Proverbs 21: God is in charge of everything | Bible study
God guides even kings, and He looks at every heart. He wants us to do what is right and fair. No plan can ever beat Him.
Proverbs 21:1
A king's heart is like a stream of water in God's hand. God turns it whichever way He wants.
A king's heart is like irrigation channels in the LORD's hand;
A farmer opens and closes small channels to send water to whichever part of the field he chooses. The king's mind, which seems the freest and most powerful in the land, is that kind of stream to God.
he directs it wherever he wants.
This states the point of the picture. The most powerful human decisions are still under God's control. People who fear a ruler, and rulers who think they answer to no one, are both corrected.
לב · lev · heart, mind
The centre of thinking and deciding. Here it means the king's decisions and policies.
פלג · peleg · water channel
A dug channel or small stream. Psalm 1:3 uses the same phrase for the streams beside which the fruitful tree is planted.
יד · yad · hand, power
The hand stands for power and control.
יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name
The chapter opens and closes with his rule over human affairs (verses 30 and 31).
נטה · natah · turn, bend
To incline or bend something in a direction.
חפץ · chaphets · delight in, want
To take pleasure in. God directs the king according to his own pleasure.
Fields and gardens were watered through small ditches. The farmer broke open or blocked a mud bank with his foot or a hoe to send the water down one ditch or another.
Proverbs 21:2
Everyone thinks their own way is right. But God looks at the heart and weighs what is really there.
Every way a person takes looks straight to him,
People naturally approve of their own conduct. Everyone can explain to himself why what he is doing is right.
but the LORD is the one who weighs hearts.
This is the contrast. A person judges his own path by how it looks to him. God puts the motives behind it on the scale, and his measurement is the one that counts.
דרך · derek · road, way of life
A person's course of conduct.
ישר · yashar · straight
Straight or level. The verse questions whether we can judge our own straightness.
עין · ayin · eye, opinion
'In his eyes' is the Hebrew way of saying 'in his opinion'.
יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name
The same saying, with small differences, stands at 16:2.
תכן · takan · weigh, measure
To measure out or test by weight. God assesses hearts as a merchant weighs silver.
לב · lev · heart, mind
Where motives are. A person sees his way; God sees why he chose it.
Proverbs 21:3
Doing what is right and fair pleases God more than any gift you bring to Him.
Doing what is right and just
This is the subject: everyday right dealing with other people, in business, in court and at home.
is the LORD's choice over sacrifice.
This is the comparison. Sacrifice was commanded, so the proverb does not dismiss it. But if God has to choose, he chooses a just life over religious offerings. The offerings were never meant to replace the life.
צדקה · tsedaqah · right conduct
Doing what is right toward God and others.
משפט · mishpat · right judgment
Fair decisions and fair treatment. Tsedaqah and mishpat are a standard pair in the prophets.
בחר · bachar · choose
Literally 'is chosen'. Of the two, this is the one God picks.
יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name
Samuel said the same to Saul in 1 Samuel 15:22.
זבח · zevach · animal sacrifice
An animal slaughtered at the altar, part of which the worshiper ate in a meal. It returns in verse 27.
Proverbs 21:4
Proud eyes and a proud heart are the light that bad people steer by. God calls it wrong.
Eyes that look down on others and a swollen heart,
Two marks of pride. The eyes show it outwardly in the way a person looks at others. The heart is where it lives.
the lamp the wicked live by, are sin.
A lamp is what a person sees and steers by. For the wicked that guiding light is their pride. The verdict is given in one word: sin. What they treat as their light, God counts as guilt.
רום עינים · rum eynayim · height of eyes
Literally 'loftiness of eyes'. Haughty eyes head the list of things the LORD hates in 6:17.
רחב לב · rechav lev · wide heart
Literally 'broad of heart', a heart puffed up with itself. Psalm 101:5 uses the same phrase.
נר · nir · lamp
As pointed in the Hebrew text the word is nir, which normally means newly broken ground. Most versions read it as ner, lamp, following the ancient translations.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked
The first of many appearances in this chapter.
חטאת · chatta't · sin
From chata, to miss the mark.
The second line is hard. If the word is 'lamp', the pride of the wicked is the light they live by. If it is 'plowed ground', as older versions have it, then even the ordinary work of the wicked is sin. Either way pride is called sin.
Proverbs 21:5
Careful plans and hard work lead to having plenty. People who rush always end up poor.
