Proverbs 18: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Proverbs 18 is a collection of separate sayings, most of them two lines long. Many deal with speech: the fool's mouth that brings him trouble, the gossip's words, hearing a case before answering, and the power of the tongue over life and death. Others contrast the name of the LORD as a safe tower with wealth as an imagined wall, and set pride before ruin against humility before honor. The chapter closes with sayings on quarrels, wives, poverty and wealth, and friendship.

Claim by Claim

1. 18:1
   • A man who separates himself seeks after his own desire.
   • He breaks out against all sound wisdom.
   • The verse is ambiguous as to whether the separated man is pursuing wisdom or quarreling with it.
2. 18:2
   • A fool takes no delight in understanding.
   • A fool delights only in laying open his own mind.
3. 18:3
   • When a wicked man comes, contempt comes with him.
   • With dishonor comes reproach.
4. 18:4
   • The words of a man's mouth are deep waters.
   • The wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook.
5. 18:5
   • It is not good to show partiality to a wicked man.
   • It is not good to turn aside a righteous man in judgment.
6. 18:6
   • A fool's lips bring him into strife.
   • A fool's mouth calls for blows.
7. 18:7
   • A fool's mouth is his ruin.
   • A fool's lips are a snare to his own soul.
8. 18:8
   • The words of a talebearer go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
   • The words of a talebearer are compared to something taken in eagerly; the term is ambiguous and may mean either dainty morsels or wounds.
9. 18:9
   • One who is slack in his work is a brother to the destroyer.
10. 18:10
    • The name of the LORD is a strong tower.
    • The righteous man runs into it.
    • The righteous man is set safely on high.
11. 18:11
    • A rich man's wealth is his strong city.
    • His wealth is like a high wall in his own imagining.
12. 18:12
    • Before destruction a man's heart is haughty.
    • Before honor comes humility.
13. 18:13
    • Answering a matter before hearing it is folly to the one who does it.
    • Answering a matter before hearing it is shame to the one who does it.
14. 18:14
    • A man's spirit sustains him in his sickness.
    • No one can bear a crushed spirit.
15. 18:15
    • The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge.
    • The ear of the wise seeks knowledge.
16. 18:16
    • A man's gift makes room for him.
    • A man's gift brings him before great men.
17. 18:17
    • The one who is first to plead his case seems righteous.
    • His neighbor comes and examines him.
18. 18:18
    • The lot puts an end to disputes.
    • The lot separates between strong opponents.
19. 18:19
    • An offended brother is harder to win than a strong city.
    • Contentions are like the bars of a fortress.
    • The first clause has no stated verb in the source and its sense is uncertain.
20. 18:20
    • A man's belly is satisfied with the fruit of his mouth.
    • A man is filled with the produce of his lips.
21. 18:21
    • Death and life are in the power of the tongue.
    • Those who love the tongue will eat its fruit.
22. 18:22
    • The one who finds a wife finds a good thing.
    • The one who finds a wife obtains favor from the LORD.
23. 18:23
    • The poor man speaks pleas for mercy.
    • The rich man answers harshly.
24. 18:24
    • A man with many companions is described in a clause that is ambiguous: it may mean he must show himself friendly, or that he comes to ruin.
    • There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Words Worth Explaining

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

18:1

The Hebrew of this verse is unusually difficult and translators divide sharply over it. The King James reads it as praise: a man withdraws from company in order to hunt down wisdom. Most modern translations, including the one rendered here, read the same words as criticism: a man who cuts himself off is chasing his own cravings and quarreling with good sense. The wording itself will not settle which is meant.

18:2

In 1611 "discover" meant to uncover or show. The fool is not trying to learn anything. He just wants to spill out whatever is inside him.

18:3

"Ignominy" and "reproach" are old words for shame and blame. Stacking them up is a way of making the point hit harder.

