Proverbs 14: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Proverbs 14 is a collection of short, mostly two-line sayings that set the wise person against the fool, the honest witness against the liar, and the person who fears the LORD against the one who despises him. It covers speech, temper, work, wealth, poverty, and how a person treats a neighbor, and it repeatedly notes that what looks right or feels pleasant can end badly. The chapter closes with sayings about nations and kings, tying the conduct of individuals to the health of a whole people.

Claim by Claim

1. 14:1
   • A wise woman builds her house.
   • A foolish woman tears her house down with her own hands.
2. 14:2
   • He who walks in his uprightness fears the LORD.
   • He whose ways are crooked despises the LORD.
3. 14:3
   • In the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride.
   • The lips of the wise preserve them.
4. 14:4
   • Where there are no oxen, the feeding trough is empty of grain.
   • Abundant produce comes by the strength of an ox.
5. 14:5
   • A faithful witness will not lie.
   • A false witness pours out lies.
6. 14:6
   • A scorner seeks wisdom and does not find it.
   • Knowledge comes easily to the person who has understanding.
7. 14:7
   • Go away from the presence of a foolish man.
   • You do not perceive lips of knowledge in the foolish man.
8. 14:8
   • The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his own way.
   • The folly of fools is deceit.
9. 14:9
   • Fools mock at guilt.
   • Among the upright there is favor.
10. 14:10
    • The heart knows its own bitterness.
    • A stranger does not share in the heart's joy.
11. 14:11
    • The house of the wicked will be destroyed.
    • The tent of the upright will flourish.
12. 14:12
    • There is a way that seems right to a man.
    • The end of that way is the ways of death.
13. 14:13
    • Even in laughter the heart aches.
    • The end of that joy is grief.
14. 14:14
    • The one whose heart turns away will be filled with his own ways.
    • A good man will be satisfied from what is his own.
15. 14:15
    • The simple person believes every word.
    • The prudent person considers his steps.
16. 14:16
    • A wise man fears and turns away from evil.
    • A fool rages and is confident.
17. 14:17
    • He who is quick to anger acts foolishly.
    • A man of wicked schemes is hated.
18. 14:18
    • The simple inherit folly.
    • The prudent are crowned with knowledge.
19. 14:19
    • Evil people bow down before good people.
    • Wicked people bow at the gates of the righteous.
20. 14:20
    • A poor man is hated even by his neighbor.
    • A rich man has many who love him.
21. 14:21
    • He who despises his neighbor sins.
    • He who is gracious to the poor is happy.
22. 14:22
    • Those who devise evil go astray.
    • Mercy and truth belong to those who devise good.
23. 14:23
    • In all labor there is profit.
    • Mere talk of the lips leads only to want.
24. 14:24
    • The crown of the wise is their riches.
    • The folly of fools is folly.
25. 14:25
    • A true witness delivers lives.
    • A deceitful witness speaks lies.
26. 14:26
    • In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence.
    • His children will have a refuge.
27. 14:27
    • The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life.
    • The fear of the LORD turns a person away from the snares of death.
28. 14:28
    • In a multitude of people is a king's glory.
    • In the lack of people is a ruler's ruin.
29. 14:29
    • He who is slow to anger has great understanding.
    • He who is short of spirit raises up folly.
30. 14:30
    • A sound heart is life to the flesh.
    • Envy is rottenness to the bones.
31. 14:31
    • He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker.
    • He who is gracious to the needy honors his Maker.
32. 14:32
    • The wicked is thrust down in his wickedness.
    • The righteous has refuge in his death.
33. 14:33
    • Wisdom rests in the heart of the person who has understanding.
    • What is within fools is made known.
34. 14:34
    • Righteousness exalts a nation.
    • Sin is a reproach to any people.
35. 14:35
    • The king's favor is toward a servant who acts wisely.
    • The king's wrath is against the one who acts shamefully.

Words Worth Explaining

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

14:1

"House" in Hebrew means both the building and the household that lives in it, together with its property, servants and standing. "Building a house" can therefore mean raising a family and its fortunes rather than construction work.

14:2

"Perverse" in 1611 English meant twisted or crooked, with no sexual sense. The Hebrew word pictures a road that bends away from a straight line.

14:3

The Hebrew is compressed and can be read two ways: the fool's proud speech is a stick that ends up beating him, or his mouth produces a "shoot" of pride (the same word can mean a branch or a rod). A rod was the ordinary instrument of beating, used on children, servants and offenders.

14:4

KJV "crib" means a feeding trough for livestock, not a child's bed; "clean" here means empty. Oxen were the plow animals on which the size of a harvest depended.

