Proverbs 6:31
in Proverbs 6Yet if caught, he must pay sevenfold; he must give up all the wealth of his house.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; He shall give all the substance of his house.
KJV
But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.
⋯
This verse in Proverbs 6
Commentary
6 notes on this verseBut if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold,.... According to the law in Exo 22:1; in case of theft double was to be restored, if the theft was found alive in his hand; and in some cases fourfold and fivefold. Aben Ezra observing that double and fivefold being near together in the law, joins them, and so makes sevenfold.
This site's exposition
if he steals to satisfy his hunger
on Proverbs 6:30-31
The father adds a comparison to sharpen his point: “Men do not despise the thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger”. Yet if caught, “he must pay sevenfold”. Gill ties the sevenfold penalty to the restitution law, a measure for a debt that adultery cannot repay in kind.
This site's exposition
he must pay sevenfold
The law required double, fourfold or fivefold, and Gill reports an old reading that joins double and fivefold to make sevenfold. The caught thief must pay with all the wealth of his house. His debt has an end.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
5 ), and then showed him that his sin was more exceedingly sinful than that. First, It is a greater reproach to a man's reason, for he cannot excuse it, as a thief may, by saying that it was to satisfy his hunger, but must own that it was to gratify a brutish lust which would break the hedge of God's law, not for want, but for wantonness.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens
), but not for adultery; in that case it would utterly be contemned. Stand in awe therefore, and sin not; expose not thyself to all this misery for a moment's sordid pleasure, which will be bitterness in the end."
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes
We are here dissuaded from sin very much by arguments borrowed from our secular interests, for it is not only represented as damning in the other world, but as impoverishing in this.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְ֭נִמְצָא | venimtza' | and he will be found out | H4672 → | 455 times |
| יְשַׁלֵּ֣ם | yeshalem | he will make restitution | H7999 → | 116 times |
| שִׁבְעָתָ֑יִם | shivatayim | sevenfold | H7659 → | |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| ה֖וֹן | hon | [the] wealth of | H1952 → | 26 times |
| בֵּית֣וֹ | beito | house his | H1004 → | 2046 times |
| יִתֵּֽן׃ | yiten | he will give | H5414 → | 2011 times |
וְ֭נִמְצָאand he will be found out
venimtza'H4672 →455 times
יְשַׁלֵּ֣םhe will make restitution
yeshalemH7999 →116 times
שִׁבְעָתָ֑יִםsevenfold
shivatayimH7659 →
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
כָּל־all
kol-H3605 →5413 times
ה֖וֹן[the] wealth of
honH1952 →26 times
בֵּית֣וֹhouse his
beitoH1004 →2046 times
יִתֵּֽן׃he will give
yitenH5414 →2011 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
Luke 19:8But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, half of my possessions I give to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will repay it fourfold.”
it leads to
- 2 Samuel 12:6
Because he has done this thing and has shown no pity, he must pay for the lamb four times over.”
- Numbers 5:7
and must confess the sin he has committed. He must make full restitution, add a fifth to its value, and give all this to the one he has wronged.
- Luke 18:22–23
On hearing this, Jesus told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
- Luke 12:33
Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide yourselves with purses that will not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
- Leviticus 6:1–6
And the LORD said to Moses,
- 2 Samuel 12:6
Through
2 Samuel 12:6Because he has done this thing and has shown no pity, he must pay for the lamb four times over.”
it leads to
- Exodus 22:1
“If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters or sells it, he must repay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep.
- Exodus 22:1
Through
Matthew 18:25Since the man was unable to pay, the master ordered that he be sold to pay his debt, along with his wife and children and everything he owned.
it leads to
- Nehemiah 5:5
We and our children are just like our countrymen and their children, yet we are subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters are already enslaved, but we are powerless to…
- 2 Kings 4:1
Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And now his creditor…
- Nehemiah 5:5
Where this verse is studied
About Proverbs
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.