Proverbs · 31 verses
Proverbs 21
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
A quarrelsome wife first drives a man to the corner of the roof; a few verses later, the desert is preferable. Proverbs 21 is admirably unsentimental about domestic architecture.
The heart, the house, and the hard roadvv. 1–16
The king may appear to steer himself, but his heart is a waterway in the LORD’s hand, directed wherever He pleases. Human beings are less reliable navigators: their ways seem right to them, while the LORD weighs the heart. Justice is preferred to sacrifice, crooked conduct is distinguished from upright conduct, and the quarrelsome wife produces the chapter’s first feat of household planning: a corner of the roof. The poor cry out, the angry are quietly pacified, and the wicked find that violence, crookedness, and indifference are not especially durable arrangements.
Appetites and escape routesvv. 17–29
Pleasure, wine, oil, covetousness, and laziness quietly consume a household, while the righteous give without restraint. The wise man, by contrast, keeps precious treasures and oil in his dwelling and is capable of scaling the city of the mighty and pulling down its trusted stronghold. The domestic escape plan now reaches its second and more ambitious stage: the desert. Meanwhile, the mouth and tongue are best guarded, the lying witness eventually perishes, and the upright man makes his way sure.
The final word is not the horsevv. 30–31
The chapter ends by removing every rival source of confidence. Wisdom, understanding, and counsel cannot prevail against the LORD; even the horse prepared for battle is only preparation. Victory belongs elsewhere.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Prov 21:1The king’s heart is a waterway in the hand of the LORD; He directs it where He pleases.
Prov 21:2All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart.
Prov 21:3To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the LORD than sacrifice.
Prov 21:4Haughty eyes and a proud heart—the guides of the wicked—are sin.
Prov 21:5The plans of the diligent bring plenty, as surely as haste leads to poverty.
Prov 21:6Making a fortune by a lying tongue is a vanishing mist, a deadly pursuit.
Prov 21:7The violence of the wicked will sweep them away because they refuse to do what is just.
Prov 21:8The way of a guilty man is crooked, but the conduct of the innocent is upright.
Prov 21:9Better to live on a corner of the roof than to share a house with a quarrelsome wife.
Prov 21:10The soul of the wicked man craves evil; his neighbor finds no favor in his eyes.
Prov 21:11When a mocker is punished, the simple gain wisdom; and when a wise man is instructed, he acquires knowledge.
Prov 21:12The Righteous One considers the house of the wicked and brings the wicked to ruin.
Prov 21:13Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too shall cry out and receive no answer.
Prov 21:14A gift in secret soothes anger, and a covert bribe pacifies great wrath.
Prov 21:15Justice executed is a joy to the righteous, but a terror to the workers of iniquity.
Prov 21:16The man who strays from the path of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead.
Prov 21:17He who loves pleasure will become poor; the one who loves wine and oil will never be rich.
Prov 21:18The wicked become a ransom for the righteous, and the faithless for the upright.
Prov 21:19Better to live in the desert than with a contentious and ill-tempered wife.
Prov 21:20Precious treasures and oil are in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man consumes them.
Prov 21:21He who pursues righteousness and loving devotion finds life, righteousness, and honor.
Prov 21:22A wise man scales the city of the mighty and pulls down the stronghold in which they trust.
Prov 21:23He who guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from distress.
Prov 21:24Mocker is the name of the proud and arrogant man—of him who acts with excessive pride.
Prov 21:25The craving of the slacker kills him because his hands refuse to work.
Prov 21:26All day long he covets more, but the righteous give without restraint.
Prov 21:27The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable—how much more so when brought with ill intent!
Prov 21:28A lying witness will perish, but the man who listens to truth will speak forever.
Prov 21:29A wicked man hardens his face, but the upright man makes his way sure.
Prov 21:30There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel that can prevail against the LORD.
Prov 21:31A horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory is of the LORD.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 368 passages were voted onto 31 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 2Proverbs 16:2All a man’s ways are pure in his own eyes, but his motives are weighed out by the LORD.
- 1Proverbs 16:9A man’s heart plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
- 2Proverbs 16:25There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
- 2Luke 16:15So He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable before God.
- 21Matthew 5:6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
- 2Jeremiah 17:10I, the LORD, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.
- 1Ezra 6:22For seven days they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread with joy, because the LORD had made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to strengthen their hands in the work on the house of the God of Israel.
- 23Proverbs 13:3He who guards his mouth protects his life, but the one who opens his lips invites his own ruin.
- 1Proverbs 20:24A man’s steps are from the LORD, so how can anyone understand his own way?
- 1Acts 7:10and rescued him from all his troubles. He granted Joseph favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and all his household.
- 2Proverbs 30:12There is a generation of those who are pure in their own eyes and yet unwashed of their filth.
- 21 Samuel 16:7But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the LORD does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the LORD sees the heart.”
- 31 Samuel 15:22But Samuel declared: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams.
- 1Proverbs 16:1The plans of the heart belong to man, but the reply of the tongue is from the LORD.
- 1Ezra 7:27–28Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put into the heart of the king to so honor the house of the LORD in Jerusalem,
- 23Proverbs 18:21Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
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