Proverbs 19: What really keeps you safe | Bible study

Being poor is hard, and many friends only stay for the money. But being honest, patient, willing to be corrected and respecting God is what really keeps a life safe. Whatever people plan, God's plan is the one that happens.

Proverbs 19:1

It is better to be poor and honest than to be a fool who tells twisted lies.

Better to be poor and walk in wholeness

This is a 'better than' saying, which ranks two things. The first is a person with no money who lives honestly, the same inside as outside.

than to have twisted lips and be a fool.

The second is a person whose speech is crooked: he lies, flatters or deceives. The verse calls him a fool whatever he gains by it. Character outranks circumstances. Poverty with integrity is the better position.

רש · rash · poor, destitute: From a verb meaning to be in want. Someone who has nothing. The word appears three times in this chapter (verses 1, 7, 22).
הלך · halak · walk, live: To walk, and so to conduct one's life. In Hebrew how you live is how you walk.
תם · tom · wholeness, completeness: From a root meaning to be complete. Integrity is being whole: not divided between what you appear to be and what you are.
עקש · iqqesh · twisted, crooked: Twisted, the opposite of straight. Applied to lips, it means speech that bends the truth.
כסיל · kesil · dull, thick fool: The thick, self-confident fool of 1:22.

Proverbs 28:6 is almost the same saying but ends with 'though he is rich' instead of 'and is a fool'. Here the contrast is not poor against rich but honest against crooked.

Proverbs 19:2

Being keen without knowing what you are doing is no good. If you rush, you will go the wrong way.

Also, a person without knowledge is not good,

Acting without knowing what you are doing is not good. The Hebrew word for 'person' can also mean desire, so the line may be saying that drive or enthusiasm without knowledge is not good. Either way, energy does not make up for ignorance.

and whoever rushes with his feet misses the way.

The second line gives the picture. Someone hurrying along without knowing the road takes the wrong turn. Speed makes the mistake happen faster and carries him further from where he meant to go.

נפש · nephesh · self, life, desire: The self or life, and also appetite or desire. NASB takes it as 'a person'. Others take it as desire, giving 'zeal without knowledge'.
דעת · da'at · knowledge: Knowledge gained by experience. The chapter returns to it in verses 25 and 27.
אוץ · uts · press, hurry: To press on, to be in a hurry. Proverbs regularly links haste with loss (21:5; 29:20).
רגל · regel · foot: Literally 'with the feet'. The hurry is pictured as walking too fast.
חטא · chata · miss the mark: The ordinary verb for to sin. Its root sense is to miss a target or a path, and that concrete sense fits the picture here.

Proverbs 19:3

Some people wreck their own lives by being foolish. Then they get angry at God about it.

A man's own folly wrecks his road,

The cause of the ruin is named first: his own folly. He made the choices that twisted his life out of shape.

yet his heart storms against the LORD.

This is the irony. Having caused the damage himself, he is furious with God for it. The verse exposes a common move: wreck your own life and then blame God for the outcome.

אולת · ivvelet · folly: The noun that goes with evil, the stubborn fool of 1:7. Folly as a settled way of acting.
סלף · salaph · twist, overturn: To twist or subvert. It is used of a bribe that twists the words of the righteous (Exodus 23:8). His folly bends his road until it leads nowhere good.
דרך · derek · road, way of life: A road, and so the course of a life.
לב · lev · heart, mind: The inner person, where the anger is nursed.
זעף · za'aph · storm, be enraged: To be stormy with anger. The noun from this root describes the king's wrath in verse 12.
יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name: The first of five mentions of the LORD in this chapter.

Proverbs 19:4

Money brings lots of friends. But a poor person loses even the one friend he has.

Wealth keeps adding friends,

This describes how things are. Money attracts company. People gather around someone who has something to offer.

but the poor man is parted from the friend he has.

The contrast is sharp. The rich gain many friends; the poor person loses even the one he had. The proverb does not approve of this. It tells you to know what such friendship is worth.

