Proverbschapter 14
35 verses · Solomon and others · 10th to 5th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
A tranquil heart is life to the body, but envy rots the bones.
Introduction
Solomon and others, Wisdom and poetry, Proverbs Overview.
This chapter continues the first collection of sayings in Proverbs, headed as the proverbs of Solomon. Its hearers were householders, witnesses at the gate and men who had dealings with those in power. The sayings pass from the farmyard to the courtroom to the king's hall. Listen for how often the chapter contrasts the wise and the foolish, and for the warning about a way that looks right. Notice the sayings that link how the poor are treated with honour shown to God. Read it as teaching about judgment, the kind that sees past appearances in the home, the field and the court.
Context
- Who
- Householders, witnesses, and men who dealt with those in authority
- What
- A collection of two-line sayings contrasting wise and foolish people, true and false witnesses, and the ways that seem right with the ways that lead to life.
- Where
- The farmyard, the court at the city gate and the hall of the king.
- When
- The reign of Solomon, about 970 to 931 BC, by the heading at Proverbs 10:1; the collection was copied and arranged later, as Proverbs 25:1 shows for a second one.
- Why
- To train a reader to judge rightly beneath appearances and to show that the fear of the LORD and kindness to the poor are the ground of a secure life.
Historical context
"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.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
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.
Significance
"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.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
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.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
No part of this chapter is read in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for Proverbs, and no festival reading.
The corpus joins the chapter to five weekly portions. Under the tenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor 4:1, and under the thirty-first Midrash Tanchuma, Behar 2:1. Through Bereshit Rabbati it carries Parashat Miketz 30 and Parashat Vayigash 20 under the seventh verse, and Parashat Toldot 6 under the eighteenth. Emor, Behar, Miketz, Vayigash and Toldot stand in the site's table of portions.
How it is read
Rashi is the commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The wise woman who builds her house he reads through a story the Talmud tells. She is like the wife of On the son of Peleth, as the chapter of the Talmud called Chelek explains (Rashi on Proverbs 14:1:1). The word itself he reads from its vowels as a description of the wisest of women.
The tenth verse carries two readings. By the first, the heart that knows its own bitterness is the student who knows his toil in the Torah, and no stranger shares his joy. By the second, the heart is Israel, embittered in exile, "for they are killed for the sanctification of the Name" (Rashi on Proverbs 14:10:1). No stranger will share their joy in the future.
The figures of Scripture carry the other readings. The rod of pride in the fool's mouth is Pharaoh, who asked who the Lord is that he should obey Him (Rashi on Proverbs 14:3:1). The amends that plead for fools are the golden offerings the Philistines sent back with the ark in 1 Samuel 6 (Rashi on Proverbs 14:9:1). The way that seems right to a man is the man who sins and says there is no sin in it, or by another reading the way of Esau (Rashi on Proverbs 14:12:1). The backslider in heart who is filled with his own ways is Esau as well (Rashi on Proverbs 14:14:1). The laughter that ends in grief is God's laughter with the nations in this world, and Rashi supports it from Isaiah 65:14 (Rashi on Proverbs 14:13:1).
Two notes read the sayings close to daily life. The poor man hated even by his neighbour is hated even by the friends who go with him to his wedding (Rashi on Proverbs 14:20:1). In all toil there is profit, while idle words bring only loss (Rashi on Proverbs 14:23:1). The crown of the wise is their wealth "that they are rich in Torah" (Rashi on Proverbs 14:24:1).
The corpus carries three further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 14:11:1, 14:21:1 and 14:22:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited here rather than quoted. On the first verse, the wise woman, it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 18:20 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:124. On the third it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 10:28:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 10:28:4. On the fourth it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 5:2 and Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 15:11:6. On the sixth it holds Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 41:8:4 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 41:7:2.
The guilt offering and the heart draw the next run. On the ninth verse the corpus holds Vayikra Rabbah 9:5 and a passage of Sifra, Vayikra Dibbura DeNedavah, Section 9, at 2. On the tenth it holds Midrash Shmuel 24:6. On the eleventh it holds Bereshit Rabbah 30:1, and on the twelfth Ein Yaakov at Kiddushin 1:46 and the Glick Edition at 1:34. On the fourteenth it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 14:2 and Bereshit Rabbah 95:3, and on the fifteenth Bamidbar Rabbah 10:13 and Keritot 9a:21. On the sixteenth it holds Bereshit Rabbah 44:2 and 89:6.
