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The honesty of the upright guides them;
    the faithless are ruined by their duplicity.
Wealth is useless on a day of wrath,[a](A)
    but justice saves from death.
The justice of the honest makes their way straight,
    but by their wickedness the wicked fall.[b](B)

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Footnotes

  1. 11:4 Cf. note on 10:2. A day of wrath is an unforeseen disaster (even death). Only one’s relationship to God, which makes one righteous, is of any help on such a day.
  2. 11:5 In Hebrew as in English, “way” means the course of one’s life; similarly, “straight” and “crooked” are metaphors for morally straightforward and for bad, deviant, perverted.

The integrity of the upright guides them,
    but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.(A)

Wealth(B) is worthless in the day of wrath,(C)
    but righteousness delivers from death.(D)

The righteousness of the blameless makes their paths straight,(E)
    but the wicked are brought down by their own wickedness.(F)

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