18:4

The image of deep water can be taken two ways, and Proverbs uses it both ways elsewhere: water that is deep because it is rich and inexhaustible, and water that is deep because you cannot see into it or trust what is under the surface. The second line, the running brook, is plainly positive.

18:5

"Take the side of" translates a Hebrew idiom, literally "lift the face of", to look on someone with favor, to show partiality. The setting is a lawsuit: the "guilty man" and "someone who has done no wrong" are the two parties in a case, not people described in general moral terms. Ordinary disputes were heard by the town's elders sitting at the gate, with no professional judges or lawyers.

18:6

A beating is not just a tavern brawl here. Flogging was a standard court penalty, so the fool's mouth is pictured as summoning the punishment that his words have earned him.

18:7

A "snare" is a hidden loop of rope or wire for catching animals. The fool sets one with his own words and then walks straight into it.

18:8

The Hebrew word behind "choice bits of food" appears only here and in a repetition of this proverb at 26:22, and its meaning is uncertain; the King James translators guessed "wounds." The usual modern reading is dainty morsels that people swallow eagerly. "Deep inside" is literally "the chambers of the belly": Hebrew located thought and feeling in the internal organs, much as English speakers say a thing is felt in the gut.

18:9

Calling one thing the "brother" of another is a Hebrew idiom for belonging to the same family or class. The point is that the lazy worker and the vandal are two of a kind, not that they are related.

18:10

In Hebrew usage a person's name stands for the person (their character, reputation and power to act), so "the name of the LORD" means the LORD himself as one who can be appealed to. "LORD" printed in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, which Jewish practice avoided pronouncing aloud. A strong tower was the fortified keep inside a walled town, the last refuge if attackers broke through the outer defenses.

18:11

This proverb is built as a deliberate echo of the one before it: the same picture of a place of safety, but a wall the rich man has built for himself out of money, and one the verse says exists chiefly in his imagination.

18:12

"Heart" in Hebrew is the seat of thinking, planning and deciding, closer to the English "mind" than to the emotions. The same word is rendered "heart" here and "mind" in verse 15.

18:14

"Spirit" here translates the Hebrew word for breath or wind, used of the inner vitality that keeps a person going. The first line says that vitality can carry a body through illness; the second asks what is left when the vitality itself is the thing that has been broken.

18:16

"Gift" is the ordinary word for a present given to open a door: it covers everything from a courtesy offering to what we would call a bribe. The proverb observes what such gifts accomplish; the Hebrew does not say whether giving one is right.

18:17

Another courtroom scene at the town gate. There were no lawyers: each party spoke for himself, and "questions him closely" translates a verb meaning to search, probe or examine, what we would call cross-examination.

18:18

Casting lots meant throwing or drawing marked stones or sticks to produce a yes-or-no answer or to pick between people. Israelites used it to divide land, assign duties and choose men for tasks. Its value in a quarrel was that the result lay outside anyone's control, so neither side could claim the other had fixed the outcome.

18:19

The gates of a fortified town were secured by heavy wooden or bronze bars dropped into brackets across them, the point an attacker found hardest to force. The first line of this verse is difficult in Hebrew and the exact wording is uncertain, though the comparison to a fortified city is clear.

18:20

A standing Hebrew idiom: what a person says is pictured as a crop grown from his own mouth, which he then has to harvest and eat. The proverb does not say whether the harvest is good or bad, only that he consumes what he produced.

18:21

"Those who love it" means those who love the tongue, that is, people who love to talk. They too will eat the crop it grows, which the first line has just said can be either death or life.

18:22

"Receives kindness from the LORD" uses the standard Hebrew phrase for gaining someone's favorable regard. Some early copies, including the ancient Greek translation, read "a good wife" in the first line, which turns the saying into a comment on the kind of wife found rather than on marrying as such.

18:24

The first line is textually uncertain. Two Hebrew readings differ by a single letter: one gives "a man of many companions comes to ruin," which most modern translations follow; the other gives roughly "a man of companions must show himself friendly," which the King James followed. The second line is not in doubt.