Proverbs 15: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter is a collection of short, self-contained sayings, most of them built on a contrast between two ways of living. Recurring subjects include speech that calms or inflames, the value of accepting correction, the difference between a cheerful heart and a crushed one, and what the LORD sees, loves, and detests. Several sayings compare a small amount held with peace or reverence to great wealth held with trouble.

Claim by Claim

1. 15:1
   • A soft answer turns away wrath.
   • A painful word stirs up anger.
2. 15:2
   • The tongue of the wise makes knowledge good.
   • The mouth of fools pours out folly.
3. 15:3
   • The eyes of the LORD are in every place.
   • The eyes of the LORD watch the evil and the good.
4. 15:4
   • A healing tongue is a tree of life.
   • Crookedness in the tongue is a breaking of the spirit.
5. 15:5
   • A fool spurns his father's discipline.
   • He who keeps reproof is prudent.
6. 15:6
   • In the house of the righteous is much wealth.
   • In the income of the wicked is trouble.
7. 15:7
   • The lips of the wise scatter knowledge.
   • The heart of fools does not do so.
8. 15:8
   • The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD.
   • The prayer of the upright is the LORD's delight.
9. 15:9
   • The way of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD.
   • The LORD loves the one who pursues righteousness.
10. 15:10
    • Discipline is grievous to him who forsakes the path.
    • He who hates reproof will die.
11. 15:11
    • The realm of the dead and the place of destruction lie open before the LORD.
    • How much more do the hearts of human beings lie open before the LORD.
12. 15:12
    • A scoffer does not love the one who reproves him.
    • A scoffer will not go to the wise.
13. 15:13
    • A glad heart makes the face cheerful.
    • By sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.
14. 15:14
    • The heart of the discerning seeks knowledge.
    • The mouth of fools feeds on folly.
15. 15:15
    • All the days of the afflicted are evil.
    • He who is cheerful of heart has a continual feast.
16. 15:16
    • Little with the fear of the LORD is better than great treasure with turmoil in it.
17. 15:17
    • A portion of vegetables where love is present is better than a fattened ox where hatred is present.
18. 15:18
    • A hot-tempered man stirs up strife.
    • He who is slow to anger quiets a quarrel.
19. 15:19
    • The way of the sluggard is like a hedge of thorns.
    • The path of the upright is a level highway.
20. 15:20
    • A wise son makes a father glad.
    • A foolish man despises his mother.
21. 15:21
    • Folly is joy to one who lacks sense.
    • A man of understanding walks straight.
22. 15:22
    • Plans are frustrated where there is no counsel.
    • With many counselors plans stand.
23. 15:23
    • A man has joy in the answer of his mouth.
    • A word spoken at its right time is very good.
24. 15:24
    • The path of life goes upward for the one who has insight.
    • The upward path of life keeps him from turning down to the realm of the dead below.
25. 15:25
    • The LORD tears down the house of the proud.
    • The LORD sets firm the boundary of the widow.
26. 15:26
    • The thoughts of the evil are an abomination to the LORD.
    • Pleasant words are pure, though the Hebrew may equally mean that the words of the pure are pleasant.
27. 15:27
    • He who grasps at unjust gain troubles his own house.
    • He who hates bribes will live.
28. 15:28
    • The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer.
    • The mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.
29. 15:29
    • The LORD is far from the wicked.
    • The LORD hears the prayer of the righteous.
30. 15:30
    • The light of the eyes gladdens the heart.
    • A good report makes the bones fat.
31. 15:31
    • The ear that hears life-giving reproof will lodge among the wise.
32. 15:32
    • He who neglects discipline despises his own life.
    • He who hears reproof acquires understanding.
33. 15:33
    • The fear of the LORD is the discipline that gives wisdom.
    • Humility comes before honor.

Words Worth Explaining

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

15:1

Proverbs are short sayings you can remember. Most in this chapter come in two halves. The first line says one thing, and the second line says the opposite.

