Proverbs 29: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter is a collection of short, separate sayings, most of them setting two kinds of people or two outcomes side by side. Several deal with rulers and rule: what justice, bribery, lies, and the treatment of the poor do to a land. Others deal with correction and discipline in a household, with anger and hasty speech, with flattery and pride, and with the gap between fearing people and trusting the LORD. It closes with the mutual disgust between the just and the unjust.

Claim by Claim

1. 29:1
   • A man who is often reproved and still stiffens his neck will suddenly be broken.
   • For such a man there will be no healing.
2. 29:2
   • When the righteous increase, the people rejoice.
   • When a wicked man rules, the people groan.
3. 29:3
   • A man who loves wisdom makes his father rejoice.
   • A man who keeps company with prostitutes destroys wealth.
4. 29:4
   • A king establishes the land by justice.
   • A man who exacts payments tears the land down.
   • It is unclear whether the man who tears the land down exacts bribes or imposed levies.
5. 29:5
   • A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his steps.
   • It is unclear whether the net is spread for the neighbor's steps or for the flatterer's own.
6. 29:6
   • In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare.
   • The righteous man sings and rejoices.
7. 29:7
   • The righteous man knows the legal cause of the poor.
   • The wicked man does not understand such knowledge.
8. 29:8
   • Men of mockery set a city aflame.
   • Wise men turn away wrath.
9. 29:9
   • When a wise man goes to law with a foolish man, there is raging and laughing.
   • In such a dispute there is no quiet.
   • It is unclear whether the raging and laughing are done by the fool or by the wise man.
10. 29:10
    • Men of blood hate the blameless man.
    • The upright seek his life.
    • It is unclear whether the upright seek to preserve his life or whether the seeking of his life belongs to the men of blood.
11. 29:11
    • A fool lets out all his spirit.
    • A wise man holds his spirit back until afterward.
12. 29:12
    • If a ruler listens to a false word, all his servants become wicked.
13. 29:13
    • The poor man and the man of oppressions meet together.
    • The LORD gives light to the eyes of both of them.
14. 29:14
    • A king who judges the poor in truth will have his throne established forever.
15. 29:15
    • Rod and reproof give wisdom.
    • A boy left to himself shames his mother.
16. 29:16
    • When the wicked increase, transgression increases.
    • The righteous will see the downfall of the wicked.
17. 29:17
    • Discipline your son and he will give you rest.
    • He will give delights to your soul.
18. 29:18
    • Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint.
    • The one who keeps the law is happy.
19. 29:19
    • A servant is not corrected by words alone.
    • Though he understands, there is no response from him.
20. 29:20
    • The hearer is asked whether he sees a man hasty in his words.
    • There is more hope for a fool than for a man hasty in his words.
21. 29:21
    • A man who pampers his servant from youth will find a certain outcome in the end.
    • The word for that outcome is obscure: it has been taken to mean the servant becomes an heir or son, and also to mean grief or trouble.
22. 29:22
    • An angry man stirs up strife.
    • A man of wrath abounds in transgression.
23. 29:23
    • A man's pride will bring him low.
    • The lowly in spirit will hold honor.
    • It is unclear whether the humble man grasps honor or honor upholds the humble man.
24. 29:24
    • Whoever shares with a thief hates his own soul.
    • He hears the oath of adjuration and does not tell.
25. 29:25
    • Fear of man sets a snare.
    • Whoever trusts in the LORD will be set securely on high.
26. 29:26
    • Many seek the face of a ruler.
    • A man's judgment comes from the LORD.
27. 29:27
    • An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous.
    • A man upright in his way is an abomination to the wicked.

Words Worth Explaining

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

29:1

"Stiffens his neck" is a farming image: an ox that locks its neck against the yoke and refuses to be steered. In Hebrew it is the standard phrase for stubborn refusal to be told anything.