הון · hon · wealth, goods: Wealth, possessions. It returns in verse 14 as something a father can leave.
יסף · yasaph · add, increase: To add. Wealth is the subject of the verb: the money does the adding.
רע · rea · companion, neighbor: A companion or neighbor. It can mean a true friend or merely an associate. Here they are clearly the second kind.
דל · dal · weak, low, poor: A different word from verse 1. Dal means thin, weak, brought low. The person with no weight in society.
פרד · parad · divide, part: To be divided off. The verb of 18:1, where a man separated himself by choice. Here the poor man is separated by others.

Proverbs 19:5

A person who lies about others in court will be punished. Someone who breathes out lies will not get away.

A lying witness will not be let off,

The setting is a court. Someone who gives false testimony may think nobody can prove it, but the verse says he will be held guilty.

and whoever breathes out lies will not get away.

The second line says the same thing more vividly. Lies come out of him as easily as breath, and there is no escape route. The proverb does not say who will catch him. In Proverbs the LORD is the final guarantor of justice (6:16-19).

עד שקרים · ed sheqarim · witness of lies: Ed is a witness; sheqarim is the plural of sheqer, falsehood. The ninth commandment forbids being an ed sheqer (Exodus 20:16).
נקה · naqah · be held innocent: To be clean, clear of guilt. With 'not': he will not be acquitted. The word is used of God in Exodus 34:7, who will not leave the guilty unpunished.
פוח · puach · breathe out: To breathe or puff out. Proverbs uses it several times for a witness uttering lies (6:19; 14:5, 25).
כזב · kazav · lie, deception: A lie, something that fails and deceives. A second word for falsehood beside sheqer.
מלט · malat · slip away: To slip away to safety.

Israel's courts had no forensic evidence. A case stood or fell on what witnesses said, and a person could be put to death on the word of two (Deuteronomy 17:6). A false witness was to receive the penalty he had tried to bring on the accused (Deuteronomy 19:16-19).

Proverbs 19:6

Many people try to please someone important who shares freely. Everyone is a friend to the one who gives presents.

Many court the favor of a great man,

People crowd around someone who has rank and is free with his money, trying to get into his good graces.

and everyone is a friend to the man who hands out gifts.

'Everyone' is deliberately overstated. The friendship is with the gifts, not the man. Like verse 4, this is an observation, and it should make both the giver and the flatterer think.

חלה פנים · chalah panim · soften the face: An idiom, literally to soften or sweeten someone's face: to coax a person into a good mood toward you. It is also used of entreating God (Exodus 32:11).
נדיב · nadiv · noble, willing giver: From a root meaning to be willing. It means both a generous person and a noble or prince, since the nobleman was expected to be open-handed.
רע · rea · companion, neighbor: The word of verse 4. The Hebrew says 'everyone is the friend', with the article.
איש מתן · ish mattan · man of gift: Literally 'a man of gift'. Mattan is the gift of 18:16 that opens doors.

Proverbs 19:7

Even a poor man's family doesn't want him around, and his friends stay away even more. He runs after them begging, but they are gone.

All a poor man's brothers hate him;

Even his own family finds him a burden and an embarrassment. 'Hate' in Hebrew can mean to reject or avoid, not only to feel hostility.

how much more do his friends keep their distance from him!

An argument from the greater to the lesser. If relatives, who are bound to him, turn away, friends who have no such tie will stay away all the more.

He chases after them with words, but they are not there.

The poor man runs after them pleading, and gets nothing. Verses 4, 6 and 7 together give a hard picture of what poverty does to relationships. Verse 17 will give the other side.

אח · ach · brother, kinsman: Brothers, or relatives in general. The people who had a duty to help.
רש · rash · poor, destitute: The destitute person of verse 1.
שנא · sane · hate, reject: To hate. The word covers a range from hostility to simply turning away from someone.
רע · rea · companion, neighbor: A related form of the word in verses 4 and 6. Third time in four verses.
רחק · rachaq · be far, keep away: To be or go far off. They put distance between themselves and him.
רדף · radaph · chase: To chase, as one pursues an enemy or prey. Here it is a man running after people who are leaving.

This is the only three-line saying in this part of Proverbs, and the third line is obscure. It reads literally 'pursuing words, not they'. The Hebrew margin reads 'his they are' instead of 'not they'. The ancient Greek version has extra lines here, so part of a second proverb may have been lost.

Proverbs 19:8

Getting wisdom is being kind to yourself. Hold on to understanding and good things will come to you.

