Home

For Teaching

Proverbs 11: What the Passage Says

61 claims across 31 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Proverbs 11 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter is a collection of short, self-contained proverbs, most built on a contrast between the righteous and the wicked. Topics include honest scales, pride and humility, gossip and silence, advice and counselors, generosity and hoarding, and trusting in wealth.

Claim by Claim

  1. 11:1
    • A deceitful balance is an abomination to the LORD.
    • A full and honest weight is the LORD's delight.
  2. 11:2
    • When pride comes, shame comes with it.
    • Wisdom is with the lowly.
  3. 11:3
    • The integrity of the upright guides them.
    • The crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.
  4. 11:4
    • Wealth does not profit in the day of wrath.
    • Righteousness delivers from death.
  5. 11:5
    • The righteousness of the blameless makes his way straight.
    • The wicked falls by his own wickedness.
  6. 11:6
    • The righteousness of the upright delivers them.
    • The treacherous are caught by their own craving.
  7. 11:7
    • When a wicked man dies, his expectation perishes.
    • The hope of strength perishes.
  8. 11:8
    • The righteous is delivered out of trouble.
    • The wicked comes into his place instead.
  9. 11:9
    • The godless man destroys his neighbor with his mouth.
    • Through knowledge the righteous are delivered.
  10. 11:10
    • When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices.
    • When the wicked perish, there is a shout of joy.
  11. 11:11
    • By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted.
    • By the mouth of the wicked a city is torn down.
  12. 11:12
    • He who despises his neighbor lacks sense.
    • A man of understanding keeps silent.
  13. 11:13
    • One who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets.
    • One who is faithful in spirit conceals a matter.
  14. 11:14
    • Where there is no guidance, a people falls.
    • In a multitude of counselors there is deliverance.
  15. 11:15
    • He who gives surety for a stranger will suffer harm for it.
    • He who hates striking hands in pledge is secure.
  16. 11:16
    • A gracious woman obtains honor.
    • Ruthless men obtain riches.
  17. 11:17
    • A kind man does good to his own soul.
    • A cruel man brings trouble on his own flesh.
  18. 11:18
    • The wicked earns deceptive wages.
    • He who sows righteousness gets a true reward.
  19. 11:19
    • Righteousness leads to life.
    • He who pursues evil pursues it to his own death.
  20. 11:20
    • Those of a crooked heart are an abomination to the LORD.
    • Those blameless in their way are his delight.
  21. 11:21
    • Though hand join in hand, the wicked will not go unpunished.
    • The offspring of the righteous will escape.
  22. 11:22
    • A beautiful woman without discretion is like a gold ring in a pig's snout.
  23. 11:23
    • The desire of the righteous is only good.
    • The expectation of the wicked is wrath.
  24. 11:24
    • There is one who scatters and yet increases.
    • There is one who withholds more than is right and comes only to poverty.
  25. 11:25
    • A generous soul will be made prosperous.
    • He who waters others will himself be watered.
  26. 11:26
    • The people curse him who withholds grain.
    • Blessing is on the head of him who sells grain.
  27. 11:27
    • He who diligently seeks good seeks favor.
    • He who searches out evil, it will come upon him.
  28. 11:28
    • He who trusts in his riches will fall.
    • The righteous will flourish like foliage.
  29. 11:29
    • He who troubles his own house will inherit wind.
    • The fool will be servant to the wise of heart.
  30. 11:30
    • The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.
    • He who takes souls is wise.
  31. 11:31
    • The righteous is repaid on the earth.
    • Much more the wicked and the sinner are repaid.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

