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Wednesday 09/24/25
Thru the Bible: Proverbs 14
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The Fear of the Lord is a Fountain of Life!
Proverbs 14:1-35,
“(1) The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands.”
The implications here lead one to consider other understandings.
The words “builds her house” if taken literally, would imply that only an unwise woman would fail to construct the home she lives in.
This is clearly NOT the intended meaning for several reasons.
1 – Typically the provision for a home was done by the husband in Israel. In fact, I can think of no exceptions to this. While I do not think there was a law that would have prevented a woman from building her home, it just wasn’t a topic to be addressed, because it was just never done.
2 – This would make nearly every woman from Eve on to the modern age unwise. This is clearly not true. There is no command for women to build their own home and so to declare them unwise for not doing so would be both unfair and unjust.
3 – Since this verse is in parallel with the ending statement, we can derive a closer fit for the real meaning by examining its opposite.
I think that in the phrase, “a foolish woman pulls it down with her hands” is clearly a metaphor. Of course, if a woman DID do this, it WOULD be an impressive but foolish task, but again this would fit so few in the history of the world, it seems a bit of a stretch to understand it literally.
It has been suggested that this is really a retelling of Proverbs 9:1 where wisdom is personified as a woman who “built her house”. That interpretation however,requires too much tweaking of the text and is not necessary. I think it is a prudent approach to understanding difficult passages to minimize the degree to which we read into a text, much less make revisions to it.
I think the clear meaning is that a wise woman builds up her house, while a foolish woman tears it down. The word “up” being transposed into the first phrase from its opposite being mentioned in the second.
Read this way the passage would at least agree with the infamously virtuous woman of Proverbs 31.
The words “with her hands” literally means with her power and influence. As such it could even extend to her words, which is most likely.
So much is best understood when we go back to Genesis.
The woman was created FOR the man and is his helpmate. She has skills and wisdom that accentuate and compliment his own.
He may build the house, choose what is the right and most appropriate size and locations of its rooms, but she turns it into a home.
I’ve heard it said that the average man would live in a home with bare walls (other than some posters) with no more than the most utilitarian of furnishings and no drapes on the windows, no pillows on the couches and no apparent theme to any room.
While that might be a bit of an extreme, there is more truth in it than not.
I myself did all I could to keep drapery from around our windows when Teri and I first got married. I saw no purpose in them and I certainly did not want a bunch of flowery mess everywhere.
When I eventually gave in, she gave me my say in how far things could go, but I have to admit that when she was done, the house looked less like a frat house and more like a home.
I know this seems like a simple verse which requires little more than the most basic explanation, but I believe there is more here than immediately meets the eye.
Clark says,
“By her prudent and industrious management she increases property in the family, furniture in the house, and food and raiment for her household.
This is the true building of a house.
The thriftless wife acts differently, and the opposite is the result. Household furniture, far from being increased, is dilapidated; and her household are ill-fed, ill-clothed, and worse educated.”
The idea here is less about simple homemaking and more about the family and their dwelling as dressed and maintained by the wife and mother.
She keeps it clean and well stocked. She makes sure their clothes are clean and mended. She watches out for the way the home represents her family before guests.
As Titus 2:5 says, a godly woman is a homemaker.
This means she is the manager of the home and her husband needs to allow her that expression.
This not only means to keep up the home, but it extends to the family.
In fact the passage in Titus implies that she not only works AT home, but FROM home. Like the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31, she is industrious and finds ways to turn her gifts and talents into ways of making money.
All of this is included in the meaning of this passage.
So that the foolish woman can be said to tear down if by no other means than simple neglect. More women do dishonor to their home and family with their mouths, than they ever do with their hands.
“(2) He who walks in his uprightness fears the LORD, but he who is perverse in his ways despises Him.”
There are passages in scripture which point to something that is truth in reality, but which does not necessarily indicate a mental or emotional connection.
In this case a person could literally despise God by their actions, but possess no such emotion in their hearts.
The idea here of being “perverse in his ways” is a deliberate action. Something someone has thought through and made a choice regarding. Spiros Zodiadies offers Isaiah 30:12 as an example.