The crown and the king carry the rest. On the twentieth verse the corpus holds Shemot Rabbah 31:13, and on the twenty-third Berakhot 30b:23 and Bereshit Rabbah 89:2. On the twenty-fourth it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 40:9 and Sotah 49b:17. On the twenty-eighth it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 9:7 and Berakhot 53a:23, and on the thirtieth Bereshit Rabbah 56:11 and 57:1. On the thirty-first it holds Berakhot 18a:12, on the thirty-second Bereshit Rabbah 60:12, on the thirty-third Bava Metzia 85b:2, and on the thirty-fourth Bava Batra 10b:7. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Proverbs 14:1:1 to 14:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 14:11:1, 14:21:1 and 14:22:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/proverbs/14.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book, with Emor, Behar, Miketz, Vayigash and Toldot in its PARASHOT table.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Wise Woman Builds; a Way That Seemeth Right Ends in Death
Proverbs 14:1-2
Every wise woman builds her house: “Every wise woman builds her house,” but the foolish one “tears it down with her own hands”. Her ruin is domestic, a house undone by its own occupant. Walking “in uprightness” and fearing the LORD are one act, the fear the book names at 1:7 as “the beginning of knowledge”.
Proverbs 14:1
“Every wise woman buildeth her house,.... Not only by her fruitfulness, as Leah and Rachel built up the house of Israel; but by her good housewifery, prudent economy; looking well to the ways of her household; guiding the affairs of her house with discretion; keeping all things in a good decorum; and bringing up her children in virtue, and in the fear and admonition of the Lord.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Proverbs 14:1
“Every wise woman - literally, Wise women. The fullest recognition that has as yet met us of the importance of woman, for good or evil, in all human society.”
He who walks in uprightness: Both lines read a man's regard for God from the road he walks. John Chrysostom held that the fear of God is what keeps a life straight, and that it adds devotion to plain virtue. A crooked road shows contempt.
Proverbs 14:2
"He who walks straight, fears the Lord." Not just any fear makes people walk straight, but the fear of God.… A life provided with virtue is quite illustrious, but the addition of fear makes persons more religious.
John Chrysostom · written before 407 · Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, Fragment 14:2patristic
Proverbs 14:3-5
The proud speech of a fool brings a rod to his back: “The proud speech of a fool brings a rod to his back,” so the proud mouth strikes the fool who carries it. “Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty,” so the mess an ox makes is the price of the harvest it brings.
Proverbs 14:3
“What judgment harder than that of our hearts, whereby each one stands convicted and accuses himself of the injury that he has wrongfully done against his brother? This the Scriptures speak of very plainly, saying, "Out of the mouth of fools there is a rod for wrongdoing." Folly, then, is condemned because it causes wrongdoing. Ought we not rather to avoid this, than death, or loss, or want, or exile or sickness? Who would not think some blemish of body or loss of inheritance far less than some blemish of soul or loss of reputation?”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Duties of the Clergy 3.4.24patristic
Where there are no oxen: John Gill lists the work oxen did in Judea: ploughing, bringing home the harvest and treading out the grain. A man with no oxen keeps his manger empty and loses the strength behind every one of those tasks. The harvest needs the ox.
Proverbs 14:4
“But much increase is by the strength of the ox - The ox is the most profitable of all the beasts used in husbandry. Except merely for speed, he is almost in every respect superior to the horse. 1. He is longer lived. 2. Scarcely liable to any diseases. 3. He is steady, and always pulls fair in his gears. 4. He lives, fattens, and maintains his strength on what a horse will not eat, and therefore is supported on one third the cost. 5. His manure is more profitable.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
An honest witness does not deceive: Israel's courts settled a case on the word of witnesses, so one false tongue could decide it. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown render pours forth lies as breathes out lies, a man who lies as easily as he breathes. His daily habit shows in court.
Proverbs 14:5
“These things we have said concerning those that in truth have been martyrs for Christ, but not concerning false martyrs, concerning whom the oracle speaks, "The name of the ungodly is extinguished." For "a faithful witness will not lie, but an unjust witness inflames lies." For he that departs this life in his testimony without lying, for the sake of the truth, is a faithful martyr, worthy to be believed in such things wherein he strove for the word of truth by his own blood. .”
