Proverbs 10
A new section of the book begins, and it announces itself plainly: The proverbs of Solomon (v. 1). The extended speeches and personifications of the first nine chapters are set aside, and in their place comes the collection that gives the book its name - hundreds of short, self-contained sayings, most of them a single couplet pivoting on one word: but. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother (v. 1). The form itself teaches. Each proverb sets two ways of living side by side and lets the contrast do the work, training the reader to see, in case after case, where each road leads.3
The first cluster turns on a single axis: character and the harvest it brings in. Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death (v. 2). The hand that works grows rich and the hand that slacks grows poor; the one who gathers in summer is wise and the one who sleeps through harvest brings shame. Running underneath is the conviction that the world is not morally neutral - that a life, like a field, returns what is sown into it: The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot (v. 7).
Then the chapter settles on the theme it returns to more than any other - the mouth. The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life (v. 11); In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise (v. 19); The tongue of the just is as choice silver (v. 20). Words feed or wound, build or betray, and a guarded tongue is among the surest marks of wisdom. The chapter closes by lifting its eyes to what lasts: when the storm has passed and the wicked are gone like a whirlwind, the righteous is an everlasting foundation (v. 25), for the fear of the LORD prolongeth days (v. 27).2
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Proverbs 10:1-7The Memory of the Just Is Blessed
1The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. 2Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death. 3The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked. 4He that dealeth with a slack hand becometh poor: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. 5He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame. 6Blessings are upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. 7The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.
The collection opens on a note struck close to home: A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother (v. 1). Before the proverbs say anything about wealth or work or words, they say this - that a life's wisdom or folly is felt first by the people who love it most. Character is never private; it lands on a household. From there the sayings open onto a wider claim that the rest of the chapter will assume everywhere: that the world quietly returns what is put into it. Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death (v. 2). Wealth gathered by wrong does not finally pay; righteousness does what no treasure can - it delivers. This is not a promise that the godly never go hungry or that the wicked never prosper for a season; the proverbs know better than that. It is a statement about the deep grain of things, the direction reality leans over time. The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish (v. 3) - the outcome is not blind fate but the watchful care of God, who stands behind the moral order and sees to its ends.
Two of these early sayings reach for the field, and they are worth pausing on because the whole book thinks this way. He that dealeth with a slack hand becometh poor: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich (v. 4); He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame (v. 5). A harvest does not wait. There is a window when the grain is ready, and the wise read the season and bend their backs while it is open; the foolish sleep through it and wake to an empty barn and a long winter. The point reaches far past farming. Every life has its summers - seasons when the work is there to be done, the opportunity is ripe, the time to prepare is now - and wisdom is largely the art of recognizing them and not sleeping through them. The shame of the harvest-sleeper is not that he is wicked but that he is late, forever a season behind, gathering nothing because he would not gather when there was something to gather. And the chapter ends this first movement with the longest view of all: The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot (v. 7). A life is weighed not only while it is lived but in what it leaves behind - the fragrance or the stench of a name after its owner is gone.
Proverbs 10:8-21The Mouth of a Righteous Man Is a Well of Life
8The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall. 9He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known. 10He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall fall. 11The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. 12Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.
Before the proverbs settle on the mouth they set down the ground it grows from: the whole self, walking. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known (v. 9). To walk uprightly is to have nothing to hide, and that is its own security - the honest person walks surely, with a steady, unworried tread, because no buried thing is waiting to be dug up. The crooked walk warily, always managing what others might discover, and the proverb gives the quiet verdict on all such concealment: he that perverteth his ways shall be known. What is bent comes out eventually. Threaded through these lines is a second figure, the prating fool who twice shall fall (vv. 8, 10) - the person so busy talking that he cannot receive a command or hold a confidence. Set against him is the wise in heart who will receive commandments: wisdom listens before it speaks, and the readiness to take an instruction without arguing is itself a mark of the wise. The contrast prepares the chapter's great theme - that the mouth is never merely a mouth. It is the visible end of an invisible self, and what pours out of it tells the truth about what fills it.
Now the saying that crowns the chapter: The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked (v. 11). The image is generous and life-giving - a well, a spring people come to and drink from and live. The words of a righteous person are like that: others are refreshed by them, steadied, revived; to be near such a mouth is to be fed. The contrast is violent and choking by comparison - the wicked mouth covered with the harm it does. Then comes one of the most quoted lines in all of Proverbs, and one of the tenderest: Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins (v. 12). Hatred is an agitator; it goes looking for offenses, drags old wrongs back into the light, keeps the quarrel alive because it wants the quarrel. Love does the opposite. Love covers - not by pretending the sin was not sin, but by refusing to publish it, parade it, or hoard it as ammunition. Where hatred uncovers to wound, love covers to heal. This single verse will travel a long way into the New Testament, where the covering of sin becomes the very shape of grace.
13In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding. 14Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction. 15The rich man's wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty. 16The labour of the righteous tendeth to life: the fruit of the wicked to sin. 17He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth. 18He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool. 19In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise. 20The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth. 21The lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom.
