Proverbs 15:19
in Proverbs 15The way of the slacker is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The way of the sluggard is as a hedge of thorns; But the path of the upright is made a highway.
KJV
The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain.
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This verse in Proverbs 15
Commentary
11 notes on this verseIn this number are those whom Wisdom calls the "slothful ones," who bestrew their "way" with "thorns"; who think it a moral loss to be anxious about keeping the commandments; who erase from their own minds the Apostolic teaching, and instead of eating the bread of their own honest earning fix on that of others, and make their idleness itself into an art of living. From this number, too, come the Dreamers, who put more faith in the illusions of their dreams than in the Gospel teaching, and style their own phantasies "revelations."
This site's exposition
A wrathful man stirreth up strife
on Proverbs 15:18-19
A wrathful man stirs up strife while the man slow to anger appeases it, the same contrast between haste and patience the book has already drawn more than once. The way of the slothful is like a hedge of thorns, every step catching on an obstacle his own laziness invented, while the way of the righteous is made plain, cleared by the same diligence the sluggard refuses. Gill notes that the thorn hedge is the sluggard's own excuse turned into a picture, since his path is genuinely harder only because he has never bothered to clear it.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"The ways of those who do not work are strewn with thorns, but the ways of the strong are trodden down." Thus wandering from the king's highway, they can never arrive at that metropolis to which our course should ever be directed without swerving. Ecclesiastes also significantly expressed this saying: "The labor of fools wearies those who do not know how to go to the city;" namely, that "heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all."
The Medieval Church2 voices
The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns. He calls those lazy who are reluctant to work righteousness, for while they desire the way of God, they are pricked by the suspicions opposed by their fears, like thorns of obstructive hedges; which, since they …
The way of the just is without stumbling. For indeed the just, in their conduct, whatever adversity confronts them, do not stumble, because they overcome the obstacles of temporal adversity by the leap of eternal hope and inner contemplation.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
The slothful goes on his journey, and for him the path is thick set with thorns, briars, fences, through which he cannot force his way. For the “righteous” (better, upright), the same path is as the broad raised causeway of the king’s highway. Compare Isa 40:3.
4 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
The difficulties of the slothful result from want of energy; the righteous find a plain [and open] way--literally, "a highway," by diligence (1Sa 10:7;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
You must have noticed how frequently godly people almost wear out their Bibles in certain places. The Psalms, the Gospel of John and parts of the Epistles are favorite portions and are thumbed in many an old Believer's Bible till the fact is very noticeable. There are certain sheep-tracks up the slopes of Scripture which are much more trodden than the rest of the holy fields. I suppose it has always been so and I will not quarrel with the instincts of the saints. I do, however, regret that any portion of Holy Writ should be neglected. There are Bible readers who keep clear of the historical parts of Scripture and also greatly avoid the Book of Proverbs—indeed, they almost wonder how Proverbs and Ecclesiastes came to be a part of the Word of God! Very singular it must seem to them that this Book of Proverbs should be placed so very near to Solomon's Song—that sacred Canticle which is the center and climax of inspired Scripture—a book which I do not hesitate to call "the holy of holies," the innermost sanctuary of Divine Love. Concerning that deeply mystical, mysterious and rapturous Canticle, it would be impossible to speak too highly. It is, indeed, the Song of Songs—a song, however, which none can sing but such as are made songsters by God, Himself, by partaking of the Inspiration, not of the fountain which gushed from Mount Parnassus, but of that fountain of every blessing which flows from the mount of Everlasting Love. It is certainly remarkable that, hard by such a deeply-spiritual Book, there should be placed the Book of Proverbs, which mainly consists of instructions for this life. Doubtless there is a meaning in that arrangement. The Lord would not have the highest spirituality divorced from common sense. God has made us body and soul and He would have us serve Him with both.
You must have noticed how frequently godly people almost wear out their Bibles in certain places. The Psalms, the Gospel of John and parts of the Epistles are favorite portions and are thumbed in many an old Believer's Bible till the fact is very noticeable. There are certain sheep-tracks up the slopes of Scripture which are much more trodden than the rest of the holy fields. I suppose it has always been so and I will not quarrel with the instincts of the saints. I do, however, regret that any portion of Holy Writ should be neglected.
The way of the slothful man is as a hedge of thorns - Because he is slothful, he imagines ten thousand difficulties in the way which cannot be surmounted; but they are all the creatures of his own imagination, and that imagination is formed by his sloth.
The words behind it
7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| דֶּ֣רֶךְ | derekh | [the] way of | H1870 → | 707 times |
| עָ֭צֵל | ʾatzel | a sluggard | H6102 → | 14 times |
| כִּמְשֻׂ֣כַת | kimsukhat | [is] like a hedge of | H4881 → | |
| חָ֑דֶק | chadek | thorn[s] | H2312 → | |
| וְאֹ֖רַח | veorach | and [the] path of | H734 → | 58 times |
| יְשָׁרִ֣ים | yesharim | upright [people] | H3477 → | 119 times |
| סְלֻלָֽה׃ | selulah | [is] cast up | H5549 → |
דֶּ֣רֶךְ[the] way of
derekhH1870 →707 times
עָ֭צֵלa sluggard
ʾatzelH6102 →14 times
כִּמְשֻׂ֣כַת[is] like a hedge of
kimsukhatH4881 →
חָ֑דֶקthorn[s]
chadekH2312 →
וְאֹ֖רַחand [the] path of
veorachH734 →58 times
יְשָׁרִ֣יםupright [people]
yesharimH3477 →119 times
סְלֻלָֽה׃[is] cast up
selulahH5549 →
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
Isaiah 30:21And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.”
it leads to
- Isaiah 42:16
I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 32:8
I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will give you counsel and watch over you.
- Proverbs 3:5–6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
- Isaiah 58:11
The LORD will always guide you; He will satisfy you in a sun-scorched land and strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
- Deuteronomy 5:32
So be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or to the left.
- Isaiah 42:16
Through
Isaiah 35:8And there will be a highway called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel it—only those who walk in the Way—and fools will not stray onto it.
it leads to
- Matthew 7:13–14
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
- John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
- Revelation 21:27
But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who practices an abomination or a lie, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
- Matthew 7:13–14
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Proverbs
This page draws on 10 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); Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1948: “The Hedge of Thorns and the Plain Way” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity, Chapter XXIII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Cassian, CONFERENCE 24:24; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.