Whoever gets sense loves his own life;

Acquiring good sense is the truest self-interest. The person who puts effort into becoming wise is doing himself the greatest kindness.

whoever guards understanding is on the way to finding good.

The second line moves from getting to keeping. Understanding has to be guarded once you have it, and the one who does so ends up with good. After the verses on friends who come for money, this says where real gain lies.

קנה · qanah · get, buy: To acquire or buy, as in 4:7: get wisdom. It costs something.
לב · lev · heart, sense: The Hebrew is 'heart', not the usual word for wisdom. To 'get a heart' is to get a mind that works, good sense. The opposite in Proverbs is the person who 'lacks heart' (7:7).
אהב · ahav · love: To love. Loving your own life here is not selfishness. It is caring about what really becomes of you.
נפש · nephesh · life, self: The self, one's own life. Compare 8:36, where the one who misses wisdom wrongs his own nephesh.
שמר · shamar · guard, keep: To keep watch over, to guard. The same verb is used twice in verse 16.
תבונה · tevunah · insight: From bin, to tell things apart. The insight that sees how things really are.

Proverbs 19:9

A person who lies about others in court will be punished. A person who keeps on telling lies will be destroyed.

A lying witness will not be let off,

This is the same as verse 5, word for word. The repetition so soon after is deliberate emphasis.

and whoever breathes out lies will be destroyed.

One word is changed. Verse 5 said he will not escape; this says what happens when he does not: he perishes. The second saying finishes what the first began.

עד שקרים · ed sheqarim · witness of lies: The same phrase as verse 5.
נקה · naqah · be held innocent: The same verb as verse 5: he will not be cleared.
כזב · kazav · lie, deception: The same word as verse 5. It comes once more in verse 22.
אבד · abad · perish, be lost: To be lost, to perish. This is the one word that differs from verse 5.

Proverbs 19:10

A life of fancy things does not suit a fool. It is even worse when a servant who is not ready for it is put in charge of princes.

Luxury does not suit a fool;

A fool living in comfort is a mismatch. He has not earned it, cannot handle it, and it only gives his folly more room.

how much less a slave ruling over princes.

A second and worse mismatch. The point is not contempt for slaves. It is that someone with no training or character for rule, suddenly given power over those who have it, does great harm. Both lines are about people raised above what they can carry.

תענוג · ta'anug · delight, luxury: Fine living, pleasures. From a root meaning to be soft or delicate.
נאוה · na'veh · fitting, becoming: Suitable, seemly. Proverbs has several 'not fitting' sayings about fools (17:7; 26:1).
כסיל · kesil · dull, thick fool: The fool of verse 1.
עבד · eved · servant, slave: A servant or slave. Compare 30:21-22, where a slave becoming king is one of the things the earth cannot bear.
משל · mashal · rule, govern: To rule or have dominion.
שר · sar · official, prince: A chief, official or commander. Not necessarily royal: the people who run things.

Proverbs 19:11

A sensible person is slow to get angry. It is a fine thing to let it go when someone does you wrong.

A man's good sense makes him slow to anger,

Patience is presented as a product of insight. The sensible person sees more: the other person's situation, the cost of a fight, how small the matter is. So he does not flare up.

and it is his glory to pass over an offense.

The second line goes further than holding one's temper. He lets the wrong go by. Most people think their honor requires them to answer every insult. This says the real honor is in not needing to.

שכל · sekel · insight, good sense: Insight that leads to acting well. The same root describes the 'prudent' wife of verse 14.
ארך אף · arak aph · lengthen anger: Literally he 'makes his nose long'. Aph is the nose, and so anger, pictured as hard breathing. To be long of nose is to take a long time to get angry. God is described this way in Exodus 34:6.
תפארת · tiph'eret · beauty, splendor: Beauty, adornment, something to be proud of. Forgiving is worn like an ornament.
עבר · avar · pass over: To cross over or pass by. He walks past the offense. The same wording is used of God in Micah 7:18.
פשע · pesha · transgression: A strong word: rebellion, a real wrong done against someone. What he passes over is not a trifle.

Proverbs 19:12

A king's anger is like a lion's roar. But his kindness is like dew on the grass.