The plans of a hard worker lead only to surplus,
The diligent person both thinks ahead and follows through. That combination ends with more than enough.
but everyone in a rush ends up only in want.
The contrast is unexpected. The opposite of diligence here is not laziness but haste: the shortcut, the scheme to get rich quickly. Hurry skips the planning and steady work, and it ends in lack.
מחשבה · machashavah · thought, plan
What a person works out in his mind beforehand.
חרוץ · charuts · diligent, sharp
From a root meaning to cut. The diligent person is sharp and decisive. Proverbs regularly sets him against the sluggard.
מותר · motar · surplus, profit
What is left over after needs are met. See 14:23, where all hard work brings it.
אוץ · uts · press, hurry
To press on or be in haste. Proverbs 28:20 uses it of someone hurrying to get rich.
מחסור · machsor · lack, want
From a root meaning to be lacking. It returns in verse 17.
Proverbs 21:6
Riches you get by lying disappear like a puff of breath. Chasing them is chasing death.
Building up treasure with a lying tongue
This is wealth made by fraud, false promises or false testimony.
is a puff of breath blown away, for people who are seeking death.
Two verdicts are given. The money is as lasting as breath on a cold day, here and then gone. And those who chase it are really chasing their own death, because that is where the lying leads.
אוצר · otsar · store, treasure
A storehouse and what is stored in it. It appears again in verse 20, honestly gained.
שקר · sheqer · falsehood
Deception, a lie.
לשון · lashon · tongue, speech
The tongue is the tool of the fraud. A lying tongue is second on the list of things the LORD hates in 6:17.
נדף · nadaph · driven away
To be blown away, as chaff or a leaf is driven by wind.
הבל · hevel · breath, vapor
A breath. This is the key word of Ecclesiastes, where it is often translated vanity.
מות · mavet · death
The destination of the whole enterprise.
The Hebrew ends with 'seekers of death'. The ancient Greek translation read a very similar word meaning 'snares of death', and some versions follow it. Either way ill-gotten wealth is brief and fatal.
Proverbs 21:7
Bad people hurt others, and that same hurting will sweep them away, because they refuse to do what is fair.
The violence of the wicked will drag them off,
The violence they used on others becomes the thing that carries them away, like fish hauled off in a net.
because they refuse to do what is just.
This gives the reason. Their ruin is not bad luck. They knew what justice required and would not do it, so it is a result of their own choice.
שד · shod · violent destruction
Devastation and violent robbery.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked
Those in the wrong, here the ones who use force to get their way.
גרר · garar · drag away
To drag. Habakkuk 1:15 uses it of fish dragged off in a net.
מאן · ma'en · refuse
A flat refusal. The same verb describes the lazy man's hands in verse 25.
משפט · mishpat · right judgment
The very thing verse 3 says the LORD prefers to sacrifice.
Proverbs 21:8
A guilty person's path twists and turns. A person with a clean heart does what is straight and right.
The road a guilty man takes twists and turns,
A person with something to hide cannot go straight. His course keeps bending as he dodges, covers up and changes his story.
but the pure person's conduct is straight.
This is the contrast. Someone with nothing to hide just does the plain thing. You can tell the two apart by whether their dealings are direct or winding.
דרך · derek · road, way of life
The course of a person's dealings.
הפכפך · haphakpak · twisting
From haphak, to turn over. The doubled form, found only here, suggests turning this way and that.
זך · zak · clean, clear
Clear and unmixed, used of pure oil.
פעל · po'al · work, doing
What a person does. The second line closely matches the second line of 20:11.
ישר · yashar · straight
In verse 2 everyone thought his way was straight. This is the person whose way actually is.
The word translated 'guilty' occurs only here in the Bible and its meaning is not certain. Older versions divided it differently and read 'the way of man is perverse and strange'.
Proverbs 21:9
It is better to live in a corner of the roof than to share a house with a wife who is always arguing.
Better to live in a corner of the roof
The roof was flat and open to sun, wind and rain. A corner of it means a cramped, exposed space, alone.
than share a house with a wife who is always quarrelling.
This is a 'better than' saying. Discomfort with peace beats comfort with constant fighting. The proverb is written to a man about a wife, but the point holds for any spouse: a home full of quarrels is not a refuge.
פנה · pinnah · corner
A corner or angle.
גג · gag · flat roof
The flat housetop, used for storage, drying crops and sleeping in hot weather.
