Proverbs 21:12

God overthroweth The difficulty of this proverb lies in the elliptical character of the second clause, which leaves a subject of necessity to be supplied. The A.V. makes man the subject of the first clause, and God of the second. But it is better to render, either with R.V. text:

The righteous man considereth the house of the wicked;

How the wicked are overthrown to their ruin;

or with Ewald and others, and R.V. marg., taking the Righteous One in the first clause to be God (Job 34:17), and retaining the same subject throughout.

One that is righteous considereth the house of the wicked;

He overthroweth the wicked to their ruin.

Both LXX. and Vulg., though differing from one another and from our present Heb. text, make "the righteous" the subject of both clauses.