Proverbs 19
The full text of Proverbs 19 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity
than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.
2 Desire without knowledge is not good,
and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.
3 When a man's folly brings his way to ruin,
his heart rages against the LORD.
4 Wealth brings many new friends,
but a poor man is deserted by his friend.
5 A false witness will not go unpunished,
and he who breathes out lies will not escape.
6 Many seek the favor of a generous man,
and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts.
7 All a poor man's brothers hate him;
how much more do his friends go far from him!
He pursues them with words, but they are gone.
8 Whoever acquires sense loves himself;
he who keeps understanding will find good.
9 A false witness will not go unpunished,
and he who breathes out lies will perish.
10 It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury,
much less for a slave to rule over princes.
11 Good sense makes one slow to anger,
and it is his glory to overlook an offense.
12 A king's wrath is like the growling of a lion,
but his favor is like dew on the grass.
13 A foolish son is ruin to his father,
and a wife's quarreling is a continual dripping.
14 House and wealth are inherited from fathers,
but a prudent wife is from the LORD.
15 Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep,
and an idle person will suffer hunger.
16 Whoever keeps the commandment keeps his life;
he who despises his ways will die.
17 Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD,
and he will repay him for his deed.
18 Discipline your son, for there is hope;
do not set your heart on putting him to death.
19 A man of great wrath will pay the penalty,
for if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again.
20 Listen to counsel and accept instruction,
so that in the end you may be wise.
21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
22 What is desired in a man is steadfast love,
and a poor man is better than a liar.
23 The fear of the LORD leads to life,
and whoever has it rests satisfied;
he will not be visited by harm.
24 The sluggard buries his hand in the dish
and will not even bring it back to his mouth.
25 Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence;
reprove a man of understanding, and he will gain knowledge.
26 He who robs his father and drives out his mother
is a son who brings shame and disgrace.
27 Cease to hear instruction, my son,
and you will stray from the words of knowledge.
28 A worthless witness mocks at justice,
and the mouth of the wicked devours iniquity.
29 Condemnation is ready for scoffers,
and beating for the backs of fools.
Translation notes (7)
- Proverbs 19:7a Uniquely in this section of couplets, the verse has a third line, which many text critics regard as the surviving half of a lost proverb; the Septuagint at this point contains additional lines absent from the Masoretic Text. The final Hebrew clause is obscure, with a Ketiv-Qere variation between lo (לא), 'not', and lo (לו), 'to him'; the rendering 'but they are gone' is a widely accepted approximation.
- Proverbs 19:9a This proverb repeats 19:5 verbatim except for its final word: there the liar lo yimmalet, 'will not escape', while here he yoʾved, 'will perish'. Such near-duplicate sayings occur elsewhere in Proverbs and likely reflect the collection's growth from multiple compiled sources, with the second occurrence intensifying the threatened outcome.
- Proverbs 19:10a The Hebrew ta'anug (תַּעֲנוּג), 'luxury' or 'delight', denotes indulgent pleasure. The phrase af ki, 'much less', marks an argument from lesser to greater: if comfort ill suits a fool, a slave wielding authority over princes is a still deeper disorder. This inversion of social station is a stock image in wisdom literature, developed further in Proverbs 30:21-23 and Ecclesiastes 10:5-7.
- Proverbs 19:17a Hebrew malveh (מַלְוֶה), 'one who lends', casts the LORD as the debtor of the generous: kindness to the poor becomes a loan that God himself undertakes to honor. The verb chonen, 'shows favor to', and dal, 'the lowly', frame the act as gracious condescension, while yeshallem, 'he will repay', uses the ordinary commercial term for settling a debt.
- Proverbs 19:18a The Hebrew clause al-tissa nafshekha el-hamito is literally 'do not lift up your soul to putting him to death'. The idiom of lifting the soul denotes desire or intent, and the line can warn either against discipline so harsh it kills or against a neglect that abandons the son to a fatal end; this translation preserves the first sense while the ambiguity remains genuine in the Masoretic Text.
- Proverbs 19:24a The image assumes the ancient custom of eating with the fingers from a common dish; the satire is that the sluggard, having plunged his hand in, finds even lifting food to his mouth too much effort. Hebrew tsallachat, 'dish', denotes a bowl elsewhere (2 Kings 21:13); the King James tradition rendered it 'bosom', but 'dish' is now well established.
- Proverbs 19:26a The participle meshadded, from shadad, 'to devastate' or 'assault violently', denotes brutal despoiling rather than simple theft; the same root describes the ravaging of cities by invaders. The companion verb mavriach, 'puts to flight', pictures the mother driven from her own home.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is Trinity Bible's own modern English translation, worked directly from the original Hebrew and honest to the earliest manuscripts. It was completed in 2026 — the most modern English Bible translation — and is exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter, including all of Proverbs, is free to read here on the web.
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