11:1
A merchant weighed goods on a two-pan balance against stone weights. Shaved or doubled sets of weights and a rigged beam were common frauds, and Israelite law legislated against them (Leviticus 19:35-36; Deuteronomy 25:13-16). "Abomination" translates a strong Hebrew word for something utterly detestable, often used of what is unfit to bring anywhere near God.
11:2
Humble means you do not think you are better than other people.
11:3
A "transgressor" is someone who steps over the line and breaks the rules on purpose. "Perverseness" means being twisted or bent the wrong way.
11:4
"Day of wrath" is a set phrase for a time of reckoning or disaster, not a date on a calendar. The point of contrast is that wealth, which buys a way out of most troubles, buys nothing here.
11:5
KJV "perfect" translates a Hebrew word meaning whole, sound, of undivided integrity - blameless rather than flawless. The English word has narrowed its sense since 1611.
11:6
KJV "naughtiness" meant wickedness or worthlessness in 1611, not childish mischief. The Hebrew word behind it means craving or greedy desire, which is why modern versions read "their own desires".
11:7
The second half of this verse is genuinely difficult in Hebrew. The key word can mean "strength, vigour" or be read as "wicked men", which is why the KJV and modern translations diverge here.
11:8
"In his stead" means in his place, the way one player takes another's spot.
11:9
KJV "hypocrite" is misleading to a modern ear. The Hebrew word means godless, profane, irreligious - someone with no regard for God at all, not someone putting on a pious act.
11:11
"Exalted" means lifted up high. "Overthrown" means knocked down and ruined.
11:12
"Void of wisdom" means empty of good sense. "Holdeth his peace" means he stays quiet and says nothing.
11:13
The Hebrew for "talebearer" is literally "one who goes about", the word used of a traveling peddler. The picture is of a person carrying other people's secrets around as a trader carries goods.
11:14
The Hebrew word for "counsel" comes from the ropes used to steer a ship; it means guidance or skilled direction. "The people" here means a nation as a whole, not a crowd of individuals.
11:15
Standing surety meant guaranteeing someone else's loan with your own property, and sometimes your own person: if the borrower defaulted, the guarantor could be stripped of goods or sold into debt-slavery. "Smart for it" is older English for "suffer for it". The agreement was sealed by striking hands (see verse 21).
11:16
The two halves of this proverb do not obviously match, and the Hebrew is very terse. It can be read as a contrast (she gains honor, they gain nothing but money) or as a parallel (each firmly holds what they set out to grasp). The ancient Greek version has a longer, four-line form of the saying.
11:17
"His own flesh" means his own body, his own self. The Hebrew word can also stretch to mean one's own kin, so the cruel man may be damaging his own family as well as himself.
11:18
Sowing means scattering seed across a field. Doing right is pictured as planting: the harvest comes later, but it does come.
11:19
"Tendeth to" means leads to. It has nothing to do with tending or taking care of something.
11:20
"Froward" is archaic English for crooked, perverse, turned the wrong way - the opposite of straight or upright. On "abomination", see the note at verse 1.
11:21
The Hebrew is literally "hand to hand", the gesture of striking hands to close a bargain. Used as a formula it means "you can take this as settled", though some read it as "though they join forces". "Seed" in the KJV means offspring or descendants.
11:22
A gold ring through the nose was ordinary fine jewelry for a woman in this world (Genesis 24:47). The pig was an unclean animal in Israel, not kept in Israelite households at all, so the image sets something precious in the last place it could belong.
11:24
"Scattereth" is a farming word: sowing seed by flinging it out across the ground by hand. Giving away looks like throwing away, yet it is how a crop starts. "More than is meet" means more than is fitting or proper.
11:25
"Made fat" is not about body size. In a world of recurring hunger, fatness stood for prosperity, health and plenty. "He that watereth" is irrigation language: the one who brings water to someone else's dry ground.
11:26
"Corn" in the KJV means grain of any kind - wheat or barley - not maize. Holding grain back meant refusing to sell during a shortage so as to sell later at a famine price, a practice ordinary people had no defense against.
11:27
"Mischief" in 1611 meant real harm and disaster, not playful trouble. "Procureth favour" means he gains goodwill from others.
11:28
In a dry land, green leaves meant a tree with water at its roots. Green meant healthy and alive.
11:29
An inheritance normally meant land passed down within a family, the one asset that could not simply vanish. To "inherit the wind" is to be left holding nothing at all. The "servant" of the second line would in practice be a household slave, often someone who had fallen into debt.
11:30
"Tree of life" recalls the tree in the garden of Eden (Genesis 2-3) and is used in Proverbs as an image for whatever gives and sustains life. "Winneth souls" is literally "takes lives" or "takes persons"; the Hebrew word for soul here means a life or a whole living person, not a disembodied spirit. The phrase is ambiguous - elsewhere "taking lives" means killing - and some ancient versions read the line quite differently.
11:31
"Much more" signals a standard Hebrew way of arguing from the lesser case to the greater: if the first is true, the second follows all the more. "In the earth" means in this life, here and now. The ancient Greek version read the first line as "if the righteous is scarcely saved", and it is that form that is quoted in 1 Peter 4:18.

Read Proverbs 11