pagar justos por pecadores: meaning & examples

Meanings:

• 1.

  SpainLatin Americaneutral
  • Literal gloss: to make the righteous pay for the sinners.

  Examples

  Beta

  • El refrán dice que no se debe pagar justos por pecadores, para evitar injusticias en la sociedad.

    The saying goes that the righteous should not pay for the sinners, to avoid injustices in society.

  • En el juicio, el juez recordó que no se puede pagar justos por pecadores y evaluó cada caso individualmente.

    In the trial, the judge reminded that innocent people should not be punished for the guilty and evaluated each case individually.

  • El maestro explicó que en la escuela no se debe pagar justos por pecadores y que cada alumno es responsable de sus actos.

    The teacher explained that in school, the innocent shouldn't pay for the guilty and that each student is responsible for their actions.

  • Durante la reunión, insistieron en que no era correcto pagar justos por pecadores en la asignación de sanciones.

    During the meeting, they insisted that it was not right to punish the innocent along with the guilty in assigning sanctions.

• 2.

  SpainLatin Americaneutralproverbial
  • To punish, penalize, or hold accountable innocent people along with the guilty; to treat an entire group as responsible for the actions of some members.

  Examples

  Beta

  • No es justo que los trabajadores paguen justos por pecadores por los errores de unos pocos directivos.

    It's not fair that the workers suffer for the mistakes of a few executives.

  • Cuando un grupo comete un error, a veces pagan justos por pecadores quienes no tuvieron nada que ver.

    When a group makes a mistake, sometimes innocent people who had nothing to do with it suffer the consequences.

  • El sindicato protestó porque no querían que la plantilla pagara justos por pecadores tras la mala gestión.

    The union protested because they didn't want the staff to be punished for the mismanagement.