Proverbs 20
The full text of Proverbs 20 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler,
and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.
2 The terror of a king is like the growling of a lion;
whoever provokes him to anger forfeits his life.
3 It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife,
but every fool will be quarreling.
4 The sluggard does not plow in the autumn;
he will seek at harvest and have nothing.
5 The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water,
but a man of understanding will draw it out.
6 Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love,
but a faithful man — who can find?
7 The righteous who walks in his integrity —
blessed are his children after him!
8 A king who sits on the throne of judgment
scatters all evil with his eyes.
9 Who can say, 'I have made my heart pure;
I am clean from my sin'?
10 Unequal weights and unequal measures
are both alike an abomination to the LORD.
11 Even a child makes himself known by his acts,
by whether his conduct is pure and upright.
12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye,
the LORD has made them both.
13 Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty;
open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.
14 'Bad, bad!' says the buyer,
but when he goes away, then he boasts.
15 There is gold and abundance of costly stones,
but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.
16 Take a man's garment when he has put up security for a stranger,
and hold it in pledge when he puts up security for foreigners.
17 Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man,
but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel.
18 Plans are established by counsel;
by wise guidance wage war.
19 Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets;
therefore do not associate with a simple babbler.
20 If one curses his father or his mother,
his lamp will be put out in utter darkness.
21 An inheritance gained hastily at the beginning
will not be blessed in the end.
22 Do not say, 'I will repay evil';
wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.
23 Unequal weights are an abomination to the LORD,
and false scales are not good.
24 A man's steps are from the LORD;
how then can man understand his way?
25 It is a snare to say rashly, 'It is holy,'
and to reflect only after making vows.
26 A wise king scatters the wicked
and drives the wheel over them.
27 The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD,
searching all the inner depths of his being.
28 Steadfast love and faithfulness preserve the king,
and by steadfast love his throne is upheld.
29 The glory of young men is their strength,
and the splendor of old men is their gray hair.
30 Blows that wound cleanse away evil;
strokes make clean the innermost parts.
Translation notes (7)
- Proverbs 20:4a Hebrew choreph (חֹרֶף) denotes the cool rainy season, spanning what English divides into autumn and winter; it is rendered here as 'autumn' because in ancient Israel plowing began once the early rains of October and November softened the ground. Missing that window meant no crop to reap at the spring harvest, qatsir.
- Proverbs 20:5a The verb dalah (דלה), 'to draw water', ordinarily describes hauling water up from a well, as when the shepherds and Moses draw water in Exodus 2:16-19. The proverb thus extends its own image: counsel ('etsah, 'purpose') lies as inaccessible as water at the bottom of a deep well, and the discerning man patiently brings it to the surface.
- Proverbs 20:10a The Hebrew reads literally 'a stone and a stone, an ephah and an ephah' (even va'even, eifah ve'eifah), naming the merchant's stone weights and the ephah, a dry measure. The doubled nouns are an idiom for keeping two differing standards, one for buying and one for selling, a fraud condemned in Deuteronomy 25:13-15.
- Proverbs 20:14a The proverb depicts ancient marketplace bargaining, in which a buyer disparaged goods—ra ra (רַע רַע), 'bad, bad'—to drive down the price, then bragged about the purchase once the deal was done. The repeated Hebrew word mimics the haggler's insistent cry, and the saying wryly observes the gap between negotiating talk and private satisfaction.
- Proverbs 20:20a The extinguished lamp is a Hebrew idiom for the end of one's life and posterity (compare Job 18:5-6; Proverbs 13:9). The phrase behind 'in utter darkness' is be'ishon choshekh, literally 'in the pupil of darkness'; ishon, the word for the dark center of the eye, here denotes the very blackest point of the dark.
- Proverbs 20:24a Hebrew uses two different words for 'man': gever, 'strong man', in the first line and adam, 'human being', in the second, suggesting that even the vigorous cannot chart their own course. The thought closely parallels Jeremiah 10:23, where the prophet confesses that the way of man is not in himself.
- Proverbs 20:27a Hebrew neshamah, 'breath', the same word breathed into Adam in Genesis 2:7, is rendered here as 'spirit'. The image is of the divinely given life-breath serving as God's lamp within a person. The phrase translated 'inner depths of his being' is literally chadrei-vaten, 'the chambers of the belly', the seat of one's hidden thoughts and motives (compare Proverbs 20:30).
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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