Proverbs 14:26
in Proverbs 14He who fears the LORD is secure in confidence, and his children shall have a place of refuge.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
In the fear of Jehovah is strong confidence; And his children shall have a place of refuge.
KJV
In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge.
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This verse in Proverbs 14
Commentary
10 notes on this verseIn the way of God fear produces strength; as Solomon witnesses, who says, "In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence." For 'strong confidence' is said 'to be in the fear of the Lord,' in that, in truth, our mind so much the more valorously sets at nought all the terrors of temporal vicissitudes, the more thoroughly that it submits itself in fear to the Author of those same temporal things.
This site's exposition
He who fears the LORD is secure in confidence
on Proverbs 14:26-27
The fear of the Lord returns as the book's motto, given its reward: strong confidence and a place of refuge. It is a fountain of life, drawing a man from the snares of death. Bridges reads the two verses as one promise stated twice, as shelter and then as escape.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"The fear of the Lord is the hope of courage." When you fear the punishment that is threatened, you learn to love the reward that is promised; and thus through fear of punishment you keep on leading a good life, and by leading a good life you acquire a good conscience, so that finally through a good conscience you don't fear any punishment. Therefore, learn how to fear, if you don't want to be afraid.
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
BonaventureCollationes de Septem Donis, Collation 2 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
The third part of the perfection of the fear of the Lord consists in the perfect firmness of confidence: because the fear of the Lord is a tower of firmness and confidence, because it renders a person secure from every other fear. "His truth shall …
In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence, etc. The fear of the Lord provides the confidence of strength, because indeed our mind more valiantly despises the terrors of temporal things as much as it submits itself more truly to their creator through strength. …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
IN the Book of Proverbs you meet with sentences of brief wisdom, which, to all appearances, belong entirely to this world and pertain to the economy of the life that now is. I do not know whether it is true, but it was said that years ago our friends in Scotland had a little book widely circulated and read by all their children which consisted of the Proverbs of Solomon. They say that it was the means of making the Scots, as a generation, more canny, shrewd and wiser in business than any other people.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
IN the Book of Proverbs you meet with sentences of brief wisdom, which, to all appearances, belong entirely to this world and pertain to the economy of the life that now is. I do not know whether it is true, but it was said that years ago our friends in Scotland had a little book widely circulated and read by all their children which consisted of the Proverbs of Solomon. They say that it was the means of making the Scots, as a generation, more canny, shrewd and wiser in business than any other people. If it is so, I should suggest that such a book be scattered throughout England as well and, indeed, anywhere and everywhere! The book might have been written, at least some parts of it, by Franklin or Poor Richard, for it contains aphorisms and maxims of worldly wisdom, compact but profound, sometimes poetic, but always practical. Has it never surprised you that there should be such sentences as these in the Book of Inspiration—secular proverbs, for so they are—secular proverbs intermixed with spiritual proverbs—the secular and the spiritual all put together without any division or classification? You might have expected to find one chapter dedicated to worldly business and another chapter devoted to golden rules concerning the spiritual life! But it is not so. They occur without any apparent order, or, at any rate, without any order of marked division between the secular and the spiritual—and I am very glad of it. The more I read the Book of Proverbs, the more thankful I am that there is no such division, because the hard and fast line by which men of the world and, I fear, some Christians, have divided the secular from the spiritual, is fraught with innumerable injuries. Religion, my dear Friends, is not a thing for Churches and Chapels alone. It is equally meant for countinghouses and workshops, for kitchens and drawing rooms.
In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence - From this, and from genuine Christian experience, we find that the fear of God is highly consistent with the strongest confidence in his mercy and goodness.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
His children - Probably, the children whom the Lord adopts, and who are true to their adoption.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בְּיִרְאַ֣ת | beyirat | [is] in [the] fear of | H3374 → | 45 times |
| יְ֭הוָה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| מִבְטַח־ | mivtach- | confidence of | H4009 → | 15 times |
| עֹ֑ז | ʾoz | strength | H5797 → | 92 times |
| וּ֝לְבָנָ֗יו | ulevanav | and to children his | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| יִהְיֶ֥ה | yihyeh | it will belong | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| מַחְסֶֽה׃ | machseh | a refuge | H4268 → |
בְּיִרְאַ֣ת[is] in [the] fear of
beyiratH3374 →45 times
יְ֭הוָהYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
מִבְטַח־confidence of
mivtach-H4009 →15 times
עֹ֑זstrength
ʾozH5797 →92 times
וּ֝לְבָנָ֗יוand to children his
ulevanavH1121 →4930 times
יִהְיֶ֥הit will belong
yihyehH1961 →3559 times
מַחְסֶֽה׃a refuge
machsehH4268 →
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 18:10The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.
it leads to
- 2 Samuel 22:3
My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation. My stronghold, my refuge, and my Savior, You save me from violence.
- Isaiah 26:4
Trust in the LORD forever, because GOD the LORD is the Rock eternal.
- Psalms 91:2
I will say to the LORD, “You are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
- Psalms 144:2
He is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer. He is my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.
- Psalms 61:3–4
For You have been my refuge, a tower of strength against the enemy.
- 2 Samuel 22:3
Through
Proverbs 19:23The fear of the LORD leads to life, that one may rest content, without visitation from harm.
it leads to
- Matthew 5:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
- Proverbs 14:26–27
He who fears the LORD is secure in confidence, and his children shall have a place of refuge.
- Isaiah 58:10–11
and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will go forth in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday.
- Matthew 5:6
Where this verse is studied
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); Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 348:1; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Bonaventure, Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 2; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1290: “Godly Fear and Its Goodly Consequence” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book 5.33 and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).