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In pop culture

about 2 min read

The Shawshank Redemption — "His judgment cometh and that right soon"

Invented Film 1994

The phrase is a literary pastiche in the style of KJV English. It does not appear verbatim in any standard translation.

Context — what the work shows

Warden Norton inscribes "His judgment cometh and that right soon" inside Andy's Bible. The Bible itself is the hiding place for the rock hammer.

Claimed reference

"His judgment cometh and that right soon" — presented as scriptural.

Actual reference

No standard English Bible contains this exact phrase. The nearest themes appear in Ecclesiastes 12:14, Romans 14:10, and Revelation 22:12.

What the text actually says

Ecclesiastes 12:14 (BSB): "For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." Revelation 22:12: "Behold, I am coming soon, and My reward is with Me, to give to each one according to what he has done." Both touch the theme, neither matches Norton's phrasing.

Verdict

"His judgment cometh and that right soon" reads as scripture but is not scripture. It is a period-appropriate pastiche — KJV-adjacent cadence with no underlying verse. The film uses it ironically: the corrupt warden quotes judgment-language while hiding evidence of his own crimes.

Why it sounds biblical

The phrase deploys several markers of KJV English: the present tense “cometh,” the adverbial “right soon,” the gendered third-person pronoun for divine action. These cues are enough to make most listeners hear the line as scripture without checking.

The actual judgment-soon language

The Bible does contain language about judgment arriving soon. The closest analogues:

  • Revelation 22:12 — “Behold, I am coming soon, and My reward is with Me, to give to each one according to what he has done.” (BSB)
  • Ecclesiastes 12:14 — “For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”
  • 2 Peter 2:3 — “Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.”

None of these contains Norton’s exact phrasing. The Shawshank line is constructed in the register of these verses, not drawn from any one of them.

The narrative role

The film places the inscription inside Andy’s Bible — the same Bible whose hollowed pages hide the rock hammer. Norton has written judgment-rhetoric onto the surface of an object whose interior is being used to dismantle his prison. The textual irony depends on the audience hearing the inscription as authoritative; whether it actually appears in the Bible is beside the film’s point. For our purposes, however, the textual claim is the question — and the answer is that it does not.