מדינים · midyanim · quarrels
Literally 'a woman of quarrels'. A plural from the same root as madon, strife.
בית חבר · beit chaver · house of company
Literally 'a house of association', a house lived in together.
Houses had flat roofs reached by an outside stair. A small shelter could be put up there (2 Kings 4:10), but it was the most exposed place in the home. The same proverb is repeated at 25:24.
Proverbs 21:10
A bad person longs to do wrong. He has no kindness, even for his own neighbour.
The wicked person's whole being craves evil;
For him wrongdoing is not an occasional lapse. It is an appetite. He wants it the way a hungry man wants food.
his neighbor gets no mercy in his eyes.
This is the result of that appetite. Because he is taken up with what he wants, even the person nearest to him gets no kindness. In Hebrew 'evil' and 'neighbor' sound almost alike, which ties the two lines together.
נפש · nephesh · self, appetite
The whole self, and often the appetite. The word's original sense is throat.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked
Defined here by what he wants, not only by what he does.
אוה · avah · crave
To long for. The same root returns for the lazy man in verses 25 and 26.
רע · ra · bad, harmful
What does harm. Spelled with the same two consonants as the word for neighbor.
רע · rea · friend, neighbor
A companion or fellow citizen, the person one actually lives beside.
חנן · chanan · show favor
To be gracious. The root of chen, grace. Literally the neighbor 'is not shown favor'.
Proverbs 21:11
When someone who makes fun of what is right gets punished, people who don't know better learn from it. A wise person learns just by being taught.
When a mocker is fined, the gullible person wises up;
The mocker himself will not learn from being punished. But the inexperienced onlooker sees the consequence and takes the lesson.
when a wise person is taught, he takes in knowledge.
This sets out the two ways of learning. The naive need to see someone pay a price. The wise need only to be told. The mocker, who learns neither way, is the unspoken third.
לץ · lets · mocker
The one who sneers at correction and so cannot be taught (9:7-8).
ענש · anash · fine, penalise
A legal word for imposing a penalty, usually a fine.
פתי · peti · open, gullible
The uncommitted, easily led person of 1:4, who can still go either way.
חכם · chakam · wise, skilled
Used twice in the verse: the naive 'becomes wise' (the verb) and the wise person (the noun) is taught.
שכל · sakal · give insight
To make someone understand. The same root as 'wise behavior' in 1:3.
לקח · laqach · take, grasp
To take hold of, as in 1:3.
דעת · da'at · knowledge
Knowledge gained and kept. Proverbs 19:25 makes the same point.
Proverbs 21:12
God, who always does right, sees what goes on in a bad person's house. And He brings bad people down.
The Righteous One pays close attention to the house of the wicked,
Someone righteous is watching the wicked man's household and understands what goes on in it. Nothing there goes unnoticed.
and overturns the wicked into ruin.
This is what the watching leads to. Since the one who watches also brings the wicked down, the 'righteous one' is best understood as God, the just Judge.
צדיק · tsaddiq · the righteous one
The Hebrew has no capital letters. The word can mean a righteous person or God as the Righteous One, as in Job 34:17.
שכל · sakal · look at with insight
The same verb as 'instructed' in verse 11. Here it means to give careful, understanding attention.
בית · bayit · house, household
The building and also the family and its fortunes.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked
Named in both lines, first as one man with his house, then in the plural.
סלף · salaph · overturn, subvert
To twist or overturn. Proverbs 13:6 uses it of wickedness overthrowing the sinner.
רע · ra · calamity, harm
The same word as evil in verse 10. What the wicked craved is what they receive.
Versions divide. Some take 'the righteous one' as God, who observes and overthrows. Others take it as a righteous person who studies the wicked man's house and learns from its fall, with God as the unstated subject of the second line.
Proverbs 21:13
If you cover your ears when poor people cry for help, one day you will cry for help too, and nobody will answer.
Whoever stops his ear at the cry of the poor
The picture is deliberate deafness. He hears the cry for help and blocks it out.
will cry out himself and get no answer.
The consequence matches the offence exactly. A day comes when he is the one in need, and he is treated as he treated others. No one answers, neither people nor God.
אטם · atam · stop up
To plug or block. It is something he does on purpose.
אזן · ozen · ear
The organ of listening and responding.
זעקה · ze'aqah · cry for help
A cry of distress, the word used for the outcry against Sodom in Genesis 18:20.