A king's rage is like the growl of a young lion,

A lion's roar means danger close by, from something you cannot fight. A king had the power of life and death, so his anger was to be feared in the same way.

but his favor is like dew on the grass.

The opposite picture. Dew comes quietly and makes things grow. The same man who can destroy can also make a person flourish. The lesson for anyone serving under authority is to know which one they are drawing out.

זעף · za'aph · storming rage: The noun of the verb in verse 3. There a fool raged against the LORD, which is futile. Here a king rages, which is dangerous.
נהם · naham · growl: The deep growl of a lion. The first line is almost repeated in 20:2.
כפיר · kephir · young lion: A young lion in its full strength, old enough to hunt.
רצון · ratson · goodwill, acceptance: Goodwill, pleasure. Used in 18:22 of the LORD's favor.
טל · tal · dew: Dew. Compare 16:15, where the king's favor is like a cloud bringing the spring rain.
עשב · esev · green plants: Green growth, the plants of the field.

Israel has no rain from about May to October. During those months heavy night dew is what keeps plants alive, so dew was a picture of quiet, life-giving blessing (Hosea 14:5).

Proverbs 19:13

A foolish child brings disaster on his dad. A wife who keeps arguing is like water that never stops dripping.

A foolish son is disaster to his father,

A father's work, name and hopes pass to his son. A son who is a fool brings all of that down, so the word used is disaster, not disappointment.

and a wife's quarrelling is a drip that never stops.

A second trouble inside the house, of a different kind. The son is a catastrophe; this is a constant wearing irritation, like a leak that goes on and on. Both make home, which should be a refuge, a place of misery.

בן כסיל · ben kesil · son who is a fool: Ben is son; kesil is the dull fool. The same phrase is in 10:1 and 17:25, where he is grief to his parents.
הוה · havvah · ruin, calamity: Ruin, disaster. The Hebrew is plural here, which strengthens it: ruin upon ruin.
מדון · madon · contention: Contention, strife. The word used in 18:18 and 18:19.
אשה · ishah · woman, wife: The same word as in the next verse, where the picture is the opposite.
דלף טרד · deleph tored · relentless leak: Deleph is a drip or leak; tored means driving, continuous. The same picture comes in 27:15, set on a rainy day.

Houses had flat roofs of beams, brushwood and packed clay. In heavy rain a poorly kept roof leaked steadily into the living space, and there was nothing to do but put up with it until the rain stopped.

Proverbs 19:14

Parents can leave you a house and money. But only God can give a wise wife.

A house and wealth are handed down by fathers,

Property comes through the family. A father can arrange for his son to have a home and money.

but a wife with good sense comes from the LORD.

The contrast is in who can give what. No father can pass on a wise wife in his will. She is a gift only God gives. Set after verse 13, this is the other side of the quarrelsome wife, and it rates such a wife above any inheritance.

בית · bayit · house, household: A house, and also a household or family estate.
הון · hon · wealth, goods: The wealth of verse 4. It can attract friends and it can be inherited, but it is not the best gift.
נחלה · nachalah · inherited property: Property passed down in a family, above all the family's allotted land.
שכל · sakal · have insight: A participle from the verb behind 'discretion' (sekel) in verse 11: a wife who acts with insight. The same form describes the wise servant of 17:2.
יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name: Compare 18:22, where finding a wife is receiving favor from the LORD.

Proverbs 19:15

Being lazy makes you sink into a deep sleep. And a lazy person will go hungry.

Laziness drops a person into a dead sleep,

Laziness feeds on itself. The less a person does, the less he is able to do, until he is sunk in a stupor and cannot rouse himself.

and the slack person will go hungry.

The practical result. No work means no food. The first line shows what laziness does to the person; the second shows what it does to his table.

עצלה · atslah · sluggishness: The noun from atsel, the sluggard who appears in verse 24.
נפל · naphal · make fall: To fall. In this form: to make something fall. Laziness makes a deep sleep fall on him.
תרדמה · tardemah · heavy sleep: A very heavy sleep, like the one that fell on Adam (Genesis 2:21) and on Abram (Genesis 15:12). Not ordinary rest but being dead to the world.
נפש רמיה · nephesh remiyyah · slack person: Literally 'a soul of slackness'. Remiyyah means looseness, and in other places deceit. It is the 'slack hand' of 10:4.
רעב · ra'ev · be hungry: To be hungry. Nephesh can also mean appetite, so there is a grim edge: the slack appetite will go unfed.