The chapter now presses the theme of speech from several angles at once, and one saying in the middle is worth memorizing: In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise (v. 19). The plain sense is bracing - the more we talk, the more likely we are to stumble. Sheer volume of speech is its own hazard; somewhere in the flood a careless, cruel, or untrue word almost always slips through. So restraint itself is wisdom: the person who knows when to stop, who can let a silence stand, who does not need to fill every gap or have the last word, is showing more sense than the one who never runs dry. The surrounding proverbs sharpen the point. The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth (v. 20) - refined speech reveals refined character, and worthless words betray a worthless heart, for the mouth always reports on the heart behind it. The lips of the righteous feed many (v. 21) - good words are not only true, they are nourishing; a wise person's speech leaves others fuller than it found them. Set it all together and a portrait emerges: the wise speak less, weigh more, and feed those who listen; the foolish talk constantly and starve even themselves, for fools die for want of wisdom.
Proverbs 10:22-32The Righteous Is an Everlasting Foundation
22The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. 23It is as sport to a fool to do mischief: but a man of understanding hath wisdom. 24The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted. 25As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more: but the righteous is an everlasting foundation. 26As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him. 27The fear of the LORD prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.
The final movement weighs what lasts against what passes, and it opens with a saying that quietly reorders how we think about wealth: The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it (v. 22). The proverbs are not against riches; what they are after is the source and the residue. Wealth can be chased and even caught by anxious striving, sharp dealing, sleepless worry - and it arrives with sorrow stitched into it, a weight of fear about keeping what was so hard to get. But what the LORD's blessing makes rich, it makes rich cleanly: he addeth no sorrow with it. There is a kind of provision that comes as gift rather than spoil, and it does not poison the one who holds it. Then the chapter turns to the storm. As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more: but the righteous is an everlasting foundation (v. 25). Here is the longest view the chapter takes. The wicked can look solid - established, powerful, permanent - right up until the wind comes; and then they are simply gone, scattered like everything a whirlwind takes. The righteous are the opposite of impressive and the opposite of fragile: a foundation, the part of a building no one admires and nothing moves, still there when the storm has spent itself. And undergirding it all, the chapter's root again: The fear of the LORD prolongeth days (v. 27). Reverence is not a constraint on life; it is what makes a life last.
28The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish. 29The way of the LORD is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity. 30The righteous shall never be removed: but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth. 31The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom: but the froward tongue shall be cut out. 32The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable: but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness.
The chapter closes by gathering its two ways into their final ends, and the word it leaves ringing is hope. The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish (v. 28). Both kinds of people live leaning forward into a future they expect; the difference is what that future actually holds. The righteous lean toward gladness, and they will not be disappointed; the wicked lean toward something that will not be there when they arrive - their expectation perishes, collapses at the moment of reaching for it. The way of the LORD is strength to the upright (v. 29): the same path that steadies the one walking rightly is the undoing of the one who fights it, because God's way is not neutral terrain but a road that bears up the faithful and breaks the rebel. And the last two verses return, fittingly, to the mouth that has run through the whole chapter: The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom… The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable (vv. 31-32). The just do not merely avoid wrong speech; they have learned the harder art of fitting speech - knowing what is acceptable, what the moment needs, what will help rather than merely what is true. The chapter ends as it lived: convinced that character shows in the mouth, and that the mouth, like the life behind it, is bending toward life or toward ruin.
Further study
- The Hebrew of Proverbs 10 with Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and the classical commentators - useful for tsaddiq (the “righteous” one who runs through the chapter as its refrain), and for kasah (v. 12, “love covereth all sins”), the verb of covering taken up in the New Testament.
- Proverbs 10 ↔ 1 Peter 4 · Matthew 7 · John 7Intertextual BibleTraces the chapter's threads into the New Testament - love covereth all sins (v. 12) echoed in charity shall cover the multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4:8), the everlasting foundation (v. 25) in the house built on rock (Matt. 7:24-25), and the well of life (v. 11) in the rivers of living water (John 7:38).
- Proverbs 10 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's footnotes on the antithetical proverbs that dominate this chapter - the agricultural imagery of harvest and the slack hand (vv. 4-5), the repeated mouth/tongue sayings (vv. 11-21), and the storm-and-foundation contrast of verse 25.
Where this echoes in Scripture
The Memory of the Just Is Blessed
- Galatians 6:7-9Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap... in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.The harvest logic of verses 4-5 stated as a law of the moral world - a life returns what is sown into it.
- Psalm 1:3-4...like a tree planted by the rivers of water... The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.The same two destinies as this opening cluster - the just who endure and the wicked whose name shall rot (v. 7).
- Matthew 6:19-20Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth... But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.The truth of verse 2 - treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers.
The Mouth of a Righteous Man Is a Well of Life
- 1 Peter 4:8And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.The apostle taking up verse 12 directly - love that covers rather than exposes.
- James 3:5-8The tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things... it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.The whole chapter’s warning about the mouth (vv. 11-21) drawn out at length.
- John 7:37-38If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink... out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.The well of life (v. 11) named in person - the wisdom of God from whom living water flows.
- Ephesians 4:29Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying.The well-of-life mouth and the feeding lips of verses 11 and 21 turned into a command for the believer.
The Righteous Is an Everlasting Foundation
- Matthew 7:24-27A wise man, which built his house upon a rock... and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.The everlasting foundation of verse 25 - the wisdom of God’s own image for the life that survives the storm.
- 1 Corinthians 3:11For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.The foundation that does not move (v. 25) named - the only footing that outlasts the whirlwind.
- Psalm 112:6-7Surely he shall not be moved for ever... He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.The righteous who shall never be removed (vv. 25, 30) - unshaken because anchored in the LORD.
- 1 Timothy 6:6-9But godliness with contentment is great gain... they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare.The blessing that makes rich without sorrow (v. 22) over against wealth grasped at a cost.