The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.
See here, 1. What continual frights those are subject to that go on in wicked ways. Guilt in the conscience makes men a terror to themselves, so that they are ready to flee when none pursues; like one that absconds for debt, who thinks every one he meets a bailiff.
The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion. (a) Because their own conscience accuses them.
Pro 28:1 1 The godless flee without any one pursuing them; But the righteous are bold like a lion. We would misinterpret the sequence of the accents if we supposed that it denoted רשׁע as obj.; it by no means takes ואין־רדף as a parenthesis. רשׁע belongs thus to נסוּ as collective sing. (cf. e.g., Isa 16:4); in 1b, יבטח, as comprehensive or distributive (individualizing) singular, follows the plur. subject.