The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them,.... From death, as in Proverbs 11:4; and from falling by sin, totally and finally; or into it, so as to perish eternally; as well as it shall deliver those out of Babylon, who are the Lord's people, that will be found therein when that is about to fall; see Revelation 18:4;
but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness; in the very act of sin, and be punished for it; taken in it as in a net, and which they have spread for others, or as in a pit, which they have dug for others; taken as wild beasts are taken, to be destroyed; and that in the very midst of their wickedness, when fighting against God and the Lamb, as the beast and false prophet will, Revelation 19:20.

deliver them--that is, from evil, which the wicked suffer by their own doings (Proverbs 5:22; Psalm 9:16).

6 The rectitude of the upright saveth them,
And in their own covetousness are the faithless taken.
The integrity of those who go straight forward and straight through, without permitting themselves to turn aside on crooked ways, delivers them from the snares which are laid for them, the dangers they encounter; while, on the contrary, the faithless, though they mask their intentions ever so cunningly, are ensnared in their passionate covetousness: the mask is removed, they are convicted, and are caught and lost. Regarding הוּה, abyss, overthrow, also stumbling against anything = covetousness, vid., at Proverbs 10:3, and under Psalm 5:10. The form of the expression 6b follows the scheme, "in the image of God created He man," Genesis 9:6. The subject is to be taken from the genitive, as is marked by the accentuation, for it gives Mugrash to the וּבהוּת, as if it were the principal form, for וּבהוּה.