Proverbs 25:19
in Proverbs 25Like a broken tooth or a foot out of joint is confidence in a faithless man in time of trouble.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble Is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.
KJV
Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.
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This verse in Proverbs 25
Commentary
5 notes on this verseA rotten tooth and a stumbling foot, etc. And Jeremiah says: Cursed is the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm (Jeremiah XIII). He is rightly compared to a rotten tooth and a weary foot, because he who does not know that …
This site's exposition
Like a club or sword or sharp arrow
on Proverbs 25:18-20
"Like a club or sword or sharp arrow is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor" stacks three weapons for one sin. The next line moves from weapon to disappointment, trust that cannot bear weight, like "a broken tooth or a foot out of joint."
This site's exposition
Like a broken tooth
Albert Barnes lays the stress on uselessness. A tooth that breaks or a foot out of joint fails just when it is needed, and so does trust in a faithless man. Bede joins the verse to Jeremiah's curse on the man who trusts in man.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble,.... It is not good to put confidence in any man, not in princes, nor in the best of men; much less in an unfaithful, prevaricating, and treacherous man; and especially in a time of distress and trouble, depending on his help and assistance, which is leaning on a broken reed, and trusting to a broken staff.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Stress is to be laid on the uselessness of the “broken tooth” and the “foot out of joint,” or tottering, rather than on the pain connected with them. The King James Version loses the emphasis and point of the Hebrew by inverting the original order, which is “a broken ... joint is confidence” etc.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| שֵׁ֣ן | shen | a tooth | H8127 → | 55 times |
| רֹ֭עָה | roah | broken | H7465 → | |
| וְרֶ֣גֶל | veregel | and a foot | H7272 → | 247 times |
| מוּעָ֑דֶת | muadet | slipped | H4571 → | |
| מִבְטָ֥ח | mivtach | [the] trust of | H4009 → | 15 times |
| בּ֝וֹגֵ֗ד | boged | [one who] acts treacherously | H898 → | 49 times |
| בְּי֣וֹם | beyom | in a day of | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| צָרָֽה׃ | tzarah | trouble | H6869 → | 73 times |
שֵׁ֣ןa tooth
shenH8127 →55 times
רֹ֭עָהbroken
roahH7465 →
וְרֶ֣גֶלand a foot
veregelH7272 →247 times
מוּעָ֑דֶתslipped
muadetH4571 →
מִבְטָ֥ח[the] trust of
mivtachH4009 →15 times
בּ֝וֹגֵ֗ד[one who] acts treacherously
bogedH898 →49 times
בְּי֣וֹםin a day of
beyomH3117 →2304 times
צָרָֽה׃trouble
tzarahH6869 →73 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
Isaiah 36:6Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 29:6–7
Then all the people of Egypt will know that I am the LORD. For you were only a staff of reeds to the house of Israel.
- 2 Kings 18:21
Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust…
- Isaiah 30:1–7
“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin.
- 2 Kings 17:4
But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea had conspired to send envoys to King So of Egypt, and that he had not paid tribute to the king of Assyria as in previous years.…
- Isaiah 31:3
But the Egyptians are men, not God; their horses are flesh, not spirit. When the LORD stretches out His hand, the helper will stumble, and the one he helps will fall; both will perish…
- Ezekiel 29:6–7
Through
2 Timothy 4:16At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be charged against them.
it leads to
- Acts 7:60
Falling on his knees, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
- John 16:32
“Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father…
- Mark 14:50
Then everyone deserted Him and fled.
- Acts 7:60
Where this verse is studied
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; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).