Ills Befall the Righteous – Proverbs 12:21

On September 11, 2001, four commercial airliners were hijacked, two of which were flown into the twin towers in New York, one of which was flown into the Pentagon in Washington, and one of which was presumed to be intended for the White House but was retaken by passengers and flown into the ground.  In all, just short of 3,000 people were killed.  Were they all unrighteous people?  Of course not!  Many were believers in Christ.  How does that fit with this proverb?

No ill befalls the righteous,

but the wicked are filled with trouble. (Proverbs 12:21, ESV)

This is manifestly false as stated.  We have three options for dealing with this proverb:

• Decide that Scripture is not inerrant and therefore there is no issue.  The author of this “scripture” made a mistake.  But this would contradict what the Scriptures themselves say about Scripture.  And it would mean that Solomon and whoever was the originator of this proverb were blind and stupid not to recognize how patently false this is as an absolute statement.  That seems highly improbable.  Solomon saw how his father endured many ills and his father, David, was righteous.  The psalmist wrote, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous” (Psalm 34:19).

• Interpret the word “ill” and “befalls” to mean:
  • “Ill” from sin, that is, no evil will come from my sin because God will be weakening the power of sin in me and at times even prevent me from falling into sin and certainly prevent it from overwhelming me; or
  • No punishment will come from God’s hand against my sin because Jesus has taken all my punishment; or
  • Afflictions won’t just “befall” me or happen outside the will of God but will be directed by Him against me and for the purpose of working something good in my life
  • Realize that proverbs are not meant to be absolute statements, but general truths that definitely have exceptions.

For me, this latter explanation seems the most reasonable.  We see in Proverbs itself several sides of the coin being presented on several subjects.  Poverty won’t befall the diligent person (Proverbs 13:18, and others) UNLESS there is oppression from someone more powerful than me (Proverbs 22:16).  Words have tremendous power to heal or wound (Proverbs 16:24) UNLESS they end up being useless and ineffective (Proverbs 17:27).  Don’t address a fool according to his folly UNLESS it makes sense to address a fool according to his folly (Proverbs 26:4,5).

This proverb is telling us that generally speaking, in a world ruled by the holy God and as a consequence of doing what is right and healthy, ills won’t befall the righteous.  Yes, we’ll have people dear to us die, or oppression by others, or personal sickness, but the consequences of wrong living won’t lead to repeated trouble as it will in the lives of the wicked.  If we keep letting sin into our lives it will multiply negatives.  Why live that way?