Proverbs 19:16

Obey the commands and you keep your own life safe. If you don't care how you live, you will die.

Whoever guards the commandment guards his own life,

The same verb is used twice. You keep the command, and in doing so you keep yourself. Obedience is not a cost paid for someone else's benefit. It is how a person protects his own life.

but whoever thinks nothing of his ways will die.

The contrast. This person does not care how he lives. He treats his conduct as a matter of no importance, and the end of that is death.

שמר · shamar · guard, keep: To guard or watch over. It is used twice in the line, a wordplay English can keep. The verb of verse 8.
מצוה · mitsvah · command: A command: the teaching of parents and the wise (6:20), and behind it God's command.
נפש · nephesh · life, self: His life, his very self.
בזה · bazah · despise: To despise, to treat as worthless. Esau 'despised' his birthright with this verb (Genesis 25:34). Stronger than the English 'careless': he holds his own conduct in contempt.
דרך · derek · road, way of life: Literally 'his ways'. The road-word of verse 3.
מות · mut · die: To die. The verb returns in verse 18.

The Hebrew text is written 'will be put to death' and traditionally read aloud as 'will die'. Some also understand 'his ways' as the LORD's ways and not the person's own.

Proverbs 19:17

Being kind to a poor person is like lending to God. He will pay you back for the good you did.

Whoever is kind to the poor is lending to the LORD,

This is one of the boldest statements in the book. Giving to someone who cannot pay you back is treated as a loan, and the borrower is God. He takes the poor person's debt as his own.

and he will pay him back what he has done.

The LORD makes himself responsible for repayment. After verses 4 and 7, where everyone leaves the poor man, this is the answer: the one person nobody wants as a friend has God standing behind him.

חנן · chanan · show favor: To be gracious, to show favor that is not owed. The root of chen, grace.
דל · dal · weak, low, poor: The weak one of verse 4, whom his friend left.
לוה · lavah · lend: To lend. In 22:7 the borrower is servant to the lender, which makes this picture startling: God takes the place of the borrower.
יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name: Compare 14:31: whoever is gracious to the needy honors his Maker.
שלם · shalam · pay in full: From the root of shalom, wholeness. To make whole, to pay in full.
גמול · gemul · deed, what is due: What a person has done, and so what is due in return for it.

Proverbs 19:18

Correct your child while there is still hope of helping them. Don't be the reason their life is destroyed.

Discipline your son, for there is hope,

A command to parents, with a reason. Correct your child while correction can still work. The hope is that he can still be shaped, and that window does not stay open.

and do not set your heart on putting him to death.

This line is read in two ways. It may warn against failing to discipline: a parent who will not correct a child is, in effect, choosing his ruin. Or it may limit discipline: do not let anger carry you into destroying him. Both keep the purpose of discipline in view, which is the child's life.

יסר · yasar · correct, train: The verb behind musar (verses 20 and 27). To correct, instruct, chasten. It covers words as well as punishment.
בן · ben · son, child: The son, the usual pupil in Proverbs.
תקוה · tiqvah · hope, expectation: Hope, a future to look forward to. It also means a cord (Joshua 2:18): something to hold on to.
נשא נפש · nasa nephesh · lift the soul toward: Literally 'do not lift up your soul to'. To lift the soul toward something is to set your desire on it (Psalm 24:4).
מות · mut · die: The Hebrew is a verb form: 'causing him to die'. The same verb as verse 16.

Older versions render the second line as a warning not to spare the child because of his crying. That rests on a different understanding of the last word. The Hebrew is 'to his being put to death do not lift your soul', and most modern versions follow that.

Proverbs 19:19

A person with a hot temper has to pay for it. If you rescue him once, you will only have to do it again.

A man of great rage will bear the penalty;

A person with a violent temper keeps landing himself in trouble: fines, fights, broken relationships. The verse says he should carry those consequences himself.

for if you rescue him, you will have to do it again.

The reason. If you step in and get him out, you have not helped him. You have only removed the one thing that might have taught him, and he will be back in the same trouble soon. It is a warning against shielding people from the results of their own anger.

