Proverbs 6:30
in Proverbs 6Men do not despise the thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Men do not despise a thief, if he steal To satisfy himself when he is hungry:
KJV
Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;
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This verse in Proverbs 6
Commentary
8 notes on this verseThe fault is not great when someone has been found stealing, etc. Theft is not considered a great fault by its own estimation, but by comparison with a greater sin, that is, adultery; as it is said to Jerusalem who sinned more grievously, Sodomy is …
This site's exposition
if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry
on Proverbs 6:30-31
The father inserts a comparison case to sharpen the point rather than to excuse theft: even a hungry thief, judged with some sympathy for the need behind the crime, still pays sevenfold and can lose the whole substance of his house if caught. The comparison is deliberately unfavorable to the adulterer that the next verses describe, since hunger at least explains a thief's motive while no such necessity drives the man who goes after his neighbour's wife. Gill reads the sevenfold penalty as the ordinary restitution law standing behind the illustration, named here to measure a debt that adultery cannot repay in kind.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
A commentator
John ChrysostomHOMILIES CONCERNING THE STATUES 10:11 · Written in the 5th century.
proposed
For not every sin brings the same penalty; but those which are easiest to be amended, bring upon us the greatest punishment: which indeed Solomon intimated, when he said, "It is not wonderful if any one be taken stealing; for he stealeth that he may satisfy his soul that is hungry; but the adulterer, by the lack of understanding, destroyeth his own soul." But what he means is to this effect. The thief is a grievous offender, but not so grievous a one as the adulterer: for the former, though it be a sorry reason for his conduct, yet at the same time has to plead the necessity arising from indigence; but the latter, when no necessity compels him, by his mere madness rushes into the gulph of iniquity. This also may be said with regard to those who swear. For they have not any pretext to allege, but merely their contempt.
First then, slaves, if they are thieves, are usually forced into robbery by need, since even though the customary allowances are furnished them, these conform better to custom than to sufficiency and so fulfill the canon without satisfying the needs of those who receive them. …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
5 ), and then showed him that his sin was more exceedingly sinful than that. First, It is a greater reproach to a man's reason, for he cannot excuse it, as a thief may, by saying that it was to satisfy his hunger, but must own that it was to gratify a brutish lust which would break the hedge of God's law, not for want, but for wantonness.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens
Men do not despise a thief, if he steal,....
We are here dissuaded from sin very much by arguments borrowed from our secular interests, for it is not only represented as damning in the other world, but as impoverishing in this.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Men do not despise a thief if he steal - Every man pities the poor culprit who was perishing for lack of food, and stole to satisfy his hunger; yet no law clears him: he is bound to make restitution; in some cases double, in others quadruple and quintuple; and if he have not property enough to make restitution, to be sold for a bondsman; Exo 22:1-4; Lev 25:39.
The words behind it
9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לֹא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יָב֣וּזוּ | yavuzu | people despise | H936 → | 12 times |
| לַ֭גַּנָּב | lagano | <to> the thief | H1590 → | |
| כִּ֣י | ki | if | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| יִגְנ֑וֹב | yignov | he will steal | H1589 → | 40 times |
| לְמַלֵּ֥א | lemale' | to fill | H4390 → | 249 times |
| נַ֝פְשׁ֗וֹ | nafsho | appetite his | H5315 → | 754 times |
| כִּ֣י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| יִרְעָֽב׃ | yirav | he will be hungry | H7456 → | 13 times |
לֹא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
יָב֣וּזוּpeople despise
yavuzuH936 →12 times
לַ֭גַּנָּב<to> the thief
laganoH1590 →
כִּ֣יif
kiH3588 →4482 times
יִגְנ֑וֹבhe will steal
yignovH1589 →40 times
לְמַלֵּ֥אto fill
lemale'H4390 →249 times
נַ֝פְשׁ֗וֹappetite his
nafshoH5315 →754 times
כִּ֣יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
יִרְעָֽב׃he will be hungry
yiravH7456 →13 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
4 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
Job 38:39Can you hunt the prey for a lioness or satisfy the hunger of young lions
it leads to
- Psalms 104:21
The young lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.
- Job 4:10–11
The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.
- Psalms 145:15–16
The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in season.
- Psalms 34:10
Young lions go lacking and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
- Psalms 104:21
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Proverbs
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; John Chrysostom, HOMILIES CONCERNING THE STATUES 10:11; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Salvian the Presbyter, On the Government of God, Book 4.