Proverbs 20:21
in Proverbs 20An inheritance gained quickly will not be blessed in the end.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; But the end thereof shall not be blessed.
KJV
An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed.
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This verse in Proverbs 20
Commentary
7 notes on this verseAn inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning,.... Of a man's setting out in the world in trade and business; and which sometimes is got lawfully, and this must be excepted from this proverb; but generally what is got hastily and in a short time is got unlawfully, and so does not prosper.
This site's exposition
Whoso curseth his father or his mother
on Proverbs 20:20-23
Whoso curseth his father or his mother carries the weight of Exodus 21:17 into proverb form, his lamp put out in obscure darkness picturing a life that goes dark with no candle left to relight. An inheritance gotten hastily at the beginning continues the warning against shortcuts, unblessed at the end however it looked at the start, and say not, I will recompense evil, but wait on the Lord answers personal injury the same way, trading private revenge for God's own timing. The chapter then repeats its opening warning almost word for word, divers weights are an abomination unto the Lord, and a false balance is not good, closing the frame it opened at verse 10.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
An inheritance obtained hastily in the beginning, etc. Those who seek to be multiplied in this life through the wickedness of avarice will be disinherited in the future from eternal patrimony. Alternatively: An inheritance obtained hastily in the beginning will lack a blessing in the …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistThe Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chapter 20 · Written before 604.
proposed
When they burn to be filled at once with all manner of wealth, let them hear what is written, "He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." For certainly he who goes about to increase wealth is negligent in avoiding sin; and, being caught after the manner of birds, while looking greedily at the bait of earthly things, he is not aware in what a noose of sin he is being strangled.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Or, An inheritance gotten hastily (greedily sought after by unjust means) at the beginning, the end thereof shall not be blessed. Another reading gives, “an inheritance loathed, (compare Zec 11:8), or with a curse upon it.” The King James Version agrees with the versions.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
gotten hastily--contrary to God's providence (Pr 28:20), implying its unjust or easy attainment; hence the man is punished, or spends freely what he got easily (compare Pr 20:17).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
An inheritance - gotten hastily - Gotten by speculation; by lucky hits; not in the fair progressive way of traffic, in which money has its natural increase. All such inheritances are short-lived; God’s blessing is not in them, because they are not the produce of industry; and they lead to idleness, pride, fraud and knavery. A speculation in trade is a pubiic nuisance and curse. How many honest men have been ruined by such!
The words behind it
6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| נַ֭חֲלָה | nachalah | an inheritance | H5159 → | 222 times |
| מְבֹהֶ֣לֶת | mevuchelet | hastily gained | H926 → | |
| בָּרִאשֹׁנָ֑ה | barishonah | at <the> first | H7223 → | |
| וְ֝אַחֲרִיתָ֗הּ | veacharitah | and end its | H319 → | 61 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תְבֹרָֽךְ׃ | tevorakh | it will be blessed | H1288 → | 330 times |
נַ֭חֲלָהan inheritance
nachalahH5159 →222 times
מְבֹהֶ֣לֶתhastily gained
mevucheletH926 →
בָּרִאשֹׁנָ֑הat <the> first
barishonahH7223 →
וְ֝אַחֲרִיתָ֗הּand end its
veacharitahH319 →61 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
תְבֹרָֽךְ׃it will be blessed
tevorakhH1288 →330 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
Proverbs 13:22A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is passed to the righteous.
it leads to
- Ecclesiastes 2:26
To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Job 27:16–17
Though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up a wardrobe like clay,
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Proverbs 28:8
He who increases his wealth by interest and usury lays it up for one who is kind to the poor.
- Psalms 37:25
I once was young and now am old, yet never have I seen the righteous abandoned or their children begging for bread.
- Psalms 112:2
His descendants will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.
- Ecclesiastes 2:26
Through
Proverbs 23:4Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself.
it leads to
- Proverbs 28:20
A faithful man will abound with blessings, but one eager to be rich will not go unpunished.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Hebrews 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”
- Proverbs 28:20
Through
1 Timothy 6:9Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.
it leads to
- 1 John 2:15–17
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
- 1 John 2:15–17
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Proverbs
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; Gregory the Dialogist, The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chapter 20; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.