Apostolic Constitutions · written before 380 · Constitutions of the Holy Apostlespatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 14:5
“A faithful witness, &c.--one tested to be such. utter lies--or, "breathe out lies"--that is, habitually lies (Pr 6:19; compare Ac 9:1). Or the sense is, that habitual truthfulness, or lying, will be evinced in witness-bearing.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Proverbs 14:6-9
A mocker seeks wisdom and finds none: “A mocker seeks wisdom and finds none” because he wants the reputation without the discipline, while “knowledge comes easily to the discerning”. Leaving a foolish man's company is wisdom, since “you will gain no knowledge from his speech”. “Fools mock the making of amends,” treating guilt itself as a joke.
Stay away from a foolish man: The command follows the mocker of verse 6, who seeks wisdom and finds none. Adam Clarke reads it as plain counsel to leave the company of a man who can neither give instruction nor take it. Time with him teaches nothing.
Proverbs 14:7
“When thou perceivest not - the lips of knowledge - Instead of דעת daath, knowledge, several MSS. have שקר sheker, a lie. How this reading came I cannot conjecture. The meaning of the adage is plain: Never associate with a vain, empty fellow, when thou perceivest he can neither convey nor receive instruction.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The wisdom of the prudent: Both lines turn on self-knowledge: the prudent man reads his own road, and folly misleads the very fools who hold it. Adam Clarke notes one Hebrew manuscript that reads to direct his way, a change of a single letter. Either reading puts wisdom in the steering of a life.
Proverbs 14:8
“Is to understand his way - Instead of הבין habin, to understand, הכין hachin, to Direct his way, is found in one MS. It makes a very good sense.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Fools mock the making of amends: Amends here is the language of sacrifice, the offering that set a wrong right. Albert Barnes records a reading in which the sin offering mocks the fools who bring it while they stay wicked, and they gain no favor. Proverbs 15:8 says the same.
Proverbs 14:9
“Fools make a mock - The verb in the Heb. is singular, the noun plural. The King James Version assumes that the number is altered to individualize the application of the maxim. Others translate it: “Sin mocks the fools who are its victims,” i. e., disappoints and ruins them; or, “A sin-offering does but mock the worshippers when they are willfully wicked:” they expect to gain God’s favor, and do not gain it. So taken it becomes parallel to Pro 15:8; Pro 21:7.”
The heart knows its own bitterness: Every heart carries a bitterness and a joy that belong to it alone, and no stranger, however close, can fully enter either one. Gill reads the verse against easy comfort offered from outside, since grief and gladness both have an interior the nearest friend can only stand beside.
The house of the wicked will be destroyed: The wicked man builds a house, and it is overthrown; the upright man pitches only a tent, temporary by its own name, and it flourishes. Henry draws the contrast on purpose: the proverb measures endurance by the builder's standing with God rather than by the building's material.
Proverbs 14:12-13
There is a way that seems right to a man: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death,” and 16:25 repeats it word for word. The doubling states the danger twice because self-deceived confidence is the hardest error to catch, and the verse warns against trusting a feeling of rightness.
Proverbs 14:12
“We read in Proverbs, "There is a way that seems just to men, yet the end of it leads to the depths of hades." You see, ignorance is also clearly condemned in this text, since man thinks otherwise and he falls into hades, seemingly having the truth. "There are many thoughts," he says, "in the heart of man." But still, it is not his will, which is uncertain and doubtful and changeable, that prevails but the counsel of God.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Against the Pelagians 1.39patristic
Even in laughter the heart may ache: The two lines give two ways sorrow meets joy. Albert Barnes reads the first as sorrow mixed into joy while the laughter lasts and the second as sorrow waiting at its end. Verse 10 set the heart's bitterness beside its joy.
Proverbs 14:13
“Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful - Many a time is a smile forced upon the face, when the heart is in deep distress. And it is a hard task to put on the face of mirth, when a man has a heavy heart.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 14:13
“Sorrow of some kind either mingles itself with outward joy, or follows hard upon it.”
The backslider in heart receives the fill of his own ways: The backslider gets exactly what he chose, filled with his own ways. Against him stands the good man, satisfied from himself, at rest in a character built by obedience. Wesley reads both halves as the same law working in opposite directions, a man reaping the field he actually planted.
