Proverbs 13:8
in Proverbs 13Riches may ransom a man’s life, but a poor man hears no threat.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The ransom of a man’s life is his riches; But the poor heareth no threatening.
KJV
The ransom of a man’s life are his riches: but the poor heareth not rebuke.
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This verse in Proverbs 13
Commentary
13 notes on this verseA man's riches ought to avail to the ransom of his soul, not to its destruction. And a treasure is a ransom, if a man use it well; on the other hand it is a snare, if a man know not how to use it. What is a man's money to him but a provision for his journey? Much is a burthen, a little is useful.
This site's exposition
There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing
on Proverbs 13:7-9
There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing sets a paradox next to its opposite, one that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches, and the bench reads both as pointing past bank accounts toward what a man actually possesses before God. The ransom of a man's life are his riches follows, money's power to buy a way out of trouble, while the poor man simply hears no threat worth ransoming himself from. The chapter's light image closes the group: the light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out, a flame with no oil left to feed it.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
Against those who have given money that they might be entirely undisturbed by evil, an accusation cannot be brought. For they have sustained the loss and sacrifice of their goods that they might not hurt or destroy their soul, which others for the sake of …
The Lord yearns for believers' souls more than for their riches. We read in the Proverbs, "The ransom of a man's soul are his own riches." We may, indeed, take a person's own riches to be those which do not come from someone else or from plunder; according to the precept, "honor God with your just labors." But the sense is better if we understand a person's "own riches" to be those hidden treasures which no thief can steal and no robber wrest from him.
A commentator
Basil of CaesareaHOMILY ON THE WORDS 'GIVE HEED TO THYSELF.' · Written before 379.
proposed
Suppose you are an ignoble and undistinguished person, poor and of lowly origin, without home or city, sick, in need of daily sustenance, in dread of the powerful, cowering before everyone because of your abject condition. "But he that is poor," says the Scripture, "bears not reprehension." Yet, do not despair or cast aside every good hope because your present state is quite unenviable. Rather, turn your thoughts to the blessings already granted you by God and to those reserved by promise for the future.
Just as the foot is the measure of the sandal, so the physical needs of each person are the measure of what he should possess. Whatever is excessive—the things they call adornments, the trappings of the rich—are not adornments but a burden for the body. If one is to use violence to ascend to heaven, it is necessary to carry the good staff of holy deeds and first to share our goods with the oppressed before laying hold of the true rest. Scripture declares that really "his own wealth is the redemption of the soul of man," that is, if a person is rich, he will obtain salvation by sharing his wealth.
A commentator
John ChrysostomCOMMENTARY ON THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON, FRAGMENT 13:8 · Written in the 5th century.
proposed
"The redemption of the soul of a man is his own wealth." What are you saying? What do you mean by exalting so much wealth? First of all he [Solomon] did not speak about just any wealth but that which is produced through honest activities. Poverty is not, therefore, an evil thing. Rather, he says that no one who wants to may threaten someone who is poor; indeed how can some one terrify one who possesses nothing? For this reason this kind of life is devoid of afflictions. Or, maybe he [Solomon] calls "his own wealth" "righteousness" which snatches him away from death. So the one who is poor in virtue does not have a mind at peace when he suffers threats or the declaration of a punishment.
6 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers1 voice
And what use is it to recount how many, because of their failure to manage properly their material riches, have received the same punishment as the rich man in the Gospel? Or how many, because they bore poverty ignobly with behavior more lowly and base than was proper among saints, have fallen away from their heavenly hope? Even those who are midway between these extremes of riches and poverty are not by their moderate estateable to escape sinning.
The Medieval Church2 voices
As Solomon says, "A man's own wealth is the redemption of his soul." This might be temporal wealth which one distributes and gives to the poor so that one's righteousness may endure forever, or it might be spiritual wealth in the form of the righteousness …
"The ransom of a man's life is his wealth," etc. Therefore, whoever wants his soul to be redeemed from future wrath should gather the riches of good works. For he who lacks these kinds of wealth cannot endure the rebuke of the strict judge. The …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
The ransom of a man's life are his riches,.... As Benhadad's were to him, when he was in the hands of the king of Israel, 1Ki 20:34; and as the treasures the ten men had in the field were to them, for the sake of which Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, slew them not, Jer 41:
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
The ransom of a man’s life - Those who have riches have often much trouble with them; as they had much trouble to get them, so they have much trouble to keep them. In despotic countries, a rich man is often accused of some capital crime, and to save his life, though he may be quite innocent, is obliged to give up his riches; but the poor, in such countries, are put to no trouble.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
On the one side is the seeming advantage of wealth. The rich man who gets out of many troubles often escapes from a just retribution by his money. But then the poor man in his turn is free from the risk of the threats and litigation that beset the rich. He “hears no rebuke” (the words are not used as in Pro 13:1) just as the dead “hear not the voice of the oppressor” Job 3:18 or the abuse of the envious.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כֹּ֣פֶר | kofer | [the] ransom of | H3724 → | 17 times |
| נֶֽפֶשׁ־ | nefesh- | [the] life of | H5315 → | 754 times |
| אִ֣ישׁ | ʾish | a person | H376 → | 1663 times |
| עָשְׁר֑וֹ | ashero | [is] wealth his | H6239 → | 37 times |
| וְ֝רָ֗שׁ | verash | and a poor [person] | H7326 → | 24 times |
| לֹא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| שָׁמַ֥ע | shama' | he hears | H8085 → | 1159 times |
| גְּעָרָֽה׃ | gearah | a threat | H1606 → | 15 times |
כֹּ֣פֶר[the] ransom of
koferH3724 →17 times
נֶֽפֶשׁ־[the] life of
nefesh-H5315 →754 times
אִ֣ישׁa person
ʾishH376 →1663 times
עָשְׁר֑וֹ[is] wealth his
asheroH6239 →37 times
וְ֝רָ֗שׁand a poor [person]
verashH7326 →24 times
לֹא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
שָׁמַ֥עhe hears
shama'H8085 →1159 times
גְּעָרָֽה׃a threat
gearahH1606 →15 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 16:26What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
it leads to
- Job 27:8
For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
- Mark 8:36–37
What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?
- Luke 9:25
What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet lose or forfeit his very self?
- Luke 12:20
But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’
- Psalms 49:7–8
No man can possibly redeem his brother or pay his ransom to God.
- Job 27:8
Through
2 Kings 24:14He carried into exile all Jerusalem—all the commanders and mighty men of valor, all the craftsmen and metalsmiths—ten thousand captives in all. Only the poorest people of the land remained.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 52:28
These are the people Nebuchadnezzar carried away: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;
- Jeremiah 52:28
Through
Zephaniah 3:12But I will leave within you a meek and humble people, and they will trust in the name of the LORD.
it leads to
- Isaiah 14:32
What answer will be given to the envoys of that nation? “The LORD has founded Zion, where His afflicted people will find refuge.”
- Nahum 1:7
The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of distress; He cares for those who trust in Him.
- Isaiah 14:32
About Proverbs
This page draws on 13 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, Letters 1-10; Basil of Caesarea, HOMILY ON THE WORDS 'GIVE HEED TO THYSELF.'; Bede, On the Tabernacle 3:13; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor Book 3; Jerome, LETTER 71.4; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON, FRAGMENT 13:8; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Origen of Alexandria, ON PRAYER 29:6 and Peter of Alexandria, CANONICAL EPISTLES 12.