Proverbs 28:3
in Proverbs 28A destitute leader who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain that leaves no food.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
A needy man that oppresseth the poor Is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food.
KJV
A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food.
⋯
This verse in Proverbs 28
Commentary
4 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof
on Proverbs 28:2-4
For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof reads a nation's instability as the fruit of its own sin, where a man of understanding and knowledge can prolong the state that transgression keeps unsettled. A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food, the harshest picture in the chapter, since rain should water a field and this rain destroys it. They that forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the law contend with them, closes the group on the principle the earlier verses assumed, that a nation's law and its leadership rise or fall together.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
A poor man that oppresseth the poor,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A poor man that oppresseth the poor - Our Lord illustrates this proverb most beautifully, by the parable of the two debtors, Mat 18:23. One owed ten thousand talents, was insolvent, begged for time, was forgiven. A fellow servant owed this one a hundred pence: he was insolvent; but prayed his fellow servant to give him a little time, and he would pay it all. He would not, took him by the throat, and cast him into prison till he should pay that debt. Here the poor oppressed the poor; and what was the consequence? The oppressing poor was delivered to the tormentors; and the forgiven debt charged to his amount, because he showed no mercy. The comparatively poor are often shockingly uncharitable and unfeeling towards the real poor. Like a sweeping rain - These are frequent in the East; and sometimes carry flocks, crops, and houses, away with them.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
People raise a man of the people, poor like themselves, to power. They find him the worst oppressor of all, plundering them to their last morsels, like the storm-rain which sweeps off the seed-corn instead of bringing fertility.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| גֶּ֣בֶר | gever | a man | H1397 → | 65 times |
| רָ֭שׁ | rash | poor | H7326 → | 24 times |
| וְעֹשֵׁ֣ק | veoshek | and [who] oppresses | H6231 → | 36 times |
| דַּלִּ֑ים | dalim | poor [people] | H1800 → | 47 times |
| מָטָ֥ר | matar | rain | H4306 → | |
| סֹ֝חֵ֗ף | sochef | [which] washes away | H5502 → | |
| וְאֵ֣ין | veein | and there not | H369 → | 789 times |
| לָֽחֶם׃ | lachem | [is] food | H3899 → | 298 times |
גֶּ֣בֶרa man
geverH1397 →65 times
רָ֭שׁpoor
rashH7326 →24 times
וְעֹשֵׁ֣קand [who] oppresses
veoshekH6231 →36 times
דַּלִּ֑יםpoor [people]
dalimH1800 →47 times
מָטָ֥רrain
matarH4306 →
סֹ֝חֵ֗ף[which] washes away
sochefH5502 →
וְאֵ֣יןand there not
veeinH369 →789 times
לָֽחֶם׃[is] food
lachemH3899 →298 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
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); Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).