דל · dal · poor, weak
From a root meaning thin or low. The person with no resources and no influence.
קרא · qara · call
The ordinary verb to call.
ענה · anah · answer
The same pair, call and not be answered, describes those who refused Wisdom in 1:28.
Proverbs 21:14
A present given quietly can calm someone who is angry. A secret gift can cool down even great rage.
A gift given quietly calms anger,
A present handed over in private can cool someone who is angry with you.
and a payment slipped from the fold of the robe calms fierce rage.
The second line is stronger in both halves: a concealed payment, and fierce rage. The proverb describes how things work and does not say it is right. Elsewhere Proverbs condemns the bribe that bends justice (17:23).
מתן · mattan · gift
From natan, to give. A neutral word for a present.
סתר · seter · hiding place, secrecy
Something done out of sight.
כפה · kaphah · subdue, soothe
This verb is found only here in the Bible. Its sense is taken from the context and from later Hebrew.
אף · aph · nose, anger
Literally the nose. Anger is pictured as hard breathing through the nostrils.
שחד · shochad · bribe, payment
A payment to win someone's favor. The law forbids it to judges (Exodus 23:8).
חמה · chemah · heat, rage
From a root meaning to be hot. Burning anger.
The 'inside pocket' is the fold of the outer robe above the belt, which served as a pocket. Something passed from there could be handed over without anyone seeing.
Proverbs 21:15
When things are done fairly, people who do right are full of joy. People who do wrong are full of fear.
When justice is done it is a joy to the righteous,
People who live rightly are glad to see right verdicts given and wrongs put right. They have nothing to fear from it.
but it is terror to those who do wrong.
The same event has the opposite effect on wrongdoers. How a person feels when justice is carried out shows which side he is on.
משפט · mishpat · right judgment
The third use in the chapter (verses 3 and 7).
שמחה · simchah · gladness
Gladness. In verse 17 the same word is used of pleasure pursued for its own sake.
צדיק · tsaddiq · one in the right
The person whose life matches the standard that justice enforces.
מחתה · mechittah · ruin, terror
The word means both dismay and destruction. Justice shatters them.
און · aven · wrongdoing, trouble
Harmful wrongdoing. 'Workers of aven' is a common phrase in the Psalms for evildoers.
The Hebrew can also be read 'it is a joy for the righteous to do justice', making the joy his own acting justly. Both readings fit the words.
Proverbs 21:16
Anyone who wanders away from the wise path will end up lying among the dead.
A person who strays from the path of good sense
He was on the right road and left it. The verb describes aimless wandering, like a lost animal.
will come to rest in the company of the dead.
The wanderer does finally settle down, but among the dead. He left the path looking for something better, and his journey ends in the grave.
תעה · ta'ah · stray, go astray
To wander off and get lost, used of straying sheep in Isaiah 53:6.
דרך · derek · road, way of life
The road of wise living.
השכל · haskel · practical insight
The same word as 'wise behavior' in 1:3: insight that shows in how a person acts.
נוח · nuach · settle, rest
To settle down and stay.
קהל · qahal · gathering, congregation
The ordinary word for a gathered community, such as Israel at worship. Here the gathering is of the dead.
רפאים · repha'im · shades of the dead
The departed in the realm of the dead. Proverbs 2:18 and 9:18 use the same word for where the wrong path ends.
Proverbs 21:17
If you love having fun more than anything, you will end up poor. If you love fancy food and drink, you will never be rich.
A person who loves a good time will end up in want;
The issue is what he loves. Someone who lives for parties and enjoyment spends what he has and what he should have saved.
a person who loves wine and oil will not get rich.
The second line names the items. Wine and perfumed oil were the costly parts of a feast. Enjoying them is not condemned. Loving them is what keeps a person poor.
אהב · ahav · love
Used in both lines. What a person loves decides where his money goes.
שמחה · simchah · gladness, festivity
The same word as joy in verse 15. There it came from justice being done; here it is merrymaking pursued for itself.
איש מחסור · ish machsor · man of lack
Literally 'a man of want'. Machsor is the same word as poverty in verse 5.
יין · yayin · wine
The drink of feasts.
שמן · shemen · olive oil
Olive oil, here the scented oil put on the head and skin at banquets (Psalm 23:5, Amos 6:6).
עשר · ashar · become rich
The verb related to osher, wealth.
