Proverbschapter 14
35 verses · BSBProverbs book hub →
Speaks with:Proverbs 12×8Proverbs 19×5Proverbs 14×4Proverbs 28×3Proverbs 13×3Proverbs 22×3
Summary
Chapter summary
'Every wise woman buildeth her house; but the foolish plucketh it down with her own hands.' There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, 'but the end thereof are the ways of death' (14:12, repeated at 16:25). The heart knoweth its own bitterness. 'The fear of Jehovah is a fountain of life.' He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker, 'but he that hath mercy on the needy honoreth him.' 'Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people.'
Context
Poetry · Solomon, Agur, Lemuel — Proverbs overview
- A. 1–18 The Wise Woman Builds; a Way That Seemeth Right Ends in Death
- B. 19–35 Righteousness Exalteth a Nation
The outline
A.The Wise Woman Builds; a Way That Seemeth Right Ends in Deathvv. 1 to 18
Read vv. 1 to 18 →B.Righteousness Exalteth a Nationvv. 19 to 35
Read vv. 19 to 35 →
The world behind this chapter
Proverbs 14The history
"Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox" is the sharpest farming line in the book. A clean stall means no animal to feed, no dung to shovel, and no crop worth speaking of, because one man with a hoe could not break the ground a yoke of oxen could. The proverb prices the mess against the harvest.
The witness sayings assume the Israelite court. Cases were heard in the open at the gate before the elders, two witnesses were needed to convict, and there was no police force gathering evidence — the whole system stood or fell on people telling the truth in front of neighbours. A false witness in a capital case could get a man stoned, and the Law ordered that the liar receive the penalty he had tried to inflict.
"In the multitude of people is the king's honour: but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince." Ancient kings measured themselves in population, because people meant soldiers, labourers, and taxes. A depopulated province was a defeated one, whatever the palace looked like.
"Every wise woman buildeth her house" uses "house" the way Israel usually did — the household and its line, not the walls. A woman who managed the stores, the weaving, the children, and the standing of the family in town was literally building it.
What it meant to them
"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" was aimed at hearers who trusted their own read on a situation. The proverb does not say the way looks wicked; it says it looks right.
And the chapter grounds public policy in the same soil: "he that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker." How a town treated its poorest was treated as a statement about God, not about economics.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Proverbs 14. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.