גדל חמה · gedol chemah · great in heat: Chemah is heat, and so burning anger. A person 'great of heat' is hot-tempered.
נשא · nasa · bear, carry: To lift and carry. He carries his own penalty.
ענש · onesh · fine, penalty: A fine or penalty. The related verb is used for fining in 17:26 and 21:11.
נצל · natsal · deliver, pull out: To snatch away, to deliver. Usually a good act in the Bible. Here it does harm.
יסף · yasaph · add, do again: Literally 'you will add'. The verb of verse 4, where wealth added friends. Here one rescue adds another.

The Hebrew has a small textual problem in the first word, where the written text and the traditional reading differ by one letter; 'great' follows the traditional reading. The second line is very compressed, literally 'for if you deliver, and again you will add', and versions fill it out in slightly different ways.

Proverbs 19:20

Listen to advice, and accept it when someone corrects you. Then you will be wise for the rest of your life.

Listen to counsel and take correction,

Two commands. Counsel is advice given before you act; correction is what you are given after you get it wrong. Both have to be received from someone else.

so that in the end you will be wise.

The purpose. Wisdom is the long-term result of years of listening. The Hebrew says 'in your end', your later life. Nobody starts wise; people become wise by taking advice and correction.

שמע · shama · hear and heed: To hear and act on it. The first command of the father in 1:8.
עצה · etsah · counsel: Counsel, a considered plan. The same word is used of the LORD's counsel in the next verse.
קבל · qabal · receive, take: To receive or take what is handed to you.
מוסר · musar · discipline, correction: The noun from 'discipline' in verse 18. There the parent gives it; here the hearer must take it.
חכם · chakam · be wise: The verb from the root of chokmah: to become wise.
אחרית · acharit · end, later time: The after-part, the outcome. Proverbs judges a path by its acharit, where it ends up (5:4; 14:12; 23:18).

Proverbs 19:21

People have many plans in their hearts. But what God has decided is what will happen.

Many are the plans in a man's heart,

People are always planning, and they have many plans, often competing ones. The verse does not criticise planning. It simply notes how much of it there is.

but it is the LORD's purpose that will stand.

The contrast is many against one, and passing against lasting. Whatever people intend, what God has decided is what happens. It follows verse 20 closely: listen to counsel, and remember whose counsel is final.

מחשבה · machashavah · thought, plan: From a verb meaning to think, reckon, devise. A thought-out intention.
לב · lev · heart, mind: The mind, where plans are made. Compare 16:9: a man's heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.
עצה · etsah · counsel, purpose: The same word as 'advice' in verse 20. When it is God's, it means his settled purpose. It is singular, set against the many human plans.
יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name: The fourth mention in the chapter.
קום · qum · rise, stand: To rise and stay standing. The Hebrew adds an emphatic 'it': that is the one that will stand.

Proverbs 19:22

What people want most in a person is faithful kindness. It is better to be poor than to be a liar.

What people long for in a man is his loyal kindness,

The quality that makes a person wanted is faithful love: he can be counted on and he acts kindly. That, more than money or ability, is what others look for in him.

and a poor man is better than a liar.

This follows from the first line. A poor person cannot do much for you, but he does not pretend. A liar promises kindness and does not deliver. It is better to have nothing to give than to give false words.

תאוה · ta'avah · desire, longing: Desire. The Hebrew is literally 'the desire of a man is his chesed', which can mean what is desired in him or what he himself desires.
חסד · chesed · loyal love: Loyal love, faithfulness to a relationship shown in action. One of the great words of the Old Testament, used of God's own covenant love.
רש · rash · poor, destitute: The third 'poor' of this kind in the chapter. As in verse 1, the poor man comes out ahead in a 'better than' saying.
איש כזב · ish kazav · man of falsehood: Literally 'a man of a lie'. Kazav is the word for the lies breathed out in verses 5 and 9.

The first line is ambiguous in Hebrew. It can mean that kindness is what is desirable in a person (so NASB), or that what a person truly longs for is loyal love from others. A few interpreters take a rare second meaning of the word chesed, 'disgrace' (as in 14:34), and read the line as saying a man's greed is his shame.