15:2

"Fool" in Proverbs is not a comment on intelligence. It names a settled character type: someone who will not take correction and lives with no regard for wisdom. "Wise" is its opposite, a way of living, not a level of cleverness.

15:3

When you see LORD printed in capital letters, it stands for God's own name in Hebrew. It was written YHWH, and readers said "Lord" instead of saying it out loud.

15:4

"A tree of life" is a stock image in Proverbs for whatever gives and sustains life; the phrase also echoes the tree in the garden in Genesis 2–3. Calling speech a tree of life says it is life-giving, not merely pleasant.

15:5

"Reproof" means being told you did something wrong so you can fix it. The King James uses this word many times in this chapter.

15:6

"Revenues" means the money and goods coming in, such as what a person earns from crops or work.

15:7

The Hebrew word behind "heart" covers the whole inner person, thinking, planning and deciding as much as feeling. Where modern English would say "mind", Hebrew usually says "heart". That is why a heart can be said to spread, or fail to spread, knowledge.

15:8

A sacrifice was an animal or grain offering brought to a priest and burned at the altar, the ordinary, visible, expensive way an Israelite worshiped; prayer by contrast cost nothing. "Disgusting" translates a strong Hebrew word (to'ebah, older versions "abomination") used of what is utterly unacceptable and shut out of God's presence.

15:9

The righteous and the wicked are the two kinds of people Proverbs keeps comparing. Righteous means a person who does right and treats others fairly. Wicked means a person who does not care who gets hurt.

15:10

Proverbs pictures life as a road. "The way" is the right road, so leaving it means picking a wrong way to live.

15:11

The two names in the Hebrew are Sheol, the underworld where all the dead go, and Abaddon, literally "destruction" or "ruin", a parallel name for the same region. They were pictured as the deepest and most hidden place that exists, which is what makes the comparison work.

15:12

"A person who mocks" (older versions: "a scorner") is another fixed type in Proverbs, not someone who tells jokes, but someone whose settled stance is contempt for correction and for those who give it.

15:13

"Countenance" means the look on a person's face. In the Bible, "heart" means the whole inside of a person: thoughts, plans, and feelings.

15:15

"Evil" here does not mean wicked. It means bad or hard. Every day feels rough to a person who is suffering.

15:16

"Respect the LORD" translates the phrase usually rendered "the fear of the LORD": reverent awe, taking God seriously enough to order your life by him. It does not mean being frightened of him.

15:17

Meat was rare; ordinary meals were bread, vegetables and lentils. A "fattened ox" was one penned and grain-fed for slaughter rather than worked, the most lavish meal a household could put on. The contrast is between the poorest and the richest table imaginable.

15:18

Strife is an old word for fighting and quarreling.

15:19

Fields and animal pens were fenced with piled cut thornbushes; forcing your way through one is slow and painful. The road in the second half is a built-up, cleared highway raised above the ground, an engineered road rather than a footpath.

15:21

Folly means silly choices that lead to trouble.

15:22

Counsel means advice. Counsellors are people who help you decide what to do.

15:23

"In due season" means at just the right moment.

15:24

The dead were pictured as going down to Sheol, the underworld beneath the earth, so life and death are described here as directions of travel: the wise person's road runs upward, away from the grave's downward pull.

15:25

Fields were marked off by stones set at their edges, easy to shift quietly at night, and a widow had no husband to press her claim in a dispute. Moving a boundary stone was a standard way of stealing land from people who could not fight back, and Israelite law specifically forbade it.

15:27

The word translated "bribes" simply means "gifts", payments made to a judge or official to bend a ruling. Israelite law banned officials from accepting them, because they blinded the eyes of those deciding a case.

15:30

The King James has "maketh the bones fat". In Hebrew a person's bones stand for their physical vigor: well-fed bones mean health and strength, while dry or wasted bones mean weakness, grief or fear.

15:32

"Soul" here means a person's own life, or simply himself.

15:33

"Honour" here is public standing in the eyes of your community, in this culture one of the most valuable things a person could hold. The proverb states the order in which the two arrive, not that humility is a technique for getting honor.