometh also contempt;
And together with disgrace, shame.
J. D. Michaelis, and the most of modern critics, read רשׁע; then, contempt etc., are to be thought of as the consequences that follow godlessness; for that קלון means (Hitzig) disgracefulness, i.e., disgraceful conduct, is destitute of proof; קלון always means disgrace as an experience. But not only does the Masoretic text punctuate רשׁע, but also all the old translators, the Greek, Aramaic, and Latin, have done so. And is it on this account, because a coming naturally seems to be spoken of a person? The "pride cometh, then cometh shame," Proverbs 11:2, was in their recollection not less firmly, perhaps, than in ours. They read רשׁע, because בוּז does not fittingly designate the first of that which godlessness effects, but perhaps the first of that which proceeds from it. Therefore we adhere to the opinion, that the proverb names the fiends which appear in the company of the godless wherever he goes, viz., first בוז, contempt (Psalm 31:19), which places itself haughtily above all due subordination, and reverence, and forbearance; and then, with the disgrace [turpitudo], קלון, which attaches itself to those who meddle with him (Isaiah 22:18), there is united the shame, הרפּה (Psalm 39:9), which he has to suffer from him who has only always expected something better from him. Fleischer understands all the three words in the passive sense, and remarks, "עם־קלון חרפה, a more artificial expression for קלון וחרפה, in the Turkish quite common for the copula wāw, e.g., swylh ṭbrâk, earth and water, 'wrtylh âr, the man and the woman." But then the expression would be tautological; we understand בוז and חרפה of that which the godless does to others by his words, and קלון of that which he does to them by his conduct. By this interpretation, עם is more than the representative of the copula.

Cometh - Into any place or company. Contempt - He despiseth all instruction and reproof. Reproach - And he shews his contempt by ignominious and reproachful expressions.

*More commentary available at chapter level.


Discussion on Proverbs 18:3

User discussion of the verse.






*By clicking Submit, you agree to our Privacy Policy & Terms of Use.