Proverbs 5:14
in Proverbs 5I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I was well-nigh in all evil In the midst of the assembly and congregation.
KJV
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
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This verse in Proverbs 5
Commentary
8 notes on this verseI was almost in all evil, etc. The Church and the Synagogue are Greek names, and they signify the same thing in Latin, that is, an assembly of many together. But if they are distinguished more subtly, the Church is interpreted as a calling together, …
This site's exposition
How I hated discipline
on Proverbs 5:12-14
A man near ruin confesses, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!” in a speech the father stages so the son can hear his future regret now. The words “I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly” name a public fall.
This site's exposition
in the midst of the whole assembly
The whole assembly is Israel gathered, the body that heard serious cases, and utter ruin before it meant public shame. Adam Clarke notes that an old English Bible rendered the words church and synagogue. The ruin is public.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
I was in all evil in defiance of the magistrates and judges, and their assemblies; so some understand it. Others refer it to the evil of punishment, not to the evil of sin: "I was made an example, a spectacle to the world. I was under almost all God's sore judgments in the midst of the congregation of Israel, set up for a mark.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
A moment - In how little a time am I now come into remediless misery! Assembly - And that in the congregation of Israel, where I was taught better things.
I was almost in all evil,.... Scarce a sin but he was guilty of; contempt of private and public instructions, the instructions of parents and ministers of the Gospel, and following lewd women, commonly lead to the commission of all other sins, even the most atrocious.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
I was almost in all evil - This vice, like a whirlpool, sweeps all others into its vortex. In the midst of the congregation and assembly - In the mydel of the Curche and of the Synagoge - Old MS. Bible. Such persons, however sacred the place, carry about with them eyes full of adultery, which cannot cease from sin.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The conscience-stricken sinner had been “almost” given up to every form of evil in the sight of the whole assembly of fellow-townsmen; “almost,” therefore, condemned to the death which that assembly might inflict Lev 20:10; Deu 22:22. The public scandal of the sin is brought in as its last aggravating feature.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
I was almost in all evil There is but a step between me and Gehinnom. (Because of a little thing, I was now “in all evil,” for I did not obey my instructors; had I obeyed them, this would not have happened to me. From Rabbi Joseph Kara.)
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Drink water from your own cistern From the cistern that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave you for your share, viz. the Law of Moses.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּ֭מְעַט | kimat | like a little | H4592 → | 101 times |
| הָיִ֣יתִי | hayiti | I was | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| בְכָל־ | vekhol- | in every | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| רָ֑ע | ra' | calamity | H7451 → | 662 times |
| בְּת֖וֹךְ | betokh | in among | H8432 → | 418 times |
| קָהָ֣ל | kahal | [the] assembly | H6951 → | 123 times |
| וְעֵדָֽה׃ | veedah | and [the] congregation | H5712 → |
כִּ֭מְעַטlike a little
kimatH4592 →101 times
הָיִ֣יתִיI was
hayitiH1961 →3559 times
בְכָל־in every
vekhol-H3605 →5413 times
רָ֑עcalamity
ra'H7451 →662 times
בְּת֖וֹךְin among
betokhH8432 →418 times
קָהָ֣ל[the] assembly
kahalH6951 →123 times
וְעֵדָֽה׃and [the] congregation
veedahH5712 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 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 13:20He who walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 15:33–34
Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
- Proverbs 15:31
He who listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise.
- Proverbs 9:6
Leave your folly behind, and you will live; walk in the way of understanding.”
- 2 Corinthians 6:14–18
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
- Psalms 119:63
I am a friend to all who fear You, and to those who keep Your precepts.
- 1 Corinthians 15:33–34
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Proverbs
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; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.