Proverbs 19:23

Respecting God deeply leads to life. You can go to sleep with enough, not afraid of trouble coming in the night.

The fear of the LORD leads to life;

Reverence for God puts a person on the road to life in the full sense Proverbs gives the word: a secure, whole, good life.

he spends the night content, and harm does not come looking for him.

The second line turns life into a concrete picture. He goes to bed with enough, and he sleeps without dread of what might arrive in the night. Contentment and safety are the daily shape of the life in the first line.

יראה · yir'ah · reverent awe: Taking God with full seriousness. The foundation named in 1:7.
חיים · chayyim · life: Life in its fullness. Compare 14:27, where the fear of the LORD is a spring of life.
לין · lin · lodge overnight: To spend the night, to lodge. The picture is of getting through the night undisturbed.
שבע · savea · full, content: Full, having had enough. The opposite of the hunger that comes on the lazy in verse 15.
פקד · paqad · visit, call on: To visit, to call to account. Literally 'he is not visited by harm'. Harm is pictured as a caller who does not come to his door.
רע · ra · bad, harmful: The broad word for what is bad or does harm. Here it means calamity, not moral evil.

Proverbs 19:24

The lazy person dips a hand into the bowl of food. But he is too lazy to lift it back up to his mouth!

The sluggard buries his hand in the bowl

This is a comic sketch. The lazy man is at a meal and manages to get his hand as far as the food.

and will not even bring it back up to his mouth.

And then he cannot be bothered to lift it. The exaggeration makes the point: laziness ends by defeating even a person's own most basic interests. He starts things and will not finish them, even when the benefit is all his.

עצל · atsel · sluggard: The sluggard, a stock figure in Proverbs (6:6-11; 26:13-16). The person whose laziness was named in verse 15.
טמן · taman · hide, bury: To hide something away, usually in the ground. His hand goes into the dish and stays there as if buried.
יד · yad · hand: The hand is the tool of work in Proverbs (10:4). His will not do even this much.
צלחת · tsallachat · bowl, dish: A dish or bowl. In 2 Kings 21:13 it is a dish that is wiped and turned over.
שוב · shuv · turn back, return: To return. In this form: to bring something back. The saying is repeated in 26:15, which adds that he is too weary to do it.

People ate from a shared dish in the middle, dipping in with the hand or with a piece of bread (compare Mark 14:20). The motion from dish to mouth was the simplest act of the day.

Proverbs 19:25

Punish someone who mocks, and people who don't know better will learn to be careful. Correct someone with understanding, and that person learns even more.

Hit a scoffer, and the gullible person learns shrewdness;

The scoffer himself will not learn from punishment. But the naive person watching does. He sees what mockery costs and grows more careful. Public consequences teach bystanders.

correct a discerning person, and he gains knowledge.

The contrast is in what each one needs. The naive learn only from seeing someone else punished. The discerning person needs just a word, and he learns from it directly. Three kinds of people are in the verse, and how each one learns shows what each one is.

נכה · nakah · strike, beat: To strike. It refers to physical punishment, as in verse 29.
לץ · lets · mocker: The one who sneers at correction and cannot be taught (9:7-8). He is one of the types named in 1:22.
פתי · peti · open, gullible: From a root meaning to be open. The uncommitted person who can still go either way. Unlike the scoffer, he can still learn.
ערם · aram · be shrewd: The verb behind ormah, the shrewdness that 1:4 promised to give the naive. Here is one way he gets it.
יכח · yakach · correct, reprove: To set right by argument, to reprove. The verb behind tokachat, the correction offered by Wisdom in 1:23.
נבון · navon · discerning: From bin, to tell things apart. The Hebrew adds that he will 'discern knowledge', using the same root again. A very similar saying is in 21:11.

Proverbs 19:26

A child who robs his dad and chases his mum out of her home brings shame on the whole family.

Whoever ruins his father and drives his mother out

The picture is of a grown child and ageing parents. He plunders or wrecks what his father has, and puts his mother out of her home. The people who raised him are treated as obstacles.

is a son who brings shame and disgrace.

The verdict. What he does disgraces the whole family in public as well as injuring his parents. The fifth commandment required honoring father and mother, which included caring for them in old age. This son does the opposite.