Proverbs 14:14
“The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways - 1. Who is the backslider? סוג sug. 1. The man who once walked in the ways of religion, but has withdrawn from them. 2. The man who once fought manfully against the world, the devil, and the flesh; but has retreated from the battle, or joined the enemy. 3. The man who once belonged to the congregation of the saints, but is now removed from them, and is set down in the synagogue of Satan. 2. But who is the backslider in Heart?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 14:15-16
The simple man believes every word: “The simple man believes every word,” an open door with no guard at it, while “the prudent man watches his steps” and tests the ground. “A wise man fears and turns from evil,” but “a fool is careless and reckless” in a confidence he has never earned.
Proverbs 14:15
“The innocent believes every word, etc. John both prohibited this innocence and taught how to have this prudence, when he said, Beloved, do not believe every spirit; but test the spirits, whether they are of God (1 John IV).”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Proverbspatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Proverbs 14:15
“Simple - In the bad sense (compare Pro 1:22).”
Proverbs 14:15
“A hermit said, 'Do not be pleased at everything that is said, and do not agree with everything that is said. Be slow to believe, and quick to say what is true.'”
Desert Fathers · written before 500 · The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monkspatristic
A wise man fears and turns from evil: The wise man's fear has a direction, and it carries him away from evil. Clement of Alexandria set the fear of God apart from anxious dread, holding that the godly man dreads falling away from God. That fear steadies a man.
Proverbs 14:16
“The fear of God is Deoj [in Greek]. But if fear is perturbation of mind, as some will have it that fear is perturbation of mind, yet all fear is not perturbation. Superstition is indeed perturbation of mind; being the fear of demons, that produce and are subject to the excitement of passion. On the other hand, consequently, the fear of God, who is not subject to perturbation, is free of perturbation. For it is not God, but failing away from God, that the man is terrified for.”
Clement of Alexandria · written before 215 · The Stromata Book 2patristic
Proverbs 14:17-18
A quick-tempered man acts foolishly: “A quick-tempered man acts foolishly” before he thinks, and “a devious man is hated” for the same haste turned deliberate. “The simple inherit folly,” passed down to them by neglect, while “the prudent are crowned with knowledge” they work to wear.
Proverbs 14:17
“He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly,.... A man that is quick and short, of a hasty spirit, and presently discovers anger and resentment in his face; he says and does many foolish things, which he afterwards is sorry for, and repents, and is ashamed of; and he is to be pitied and forgiven; and a man of wicked devices is hated; one that hides his anger, covers his resentment, contrives schemes to revenge himself, and waits an opportunity to put them in execution, is justly hateful to God and men.”
The simple inherit folly: Inherit and crowned are words of property and rank. John Gill reads the inheritance as the foolish sayings and customs of a man's ancestors, kept as family property after they have been shown empty. The prudent wear what they have gained.
Righteousness Exalteth a Nation
Proverbs 14:19-21
The evil bow before the good: “The evil bow before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous,” a reversal stated plainly. The cluster on poverty opens without softening it: “The poor man is hated even by his neighbor, but many are those who love the rich”.
Proverbs 14:19
“The evil bow before the good - They are almost constrained to show them respect; and the wicked, who have wasted their substance with riotous living, bow before the gates of the righteous - of benevolent men - begging a morsel of bread.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The poor man is hated even by his neighbor: The saying reports how people treat the poor man and the rich. Albert Barnes calls it a jarring maxim drawn from experience, and reads verse 21 as its answer, where the man who despises his neighbor sins. The kindness shown the poor there answers the hatred here.
Proverbs 14:20
“But the rich hath many friends - Many who speak to him the language of friendship; but if they profess friendship because he is rich, there is not one real friend among them.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Proverbs 14:20
“The poor is hated even of his own neighbour,.... As well as of strangers; that is, he is shy of him; he does not care to take any notice of him, or be friendly with him, lest he should be burdensome to him.”
Proverbs 14:20
“The maxim, jarring as it is, represents the generalization of a wide experience; but the words which follow Pro 14:21 show that it is not to be taken by itself. In spite of all the selfish morality of mere prudence, the hearer is warned that to despise his “neighbor” (Christians must take the word in all the width given to it by the parable of the Good Samaritan) is to sin. The fullness of blessing comes on him who sees in the poor the objects of his mercy.”
He who despises his neighbor sins: Despising and kindness are the two ways open toward the poor neighbor. Adam Clarke applies the first line to scorn for a man's natural defects, which came through no fault or folly of his own. Such contempt is named sin.