In that place King Hezekiah was ruling Israel and they were under a significant threat from
Assyria’s King Sennacherib. Instead of seeking God’s counsel the king appealed to Egypt for help which wound up being a trainwreck!
Isaiah prophesied to Judah not to do this, but fear inspired actions which placed trust in Egypt which was a world power at the time.
In order to get all we can out of this proverb which speaks of someone despising the Lord, we should remember that King Hezekiah was a very good and godly king overall – especially when compared with most of them. [For more on this story from Hezekiah’s life see – King Hezekiah – Pride, Humility & God’s Mercy Pt. 3]
2 Kings 18:3-6 says of him,
“(3) He did what was right in the LORD’s sight just as his ancestor David had done. (4) He removed the high places and shattered the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah poles.”
“He broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses made, for the Israelites burned incense to it up to that time. He called it Nehushtan.” meaning “a thing of brass”.
“(5) Hezekiah trusted in the LORD God of Israel; not one of the kings of Judah was like him, either before him or after him. (6) He held fast to the LORD and did not turn from following Him but kept the commandments the LORD had commanded Moses.”
So the person in this verse does not need to be a hardened sinner as it might appear. All it takes to qualify for despising the Lord is to allow something – anything to supplant Him. In this case the King had very good reason, in the natural, for fear, but God had been faithful to Him and he knew it. Hezekiah simply caved into external pressure and looked to the natural for something which seemed very secure.
“(3) In the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride, But the lips of the wise will preserve them.”
The most accepted idea here is that the prideful words of a fool will bring reproof and discipline. In that day, a primary form of disciple was beating with rods – which sounds worse than it really was.
Both the back and the bottom of feet were the target and that only after a careful examination of the offender’s health to make sure they were able to withstand the punishment.
A limit was placed on the number of strikes and the implement could not be hard wood, but something which gave, including a leather strap. If done on the back, it is assumed to have been done on top of clothes, since any type of nudity was not allowed.
Many times it was actually on the soles (arches) of the feet.
This was quite painful, but it was a brilliant way to evoke public discipline. The experience was shameful since in that culture, exposing the feet in public was shameful. However, for all the embarrassment and pain, the punishment was still merciful since the bottoms of the feet are very resilient. Most people could get up and walk away from their punishment with very little ongoing pain and no permanent damage. [See Deut. 25:2,3]
“(4) Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; but much increase comes by the strength of an ox.
(5) A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness will utter lies.
(6) A scoffer seeks wisdom and does not find it, but knowledge is easy to him who understands.”
The later part of this proverb is something which is all but lost in modern education in the western world. We teach to test, not to learn. Memorization does not equate to understanding. Once a person understands WHY something is true, they are able to extrapolate that rule to any applicable situation. So that they will almost instinctively know how to apply what they understand as a general truth to other, but related scenarios.
Teri (my wife) likes the story of how I came to end my math education in high school with nothing more than general math.
I had of course taken Algebra, but when I moved on to Geometry I ran into a difficulty which illustrates this point. My teacher taught us formulas which we were to memorize and use to work problems to a correct solution. I couldn’t seem to bring myself to do this. I mean, I worked the formula, but it made no sense to me and I was actually and finally in a math course I was interested in learning. So I wanted to know how and why the formula worked. I understood that the formula represented a procedure someone thought through and reduced to a series of repeatable steps to arrive at a reliable answer, but that taught me nothing. So I started working the problems out logically and was getting many of the right, but by the end of class I had only completed a few problems while the rest of the class completed the entire assignment. I told my teacher I wanted to understand WHY and HOW these formulas worked. If I understood the reasoning behind it, I could streamline my work by using the formula. While she appreciated my desire to learn, the class had nearly 30+ students in it and she had to get through a set amount of the book by the end of each semester so my understanding had to be tabled. I would not do this, so I was demoted to general math.
In the end I suffered very little due to this, since I did not go into construction or any field which required much geometry, but I missed out on a type of problem solving which intrigued me and to which I had at least some limited natural ability.
I dare say that there were real life problems I would be able to figure out years later having never learned those equations which those who passed the course would not, because they never understood the formula in the first place.