שדד · shadad · devastate, plunder: To devastate or despoil, a word used of armies ruining a land. It is more than a blow. He lays his father waste.
ברח · barach · make flee: To flee. In this form: to make someone flee, to chase off.
בוש · bosh · cause shame: A participle: one who causes shame. The same form describes the son who sleeps through harvest in 10:5.
חפר · chapher · bring reproach: To be abashed or disgraced; here, causing disgrace. The two shame-words are a regular pair in Hebrew.
בן · ben · son, child: The son again. Verse 18 told the parent to discipline him while there was hope; this is how it can end if that fails.

Proverbs 19:27

My child, if you stop listening when you are corrected, you will wander away from what is true.

Stop listening to correction, my son,

The command is ironic. The teacher does not want the son to stop. He is stating the condition as though it were an instruction, to make him see where it leads: go ahead and stop, and this is what follows.

and you will wander away from the words of knowledge.

The result is drift. Nobody decides to abandon what he knows to be true. He just stops listening to correction, and the straying follows without any further decision. Knowledge has to be kept by continuing to listen.

חדל · chadal · cease, leave off: To cease, to leave off doing something.
שמע · shama · hear and heed: The verb of verse 20. That verse commanded listening; this one shows what stopping costs.
מוסר · musar · discipline, correction: The correction a son is to be given (verse 18) and to accept (verse 20).
שגה · shagah · wander, go astray: To wander off, as a sheep strays. It often implies going wrong without meaning to. In 5:23 the man without discipline goes astray with this verb.
אמר · emer · saying, word: A saying, something spoken. The sayings that carry knowledge.
דעת · da'at · knowledge: The knowledge of verses 2 and 25.

The Hebrew is literally 'cease, my son, to hear discipline, to stray from words of knowledge'. NASB and most modern versions take it as an ironic command with its consequence. Some older versions read it as a command to stop listening to the kind of instruction that leads astray.

Proverbs 19:28

A person who lies in court makes a joke of what is fair. Bad people gulp down wrong things like food.

A worthless witness mocks at justice,

This witness does not merely lie. He treats the whole process of justice as a joke. The court exists to find the truth, and he holds that in contempt.

and the mouth of the wicked gulps down wrongdoing.

The second line gives the appetite behind it. The wicked take in evil the way a hungry person swallows food, eagerly and whole. Lying in court is not a lapse for them. It is what they feed on.

עד בליעל · ed beliyya'al · witness of worthlessness: Beliyya'al means worthlessness, good-for-nothing wickedness. The two men hired to testify falsely against Naboth are called 'sons of beliyya'al' (1 Kings 21:10).
ליץ · lits · scoff, mock: The verb from which lets, scoffer, comes. This witness is a scoffer in court, and verse 29 says what is waiting for scoffers.
משפט · mishpat · verdict, justice: The court's judgment, and justice itself.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked: The Hebrew is plural: the wicked as a class.
בלע · bala · gulp down: To swallow in a gulp. The verb in 1:12, where the gang wanted to swallow the innocent alive.
און · aven · trouble, wickedness: Wickedness, and the trouble and harm it causes.

Proverbs 19:29

Punishment is ready and waiting for people who mock. A beating is waiting for fools who will not learn.

Sentences stand ready for scoffers,

The scoffer who mocked justice in verse 28 finds that justice has something ready for him. The penalties are already set and waiting.

and blows for the backs of fools.

The fool gets the same, in physical form. The chapter ends with the consequence for those who would not learn from words: verse 20 offered counsel and correction, and for those who refuse them only the rod is left.

שפט · shephet · act of judgment: From the same root as mishpat in verse 28. It means punishments handed down. He mocked judgment; judgments are prepared for him.
כון · kun · be fixed, ready: To be firm, established, made ready. The penalty is not improvised. It is fixed in place.
לץ · lets · mocker: The scoffer of verse 25, here in the plural.
מהלמות · mahalumot · blows: The word occurs only here and in 18:6, where the fool's mouth called out for them. Here they arrive.
גו · gev · back: The back, where a beating was given. Compare 10:13 and 26:3: a rod for the back of fools.
כסיל · kesil · dull, thick fool: The chapter began with a kesil in verse 1 and ends with kesilim here.