14:5

Legal cases were decided by witnesses testifying in public, normally at the town gate, with no police or physical evidence. A lying witness could strip a person of property or life, which is why Proverbs returns so often to true and false witnesses.

14:6

"Scorner" (elsewhere "mocker") is a fixed character type in Proverbs: not merely a rude person, but one who refuses correction and treats being taught as beneath him.

14:8

"Prudent" translates a Hebrew word meaning shrewd or clever, the practical skill of sizing up a situation. It is morally neutral; the same word describes the serpent in Genesis 3.

14:9

The Hebrew here is difficult. The word behind KJV "sin" usually means guilt, or the guilt offering brought to put a wrong right, so the line may mean that fools scoff at making amends. The second half is also uncertain; "favour" renders a word for goodwill, whether God's or other people's.

14:10

"Heart" in Hebrew usage means the inner person as a whole (thinking, choosing and feeling) closer to "mind" than to the modern seat of emotion. "Intermeddle" in KJV English simply means to share in something, without the modern sense of prying.

14:11

"Tabernacle" in KJV English just means a tent; no sanctuary is meant. The contrast is between a solidly built house and a nomad's tent.

14:13

"Mirth" means fun and laughing. "Heaviness" means sadness that weighs a person down.

14:14

"Backslider" translates a word for one who turns back or turns away. "Filled with his own ways" uses the image of being served a full portion at a meal. The second line is compressed in Hebrew (literally "and a good man, from what is upon him") which is why translations differ over whether the good man is satisfied from himself, from his own conduct, or from what is above him.

14:15

"Simple" is a technical term in Proverbs for the untrained, inexperienced person (typically a young man whose judgment is not yet formed), not someone stupid. It describes a stage that can be left behind.

14:16

"Feareth" in the first line means is wary or cautious, not frightened. "Confident" carries the older sense of careless and overconfident, sure of himself where such certainty is not warranted.

14:17

"Devices" here means plans or schemes, not machines.

14:18

A crown is the fancy circle a king wears on his head. Everyone who saw it knew he was important.

14:19

Bowing low to the ground was the posture of a defeated enemy or a beggar. "Gates" are the entrance to a town or a household, the public place where business, charity and legal disputes were conducted.

14:20

A neighbor is anyone who lives near you. It does not have to be a friend.

14:21

"Happy is he" renders a Hebrew exclamation closer to "how fortunate he is" or "he is to be congratulated", a verdict on a person's standing, not a description of his mood.

14:22

"Mercy and truth" is a standing Hebrew word-pair (chesed and 'emet): committed, loyal kindness joined to reliability. It describes one quality of keeping faith with others rather than two separate virtues.

14:23

"Penury" is an old word for poverty. "Talk of the lips" means words on their own, as opposed to work done.

14:24

Both halves are awkward in Hebrew. In the first line some read "riches," others, by changing one letter, "prudence." The second line simply repeats the word for folly, and some take the repeated word as the garland or wreath fools end up wearing, the mirror image of the crown.

14:25

"Souls" here means lives, that is, persons; the Hebrew word does not denote an immaterial part of a person. In a capital case a truthful witness literally kept the accused alive.

14:26

"His children" is as ambiguous in Hebrew as in English: the children may be those of the person who fears the LORD, or God's own.

14:27

A "snare" is a hidden trap for catching birds or animals. Here death is pictured as a hunter who sets traps along the path.

14:28

"Want" means lack, and "prince" means a ruler or high official. Population was the standard measure of a kingdom's strength: people meant soldiers, farm labor and tax revenue.

14:29

"Exalteth folly" is a literal rendering of an idiom meaning to lift folly up where everyone can see it, to put it on display. "Hasty of spirit" means short-tempered.

14:30

"Sound heart" translates a phrase meaning a healed or tranquil mind. "Bones" in Hebrew stands for a person's frame and vitality, the innermost structure, so rotting bones means decay at the core, not a disease of the skeleton.

14:31

"Reproacheth" means taunts or insults. In the second half KJV's "him" refers back to the Maker, not to the poor man: the one honored is God.

14:32

The Hebrew text reads "in his death," but the ancient Greek and Syriac versions read a nearly identical word meaning "in his integrity," giving "the righteous finds refuge in his integrity." KJV follows the Hebrew; the difference is one letter.

14:33

The second line reads in Hebrew simply "and in the midst of fools it is made known." The ancient Greek and Syriac versions include a negative ("wisdom is not known among fools") and many translators judge that the negative dropped out of the Hebrew. Both readings are defensible.

14:34

"Reproach" means disgrace. The Hebrew word translated so (chesed) normally means kindness or loyalty; here it seems to carry a rarer sense of shame, which is why the line reads oddly even in Hebrew.

14:35

Kings had servants who worked for them every day. A wise servant could be trusted with important jobs.