³¹Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways. ³²For the devious are an abomination to the Lord; but He is intimate with the upright. ³³The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the dwelling of the righteous. ³⁴Though He scoffs at the scoffers, yet He gives grace to the afflicted. ³⁵The wise will inherit honor, but fools display dishonor.

Critical to godly wisdom is the avoidance of association with those who are violent, devious, wicked, scoffers, and fools. This contrast carries on through the book of Proverbs, usually presented in the form of Hebrew anti-thetical parallelism, which is a common literary form seen throughout chapters 10 through 29. Most readers readily recognize the frequency of verse couplets, where two lines go together in parallel to convey a single truth. It is helpful to carefully distinguish these forms in our desire to understand the wisdom of Proverbs.

Bible scholars describe the various forms of parallelism. Five of the most frequent (as listed by the Expositor’s Bible Commentary) are the following:

In synthetic parallelism, which we find in verse 31, the second line amplifies the first in some way. Envy leads to imitation, so in either case, we should avoid the inner desire both to be like violent people and to act in the same way as violent people. Of course, violence can be physical or emotional, as in bullying or throwing one’s power and authority around to vindictively control or punish others. Wisdom teaches us not to do this. This will be fleshed out through the book of Proverbs, but is here stated as a general principle.

Antithetical parallelism, which we see in verses 32-35, has the second line contrasting with the first. This is the most common type of parallelism in the book. In our passage, we see God’s attitude toward people who intentionally manipulate the truth (“devious”) and His perspective on those who live upright lives. In the first case, God sees an abomination, but with the second He has an intimate relationship. The tipoff to identifying an antithetical parallelism is the presence of the word “but.”

Synonymous parallelism expresses one idea in parallel but slightly different expressions: “The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered” (Prov. 11:25).

Emblematic parallelism uses a figurative illustration as one of the parallel units: “Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy one to those who send him” (Prov. 10:26).

Formal parallelism has the second line simply completing the idea begun in the first; an example is: “Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established” (Prov. 16:3).

Back to our passage, God’s attitude will turn to action, as He will curse the wicked but bless the righteous (represented by their dwelling place). He brings talionic justice (that is, the effect is inherently well suited to the cause) by responding to scoffers with scoffing (see Psalm 2) but gracing the afflicted with undeserved favor. Finally, the general principle is laid out in contrast: wisdom will result in honor, but foolishness will produce dishonor.

Lord, in seeing these contrasts, I am reminded to make wise choices at the most fundamental level. Help me see clearly these issues of life, that I might avoid all that is unwise.