Proverbs 21:18
Trouble lands on bad people, and those who do right go free. The cheat ends up in the place meant for the honest person.
The wicked person becomes the ransom for the righteous,
A ransom is the price paid to free someone. The idea is that when trouble comes, it lands on the wicked and the righteous go free, as if the wicked had been handed over in their place.
and the traitor takes the place of the upright.
This says the same thing with another pair of words. It is an observation about how God's justice often works out, as when Haman was hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai (Esther 7:10). Proverbs 11:8 says it plainly.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked
The one who, in the end, takes the blow.
כפר · kopher · ransom price
The payment that buys a life free, from the root that also gives the word atonement. Isaiah 43:3 uses it of nations given in exchange for Israel.
צדיק · tsaddiq · one in the right
The one who is released.
בגד · bagad · act treacherously
To betray a trust or break faith. The traitor is someone who deals falsely with those who rely on him.
ישר · yashar · straight
The straight-dealing person, the opposite of the traitor.
Proverbs 21:19
It is better to live alone in a desert than with a wife who is always arguing and grumbling.
Better to live in a desert land
Verse 9 offered a corner of the roof. This goes further: an empty wilderness, with no house at all and no company.
than with a wife who is quarrelsome and always provoking.
The comparison is made sharper than verse 9 on both sides. The hardship is worse and the wife now adds constant provocation to her quarrelling. Solitude in a wasteland is still called the better choice.
ישב · yashav · sit, dwell
To settle and stay. The same verb as verse 9.
מדבר · midbar · wilderness
Uncultivated open country, dry and empty of people.
מדינים · midyanim · quarrels
The same phrase as verse 9, 'a woman of quarrels'.
כעס · ka'as · vexation, provocation
Grief and anger stirred up in someone. She both feels it and causes it.
Proverbs 21:20
A wise person's home has fine treasure and good food stored up. A silly person gobbles up everything he has.
Valuable stores and oil are kept in a wise person's home,
The wise person has reserves. He does not use up everything as it comes in, so there is something good in the house when it is needed.
but a fool of a man gulps it all down.
This is the contrast. The fool consumes whatever he gets as soon as he gets it. The difference between them is not income but restraint. It is the reverse side of verse 17.
אוצר · otsar · store, treasure
The same word as verse 6. There it was got by lying and vanished; here it stays.
חמד · chamad · desirable
From the verb to desire. Something worth wanting.
שמן · shemen · olive oil
The oil the pleasure-lover used up in verse 17. Oil was a staple for cooking, light and skin, and a household's stock of it was real wealth.
נוה · naveh · dwelling, pasture
A settled dwelling. The word is also used for a shepherd's pasture.
חכם · chakam · wise, skilled
Wisdom here is skill in managing a household.
כסיל · kesil · dull fool
The thick, self-confident fool of 1:22. The Hebrew is 'a fool of a man'.
בלע · bala · gulp down
To swallow in one gulp, as in 1:12.
Proverbs 21:21
If you chase after what is right and kind, you will find life, goodness and respect.
Whoever chases after right living and loyal love
These two are things done for other people: dealing fairly and showing faithful kindness. The person pursues them hard, the way a hunter runs down game.
finds life, right standing and honor.
This is the result. He was not chasing reward, but he finds three things: a full life, the righteousness he was after, and the respect of others. A person gets what he pursues, and more.
רדף · radaph · chase
To run after, as a hunter or a soldier pursues. It means sustained effort.
צדקה · tsedaqah · right conduct
The word stands in both lines: what he pursues and what he finds.
חסד · chesed · loyal love
Faithful kindness that keeps its commitments.
מצא · matsa · find
To come upon or obtain.
חיים · chayyim · life
Life in its fullness, the usual reward of wisdom in Proverbs (3:18, 8:35).
כבוד · kavod · weight, honor
Standing and respect in the community.
Proverbs 21:22
One wise person can climb the wall of a city full of strong fighters and pull down the fort they trusted in.
A wise man goes up against a city of warriors
The city is defended by strong fighting men, yet one wise person gets over its wall.
and pulls down the strength they relied on.
This is the result of his attack. The fortification the defenders put their confidence in falls. Skill and good strategy defeat brute strength. Ecclesiastes 9:13-16 tells a story with the same lesson.
חכם · chakam · wise, skilled
Wisdom here is strategy, the tachbulot that 20:18 and 24:6 say war requires.