29:2

The Hebrew verb behind "hold power" can mean either "become many" or "become great," so the line may picture righteous people increasing in number or rising to authority. The King James chose the second sense; other translations choose the first.

29:3

A harlot is a prostitute, a woman paid to have sex with men. "Spendeth his substance" means he throws away his money and property.

29:4

The Hebrew calls the second king literally "a man of contributions", a word used both for taxes and tribute and for bribes taken by officials. The point is a ruler who treats his country as a source of income, but which kind of taking is meant is not specified.

29:5

To flatter someone is to praise him in a way you do not really mean, so you can get something from him. Hunters spread nets on the ground to catch birds, and praise can work the same way.

29:6

A snare was a hunter's trap, a hidden loop of cord that tightened on a bird's leg. Proverbs uses it for anything that catches a person without warning.

29:7

"The cause of the poor" means their case in court. A poor person could not pay for help, so a fair judge was their only hope.

29:8

"Scornful men" are mockers. They sneer at everything and treat serious things as a joke.

29:9

The verb describes a legal dispute as well as a quarrel generally. The Hebrew also leaves open who is raging and laughing (the fool, the wise man, or both by turns) and simply says there is no quiet.

29:10

The second half is genuinely difficult. "Seek his life" (King James "seek his soul") is elsewhere in the Old Testament a phrase for trying to kill someone, so the line can be read as "the bloodthirsty hate the honest man, and even the upright are after his life," or, taking the phrase in a good sense, as upright people looking out for him. Translators divide.

29:11

The word rendered "everything he feels" is Hebrew *ruach*, breath or wind, used for a person's temper or mood. The fool empties it all out; the wise man keeps it in.

29:12

"Hearken" means listen. A ruler's "servants" here are his officials, the men who run the country for him.

29:13

"Gives light to the eyes" is an idiom for keeping someone alive, bright eyes meant a living, healthy person, dim eyes meant one near death. The saying is that rich and poor alike draw their life from the same source.

29:14

A throne is a king's chair, and it stands for his right to rule. "Established" means his rule will stand firm and pass on to his family.

29:15

The rod was the ordinary instrument of household and school discipline in ancient Israel, a stick or switch; the same word is used for a shepherd's staff and a ruler's scepter. Proverbs pairs it here with spoken correction rather than setting it against it.

29:16

"Transgression" means wrongdoing. The word pictures stepping across a line that was drawn for you.

29:18

"Vision" means a message received by a prophet, a word from God delivered to the community. The King James "perish" translates a Hebrew verb that means to run loose or throw off restraint, the word used of the Israelites running wild while Moses was on the mountain; it is about a people out of control rather than a people dying out.

29:19

"Servant" here means a bondservant or slave, a household worker who was owned or bound by debt, not an employee who could quit. The saying assumes a system in which such a person had no reason to answer back and no stake in cooperating.

29:21

The last word of this verse in Hebrew, *manon*, appears nowhere else in the Bible and nobody knows what it means. Ancient and modern translators have guessed "son" or "heir" (as here and in the King James), and also "grief," "trouble," or "ingratitude." The first half is clear, a servant pampered from childhood, but how it turns out is a guess.

29:23

To be "humble in spirit" means not thinking you are better than other people.

29:24

In Israelite law, when a crime had no known witness a public curse could be pronounced calling down disaster on anyone who knew something and stayed silent. To "hear the curse" was to be legally summoned to speak. The thief's partner hears it, keeps quiet, and so brings the curse on himself. The King James "bewrayeth it not" means "does not disclose it", "bewray" is an old word for reveal, unrelated to "betray."

29:25

The Hebrew for the second half pictures a person set up on a height, out of reach of attackers, the image behind "safe" is a cliff-top refuge, not merely being unharmed.

29:26

The Hebrew is literally "many seek the ruler's face", an idiom for angling to be received at court and get a favorable hearing from the man in power.

29:27

An "abomination" is something a person finds disgusting and cannot stand to be near.