Proverbs 14:21
“He that despiseth his neighbor sinneth - To despise a man because he has some natural blemish is unjust, cruel, and wicked. He is not the author of his own imperfections; they did not occur through his fault or folly; and if he could, he would not retain them. It is, therefore, unjust and wicked to despise him for what is not his fault, but his misfortune.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 14:22-25
Do not those who contrive evil go astray?: Verse 22 asks, “Do not those who contrive evil go astray?” and answers that “those who plan goodness find loving devotion and faithfulness,” one Hebrew verb serving plans toward ruin and toward kindness. “A truthful witness saves lives,” the same integrity tested in a courtroom.
Proverbs 14:22
“Do they not err that devise evil?....”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 14:22
“Err - In the sense of wandering from the right way, the way of life.”
There is profit in all labor: Every labor yields some profit, even the plain work of the hands, and talk alone yields poverty. A saying of the Desert Fathers rebukes a man who talked of what he had never done. Words without labor gain nothing.
The crown of the wise is their wealth: Crown and folly face each other across the saying, the honor the wise wear and the only yield of a fool's effort. Adam Clarke notes that the Aramaic Targum reads the second line as the honor of fools is folly. A fool's best display is more folly.
Proverbs 14:24
“But the foolishness of fools is folly - The Targum reads, The honor of fools is folly. The fool, from his foolishness, produces acts of folly. This appears to be the meaning.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
A truthful witness saves lives: Albert Barnes notes that the second line might have said the deceitful witness destroys lives, and it says he utters lies. All destruction is contained in falsehood. In a court, a false witness could take a man's life.
Proverbs 14:25
“In the second clause, “destroyeth life” might have been expected as the antithesis to “delivereth souls.” But what worse could be said? “A deceitful witness speaketh lies.” All destruction is implied in falsehood.”
Proverbs 14:26-27
He who fears the LORD is secure in confidence: The fear of the Lord returns as the book's motto, given its reward: strong confidence and a place of refuge. It is a fountain of life, drawing a man from the snares of death. Bridges reads the two verses as one promise stated twice, as shelter and then as escape.
Proverbs 14:26
“In the way of God fear produces strength; as Solomon witnesses, who says, "In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence." For 'strong confidence' is said 'to be in the fear of the Lord,' in that, in truth, our mind so much the more valorously sets at nought all the terrors of temporal vicissitudes, the more thoroughly that it submits itself in fear to the Author of those same temporal things.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book 5.33patristic
The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life: The verse repeats 13:14, the fear of the LORD standing where the teaching of the wise stood. Adam Clarke gives the Hebrew as mekor chaiyim, the vein of lives, and hears in it the artery that carries blood from the heart. Both sayings end at the snares of death.
Proverbs 14:27
“The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life - מקור חיים mekor chaiyim, the vein of lives. Another allusion to the great aorta which carries the blood from the heart to all the extremities of the body. Of this phrase, and the tree of lives, Solomon is particularly fond. See on Pro 4:23 (note); Pro 10:12 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 14:28-30
A large population is a king’s splendor: A king's honour is counted in people rather than territory, so an empty land is a prince's ruin even where his throne still stands. Patience is named great understanding and haste is named folly's own promotion, the same contrast the chapter has drawn between the wise and the fool.
Proverbs 14:28
“A protest against the false ideal of national greatness to which Eastern kings, for the most part, have bowed down. Not conquest, or pomp, or gorgeous array, but a happy and numerous people form the true glory of a king. The word translated “prince” is of doubtful meaning; but the translation is supported by the Septuagint, Vulg, and most commentators.”
A patient man has great understanding: Adam Clarke reads quick-tempered as short of spirit, a man so stirred that he is short of breath, and patient as long of anger. The patient man takes time to understand, and the hasty man acts before he knows. Verse 17 made the same contrast.
Proverbs 14:29
“That is hasty of spirit - קצר רוח ketsar ruach, “the short of spirit;” one that is easily irritated; and, being in a passion, he is agitated so as to be literally short of breath. Here put in opposition to ארך אפים erech appayim, long of nostrils; see on Pro 14:17 (note); and of the same import with St. Paul’s μακροθυμια, longsuffering, longmindedness. See on Eph 4:2 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
A tranquil heart is life to the body: The heart's peace or envy reaches down into the body and its bones. Ambrose of Milan quotes another rendering, the gentle man is the physician of the heart, and asks for such a man as bishop. A tranquil man heals others too.
