Proverbs 21:30
in Proverbs 21There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel that can prevail against the LORD.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
There is no wisdom nor understanding Nor counsel against Jehovah.
KJV
There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord.
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This verse in Proverbs 21
Commentary
4 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Two companion proverbs. Nothing avails against, nothing without, God. The horse is the type of warlike strength, used chiefly or exclusively in battle. 1Ki 4:26; 1Ki 10:26-28, may be thought of as having given occasion to the latter of the two proverbs.
This site's exposition
There is no wisdom, no understanding
on Proverbs 21:30-31
The chapter closes on the sovereignty that opened it: "There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel that can prevail against the LORD." A horse is prepared for the day of battle, the best weapon, "but victory is of the LORD," the God who decides the outcome.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
There is no wisdom, no prudence, etc. Whatever the heretics counsel and think is nothing, and vain and useless.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
There is no wisdom nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֵ֣ין | ʾein | there not | H369 → | 789 times |
| חָ֭כְמָה | chokhmah | [is] wisdom | H2451 → | 153 times |
| וְאֵ֣ין | veein | and there not | H369 → | 789 times |
| תְּבוּנָ֑ה | tevunah | [is] understanding | H8394 → | 42 times |
| וְאֵ֥ין | veein | and there not | H369 → | 789 times |
| עֵ֝צָ֗ה | ʾetzah | [is] counsel | H6098 → | 89 times |
| לְנֶ֣גֶד | leneged | to before | H5048 → | 151 times |
| יְהוָֽה׃ פ | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
אֵ֣יןthere not
ʾeinH369 →789 times
חָ֭כְמָה[is] wisdom
chokhmahH2451 →153 times
וְאֵ֣יןand there not
veeinH369 →789 times
תְּבוּנָ֑ה[is] understanding
tevunahH8394 →42 times
וְאֵ֥יןand there not
veeinH369 →789 times
עֵ֝צָ֗ה[is] counsel
ʾetzahH6098 →89 times
לְנֶ֣גֶדto before
lenegedH5048 →151 times
יְהוָֽה׃ פYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 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 19:21Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the purpose of the LORD will prevail.
it leads to
- Proverbs 16:9
A man’s heart plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
- Isaiah 46:10
I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 14:24
The LORD of Hosts has sworn: “Surely, as I have planned, so will it be; as I have purposed, so will it stand.
- Proverbs 16:1
The plans of the heart belong to man, but the reply of the tongue is from the LORD.
- Psalms 33:10–11
The LORD frustrates the plans of the nations; He thwarts the devices of the peoples.
- Proverbs 16:9
Through
Jeremiah 9:23This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the wealthy man in his riches.
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 1:27–29
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
- Isaiah 5:21
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
- Ecclesiastes 9:11
I saw something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; neither is the bread to the wise, nor the wealth to the intelligent, nor…
- 1 Corinthians 1:27–29
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Proverbs
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).