Proverbs 1:27
in Proverbs 1when your dread comes like a storm, and your destruction like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish overwhelm you.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
When your fear cometh as a storm, And your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind; When distress and anguish come upon you.
KJV
When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
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This verse in Proverbs 1
Commentary
14 notes on this verseWhen sudden calamity comes upon you, etc. He speaks of the sudden siege of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the whole province that was made by the Romans, which the Lord himself predicted in the Gospel, seeing the city and weeping over it (Luke XIX).
This site's exposition
How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways
on Proverbs 1:22-27
Wisdom names three kinds of refusal, “simple ones,” “scoffers” and “fools,” the book's vocabulary for resistance to instruction, from the untaught to the contemptuous. Her answer, “I will mock your calamity,” is the harvest of a chosen path, spoken by the one who warned against it.
This site's exposition
your destruction like a whirlwind
Storm and whirlwind picture a judgment that gathers fast and strikes without warning. Albert Barnes sets beside it the sudden coming Jesus describes at Luke 17:24, like lightning across the sky. Their dread arrives all at once.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
What room is there for just complaint when each suffers according to his deeds? There is this exception which I can easily prove, namely, we never suffer in proportion to our deeds, and God deals with us much more leniently than we deal with him. …
The Medieval Church2 voices
When distress comes upon you, etc. The Jews are not read to have called upon the Lord in that siege, but only to have relied on arms, although they witnessed the desolation of their homeland and the ruin of the temple with bitter minds. However, …
A commentator
Gregory the Dialogist40 Homilies on the Gospels, Homily 12 · Written before 604.
proposed
For this is why the Lord says through Solomon: "I called, and you refused; I stretched out my hand, and there was no one who paid attention; you despised all my counsel, and neglected my reproofs. I also will laugh at your destruction, and will mock when what you feared comes upon you. When sudden calamity rushes in, and destruction presses on like a storm, when tribulation and anguish come upon you, then they will call upon me, and I will not hear; they will rise early, and they will not find me." Behold, they cry out to be opened to, and, compelled by the pain of their rejection, they double the title of Lord, saying: "Lord, Lord, open to us." They offer prayers, but they are not known, because the Lord then abandons as if unknown those whom He now does not recognize as His own through the merit of their life.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
6 ), and therefore she goes on to tell them what will be in the end hereof. (1.) The crime is recited and it is highly provoking. See what it is for which judgment will be given against impenitent sinners in the great day, and you will say they deserve it, and the Lord is righteous in it.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens
1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; 2 To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; 3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
6 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
In vain - The fowler who spreads, his net in the sight of the bird looseth his labour. But these, are more foolish than the silly birds, and though they are not ignorant of the mischief which these evil courses will bring upon themselves, yet they will not take warning. Their own blood - The destruction which they design to others, fall upon themselves.
When your fear cometh as desolation,.... When such will be the calamity that will occasion this fear, that it shall be like some desolating judgment, as famine, sword, and pestilence, which lays all waste: and such was the destruction of the Jews by the Romans; it not only laid Jerusalem and the temple waste, but the whole country of Judea.
Saul cries out ( 2 Sam. i. 9 ), Anguish has come upon me; and in hell there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth for anguish, tribulation and anguish to the soul of the sinner, the fruit of the indignation and wrath of the righteous God, Rom. ii.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Desolation - Better, tempest. The rapid gathering of the clouds, the rushing of the mighty winds, are the fittest types of the suddenness with which in the end the judgment of God shall fall on those who look not for it. Compare Mat 24:29 etc.; Luk 17:24.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Others think that wisdom, as the divine attribute specially employed in acts of counsel and admonition, is here personified, and represents God. In either case the address is a most solemn and divine admonition, whose matter and spirit are eminently evangelical and impressive (see on Pr 8:1).
Your destruction cometh as a whirlwind - כסופה kesuphah, as the all-prostrating blast. Sense and sound are here well expressed. Suphah here is the gust of wind.
The words behind it
10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בְּבֹ֤א | bevo' | when comes | H935 → | 2568 times |
| כְשׁוֹאָ֨ה | kheshaavah | like devastation | H7722 → | |
| פַּחְדְּכֶ֗ם | pachdekhem | dread your | H6343 → | 49 times |
| וְֽ֭אֵידְכֶם | veeidekhem | and calamity your | H343 → | 24 times |
| כְּסוּפָ֣ה | kesufah | like a storm-wind | H5492 → | |
| יֶאֱתֶ֑ה | yeeteh | it will arrive | H857 → | |
| בְּבֹ֥א | bevo' | when comes | H935 → | 2568 times |
| עֲ֝לֵיכֶ֗ם | ʾaleikhem | on you | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| צָרָ֥ה | tzarah | trouble | H6869 → | 73 times |
| וְצוּקָֽה׃ | vetzukah | and distress | H6695 → |
בְּבֹ֤אwhen comes
bevo'H935 →2568 times
כְשׁוֹאָ֨הlike devastation
kheshaavahH7722 →
פַּחְדְּכֶ֗םdread your
pachdekhemH6343 →49 times
וְֽ֭אֵידְכֶםand calamity your
veeidekhemH343 →24 times
כְּסוּפָ֣הlike a storm-wind
kesufahH5492 →
יֶאֱתֶ֑הit will arrive
yeetehH857 →
בְּבֹ֥אwhen comes
bevo'H935 →2568 times
עֲ֝לֵיכֶ֗םon you
ʾaleikhemH5921 →5755 times
צָרָ֥הtrouble
tzarahH6869 →73 times
וְצוּקָֽה׃and distress
vetzukahH6695 →
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
Nahum 1:3The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. His path is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath…
it leads to
- Psalms 147:5
Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit.
- Exodus 34:6–7
Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,
- Nehemiah 9:17
They refused to listen and failed to remember the wonders You performed among them. They stiffened their necks and appointed a leader to return them to their bondage in Egypt. But You are a…
- Psalms 104:3
laying the beams of His chambers in the waters above, making the clouds His chariot, walking on the wings of the wind.
- Psalms 103:8
The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion.
- Psalms 147:5
Through
Psalms 58:9Before your pots can feel the burning thorns— whether green or dry— He will sweep them away.
it leads to
- Proverbs 10:25
When the whirlwind passes, the wicked are no more, but the righteous are secure forever.
- Ecclesiastes 7:6
For like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This too is futile.
- Psalms 118:12
They swarmed around me like bees, but they were extinguished like burning thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off.
- Proverbs 10:25
Where this verse is studied
On this page
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About Proverbs
This page draws on 9 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; Gregory the Dialogist, 40 Homilies on the Gospels, Homily 12; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Salvian the Presbyter, THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 3:9.