Proverbs 14:30
While all our actions should be free from hidden malevolence, this is particularly the case in the selection of a bishop, whose life is the pattern for all his flock. Calm and pacific judgment is called for if you are to prefer to all his fellows a man who will be elected by all and who will heal all dissension. "The gentle man is the physician of the heart." In the gospel the Lord declared himself the physician of the heart when he said, "They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick."
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · LETTER 63:46patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 14:30
“A sound heart is the life of the flesh - A healthy state of the blood, and a proper circulation of that stream of life, is the grand cause, in the hand of God, of health and longevity. If the heart be diseased, life cannot be long continued.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their Maker: “Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their Maker,” since the insult lands past the poor man onto the God who made him. Kindness is named honor toward the same Maker, so the two halves of the verse are one theology stated as two actions.
Proverbs 14:31
"He who slanders the poor irritates his own Maker." Here there are two sins: slander and opposition to the poor. Why does he irritate his Maker? His Maker certainly made him and made it easy for him to be subjected to a tongue of a slanderer. "He who really honors God has pity upon the needy." If God made the poor, why must the poor be pitied? Certainly I heard many saying: Is there any need to pity the poor man whom God would have not made poor if he loved him? How long will we play with our salvation?
John Chrysostom · written before 407 · Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, Fragment 14:31patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Proverbs 14:31
“He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker - Because the poor, or comparatively poor, are, in the order of God, a part of the inhabitants of the earth; and every man who loves God will show mercy to the poor, for with this God is peculiarly delighted. The poor have we ever with us, for the excitement and exercise of those benevolent, compassionate, and merciful feelings, without which men had been but little better than brutes.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 14:31
“Honoureth him - i. e., God, who is the Maker of poor and rich alike.”
Proverbs 14:32-33
The wicked man is thrown down by his own sin: The wicked man is driven away by his own wickedness, while the righteous keeps hope even at death. Wisdom rests quietly in the heart of a man who understands it. Among fools it works the other way, made known because a fool cannot help but show what little he has.
Proverbs 14:32
“The wicked is driven away in his wickedness - He does not leave life cheerfully. Poor soul! Thou hast no hope in the other world, and thou leavest the present with the utmost regret! Thou wilt not go off; but God will drive thee. But the righteous hath hope in his death - He rejoiceth to depart and be with Christ: to him death is gain; he is not reluctant to go - he flies at the call of God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Wisdom rests in the heart of the discerning: Albert Barnes takes wisdom as the subject of both lines, quiet in the heart of the discerning and made known among fools by contrast. The Septuagint adds a negative to the second line. In that version wisdom stays unknown among fools.
Proverbs 14:33
Omit “that which is.” “Wisdom” is the subject of both clauses. She is “made nown,” i. e., by the very force of contrast, in the midst of fools; or she is reserved and reticent in the one, noisy and boastful in the other. The Septuagint and some other versions get over the difficulty, by reading “Wisdom is not made known.”
Proverbs 14:34-35
Righteousness exalts a nation: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” closes the chapter on its public turn. The closing proverb narrows the same principle to one court: “A king delights in a wise servant, but his anger falls on the shameful”.
Proverbs 14:34
“But sin is a reproach to any people - I am satisfied this is not the sense of the original, וחסד לאמים חטאת vechesed leummim chattath; which would be better rendered, And mercy is a sin-offering for the people. The Vulgate has, Miseros autem facit populos peccatum, “sin makes the people wretched.” Ελασσονουσι δε φυλας ἁμαρτιαι; “But sins lessen the tribes.” - Septuagint. So also the Syriac and Arabic. The plain meaning of the original seems to be, A national disposition to mercy appears in the sight of God as a continual sin-offering.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
A king delights in a wise servant: The chapter ends at court, where a servant's standing rests on the king's pleasure. Bede reads the second line through the parable of the useless servant, whom the Lord casts into the outer darkness. The earthly court pictures the heavenly one.
Proverbs 14:35
“His wrath will fall upon the useless. He indeed about whom the same says: And cast the useless servant into the outer darkness (Ibid.)”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Proverbspatristic
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, LETTER 63:46; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata Book 2; Desert Fathers, The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON, FRAGMENT 14:2; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.