עלה · alah · go up
To go up, here to go up against a city in attack.
עיר · ir · walled town
A town enclosed by a defensive wall.
גבור · gibbor · warrior
A strong man, a trained fighter.
ירד · yarad · bring down
The opposite of 'goes up' in the first line. He goes up and their strength comes down.
מבטח · mivtach · object of confidence
From the same root as betach, security. The 'stronghold' is literally 'the strength of its confidence'.
Proverbs 21:23
Watch what you say, and you will keep yourself out of trouble.
Whoever keeps watch over his mouth and his tongue
The picture is a guard posted at a gate. He controls what goes out: what he says and how he says it.
keeps himself out of trouble.
The same verb is used in both lines. Guarding your speech is guarding your life, because a great deal of the trouble people get into starts with something they said.
שמר · shamar · keep watch over
To watch as a sentry does. The Hebrew repeats it at the start of each line.
פה · peh · mouth
Whether he speaks at all.
לשון · lashon · tongue, speech
What he says when he does speak.
נפש · nephesh · life, self
His own self and life. Proverbs 13:3 says the same.
צרה · tsarah · a tight place
From a root meaning narrow, as in 1:27. Situations that hem a person in.
Proverbs 21:24
Proud, Show-off, Mocker: those are the names for someone who acts as if he is better than everybody.
Insolent, arrogant: Mocker is the name
The proverb reads like a dictionary entry. It gives the mocker's other names, and they are all words for pride.
of the one who acts in overflowing arrogance.
This gives the definition. The mocker's sneering is not wit or independence of mind. Its source is pride that has broken all bounds. Since he thinks he is above everyone, he will take correction from no one.
זד · zed · insolent, presumptuous
From a root meaning to boil up. The person who presumes and oversteps.
יהיר · yahir · haughty
A rare word, found elsewhere only in Habakkuk 2:5.
לץ · lets · mocker
The scoffer of 1:22 and of verse 11. This verse explains what drives him.
עברת זדון · evrat zadon · outburst of presumption
Evrah is an overflow, often of fury. Zadon is presumption, from the same root as zed in the first line.
Proverbs 21:25
The lazy person wants things so much that it will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work.
What the lazy man craves is the death of him,
He wants things as much as anyone, perhaps more. But wanting with no working behind it wears him down and finally leaves him with nothing to live on.
because his hands refuse to work.
This gives the cause. The trouble is not that he cannot work but that his hands will not. Desire that is never matched by effort kills.
תאוה · ta'avah · craving
The noun from avah, the verb used of the wicked in verse 10.
עצל · atsel · sluggard
The sluggard. Proverbs 13:4 says he craves and gets nothing.
מות · mut · die, kill
The verb to die, in the form meaning to cause death.
יד · yad · hand
His hands are spoken of as if they had a will of their own.
מאן · ma'en · refuse
The same verb used of the wicked refusing to do justice in verse 7.
Proverbs 21:26
All day long he wants more and more. But the person who does right gives and gives, and never holds back.
All day long he craves and craves,
This continues verse 25. The lazy man's day is filled with wanting. The Hebrew doubles the word: he craves a craving.
but the righteous person gives and holds nothing back.
This is the contrast. One man does nothing but want, and has nothing. The other works, has enough, and so is free to give generously. The opposite of the lazy man is called righteous, not just hard-working, because what marks him is giving.
כל היום · kol hayyom · the whole day
Wanting is his full-time occupation.
אוה · avah · crave
The verb and its noun are used together in the Hebrew for emphasis. The same phrase describes Israel's craving in the desert in Numbers 11:4.
צדיק · tsaddiq · one in the right
In Proverbs righteousness regularly shows itself in generosity to those in need.
נתן · natan · give
The ordinary verb to give.
חשך · chasak · withhold, spare
To keep back or spare. He does not hold on to what he could give.
Proverbs 21:27
God hates the gifts that bad people bring Him. It is even worse when they bring them for a bad reason.
The sacrifice of wicked people is detestable,
An offering from someone who has no intention of changing does not please God. It disgusts him. This builds on verse 3: justice is better than sacrifice, and sacrifice without justice is worse than nothing.
and all the more when he brings it with a scheme in mind.
This is a step further. Bad enough is the offering of an unrepentant person. Worse is one brought as part of a plan, for example to look respectable, or to buy God's help for something wrong.
