Strength in Trouble
Do not fret over evildoers, and do not be envious of the wicked. Proverbs 24:19 · Berean Standard Bible
Don't sit around stressed about what evildoers are doing, and don't let envy of the wicked eat at you. It's a waste of your emotional energy.
You see wicked people seeming to prosper, and it's easy to become consumed with worry or bitterness about the unfairness. The teacher is saying: let that go. It's poison to you.
Solomon, returning to a theme he opened with—the temptation to envy the wicked.
This appears throughout the Psalms—where the psalmist wrestles with this same frustration and resolves it by remembering God's ultimate judgment. It's also central to the book of Job.
Do not become anxious about evildoers' apparent success, and do not develop envious desire for the wicked's prosperity.
The Hebrew hitragez (to be heated, agitated, troubled) and qin'âh (jealous desire, consuming passion) return to the chapter's opening concern: the psychological danger of comparison. The wisdom tradition recognizes that fixation on others' transgressive prosperity corrupts one's own character through envy. The imperative represents not mere external prohibition but psychological reorientation — a radical reframing of what constitutes genuine success.
The wisdom teacher, reinforcing Chapter 24's central preoccupation through repetition and variation — a classical pedagogical technique.
This echoes Psalm 37's extended meditation on the problem of the wicked's apparent triumph, establishing a biblical tradition that finds resolution not in this-worldly vindication but in reoriented trust in God's ultimate justice.
17Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,
18or the LORD will see and disapprove, and turn His wrath away from him.
19Do not fret over evildoers, and do not be envious of the wicked.
20For the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished.
21My son, fear the LORD and the king, and do not associate with the rebellious.
Read all of Proverbs 24 — If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength. Wisdom builds a house; by understanding it is established.
This page covers one. BibleKey does all 31,102 — tap any verse for its meaning, any word for its Hebrew or Greek root, and keep reading without leaving the chapter.
NIV, NLT, NKJV, KJV and the Berean — plus the Catholic NLT-CE and Douay-Rheims, with the full deuterocanon in the reading order.
Tap any of the 31,102 for what it means, and any word for its Hebrew or Greek root, without leaving the chapter.
Start recording at church and put your phone away. You get the transcript, the key moments, and every verse referenced.
Say what's sitting on your heart and hear it back as a real prayer, in a warm voice. Keep the ones that land.
The whole Bible in a year — five chapters a day, five days a week, weekends off. Built to be finished.
A verse each morning with its meaning, how it lands today, something to sit with, and a prayer to close it.
Not just the famous ones. BibleKey is free on iPhone and iPad.
Download on the App StoreFree on iPhone & iPad