זבח · zevach · animal sacrifice
The same word as verse 3.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked
The wicked man is shown at worship, and his worship is rejected.
תועבה · to'evah · detestable thing
Something that disgusts. Proverbs 15:8 has the same first line and adds 'to the LORD'.
זמה · zimmah · wicked scheme
A plan or device, almost always a wicked one. It is related to mezimmah (1:4), which can be good or bad.
Proverbs 21:28
A person who tells lies in court will be found out and ruined. Someone who listens well and tells the truth will always be believed.
A lying witness will perish,
A witness who invents his testimony will be found out and destroyed, and his words with him.
but a man who listens will speak and go on being heard.
This is the contrast. The true witness is described as one who listens: he reports only what he actually heard and listens carefully before speaking. His testimony stands and is never overturned.
עד כזבים · ed kezavim · witness of lies
Ed is a witness; kazav is a lie. The plural 'lies' marks him as a habitual liar.
אבד · abad · perish, be lost
To be destroyed or come to nothing.
שמע · shama · hear and heed
The key verb of Proverbs. Reliable speaking comes from careful hearing.
דבר · davar · speak
The ordinary verb to speak.
נצח · netsach · enduringly
Lasting, to the end. His word endures.
Cases were decided on the testimony of witnesses, and the law required that a false witness receive the penalty he had tried to bring on the accused (Deuteronomy 19:16-19).
The second line is very brief in Hebrew: 'a man who hears will speak for ever'. It is usually understood to mean that the testimony of one who truly heard will stand, or that he will be allowed to go on speaking.
Proverbs 21:29
A bad person puts on a bold face. A person who does right thinks carefully about where he is going.
A wicked man puts on a hard face,
He covers himself with a show of confidence. He brazens it out, shows no shame and will not be told.
but the upright person gives thought to where he is going.
This is the contrast. One man works on his expression, the other on his direction. The upright person does not need to bluff, because he has looked carefully at his path and made it firm.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked
His last appearance in the chapter, defined by a fixed expression.
עזז · azaz · be strong, hard
To make strong. The same verb describes the brazen face of the adulteress in 7:13.
פנים · panim · face
The face shows the attitude: here, shamelessness.
ישר · yashar · straight
The straight person, set against the wicked for the last time.
כון · kun · make firm
To establish or make firm.
דרך · derek · road, way of life
The course of his life.
The Hebrew text preserves two readings that differ by one letter: 'he makes his way firm' and 'he understands his way'. Versions are divided, and both give the same contrast with the wicked man's bluff.
Proverbs 21:30
No wisdom, no clever thinking and no plan can win against God.
There is no wisdom, no insight,
The best things the book of Proverbs has to offer are named here, and each is said to be nothing in one situation.
no plan that can stand against the LORD.
This names the situation. Human cleverness has a limit. When it is set against God it does not succeed. The book that most praises wisdom states here where wisdom stops.
חכמה · chokmah · skill
The main subject of the book, here shown its boundary.
תבונה · tevunah · insight
The ability to see into things.
עצה · etsah · counsel, plan
Advice or strategy. See 19:21: many plans are in a person's heart, but the LORD's purpose is what stands.
נגד · neged · in front of, opposite
Literally 'in front of'. Nothing counts as wisdom when it stands facing God in opposition.
יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name
The chapter returns to where it began in verse 1.
Proverbs 21:31
You can get the horse ready for the day of battle. But it is God who gives the win.
The horse is made ready for the day of battle,
The war horse was the most powerful weapon of the time. Getting it ready stands for all human preparation, and the proverb does not say this is wrong.
but the victory is the LORD's.
This sets the limit of preparation as verse 30 set the limit of wisdom. You do your part, and the outcome is still God's to give. So prepare thoroughly, and put your trust in him and not in the preparation.
סוס · sus · horse
In the Old Testament the horse is a military animal, used for chariots and cavalry.
כון · kun · make ready
The same verb as 'makes sure' in verse 29.
מלחמה · milchamah · battle, war
War, the test where strength seems to decide everything.
תשועה · teshu'ah · deliverance, victory
From yasha, to save. Rescue from the enemy, which is what victory is.
יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name
The last word on the matter. Psalm 20:7 and Psalm 33:17 say the same about horses.
Israel's kings were told not to build up large numbers of horses (Deuteronomy 17:16), because chariot forces were what a nation trusted in instead of God. Solomon himself kept thousands (1 Kings 10:26).