“(7) Go from the presence of a foolish man, When you do not perceive in him the lips of knowledge.”
This is another way of saying what we read last week in Proverbs 13:20,
“(20) He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.”
The same is taught by Paul using different words. He says, “Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.“ – 1 Corinthians 15:33
“(8) The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, But the folly of fools is deceit.”
Used in the reflexive sense, it means to consider diligently. So those who are shrewd will use their shrewdness to give careful consideration to all their ways.
The idea is that one who is prudent will pay attention to the course of their life and make alterations as needed to arrive at the goal intended.
The fool on the other hand, walks in deception – the idea could include both deceiving others as well as self-deception, but most likely this person simply is too stupid to see the truth about themselves and is therefore deceived. My using the word “stupid” is not unkind, but is baked into the word “fool”.
We read about this in James. When a person only hears the word of God it is possible for them to deceive themselves into “thinking” they are keeping it, just because they KNOW it.
“But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” – James 1:22
In the final analysis however, what really makes one wise and prudent is the fear of the Lord, for it is God Who alone gives and conceals understanding – Isaiah 29:14.
“(9) Fools mock at sin, but among the upright there is favor.”
There are two ways to understand this proverb and though both reveal A truth, I believe only one was intended.
This “CAN” be another way of saying that God resists the proud but gives grace or His favor to the humble. Fools do not bother to consider the end results of their decisions. If you were to tell them that their behavior will result in death, they would most likely mock you in disbelief. Whereas the upright will consider their Maker and respond with reverence which is reciprocated with grace.
However, the word “sin” here is actuall “guilt” אָשָׁם (ʾasham) and has a broad range of meanings which include “guilt, restitution or guilt-offering.”
In Leviticus, we see that if a person came to realize that they were guilty of sin, they were to bring a “reparation offering” which is a sin offering with an additional tribute for restitution (Leviticus 5:1-6). It was left up to the guilty party to come forward. The incentive of which was his own troubled conscience.
As such, in all likelihood this verse is saying that fools mock at the idea of seeking restitution. One insinuation is that this restitution is for wrongs they alone know they did. The idea therefore would be that of concealment. “If only I know about it, I’d be a fool to reveal it” – all such thinking is itself foolish and does not fear God.
A better translation which I really like is found in the ESV,
“Fools mock at the guilt offering, but the upright enjoy acceptance.”
“(10) The heart knows its own bitterness, and a stranger does not share its joy.”
Having looked up some of the words in this Proverb it seems linked with something Paul said in 1 Corinthians,
“For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”
Now I might be wrong in this, but I think there are exceptions to this making this a general rule rather than a hard and fast one since the implication is that sharing it, grasping it, would be impossible. However, the passage in Corinthians goes on to tell us that God reveals His thoughts to His children by the Holy Spirit. Furthermore that passage goes on to attribute to those who are spiritually mature the ability to see into and rightly appropriate others. Also there is a spiritual discernment which I believe can at times share the thoughts and feelings of another so as to make them intelligible. But this is all mere subjective thinking. While I know all that I have said here is true, this passage might be saying that no one can truly understand them in the same way the person subjectively experiences them within their heart.
“(11) The house of the wicked will be overthrown, but the tent of the upright will flourish.
(12) There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
This has perhaps explained more tragedy at the end of a “good idea” than any other verse in scripture. It also is one of the best arguments for not acting until you hear from God or know from His word what you are doing is in His will.
“(13) Even in laughter the heart may sorrow, and the end of mirth may be grief.
(14) The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, but a good man will be satisfied from above.
(15) The simple believes every word, but the prudent considers well his steps.
(16) A wise man fears and departs from evil, but a fool rages and is self-confident.
(17) A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, and a man of wicked intentions is hated.
(18) The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.
(19) The evil will bow before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.
(20) The poor man is hated even by his own neighbor, but the rich has many friends.
(21) He who despises his neighbor sins; but he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he.
(22) Do they not go astray who devise evil? But mercy and truth belong to those who devise good.
(23) In all labor there is profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty.
(24) The crown of the wise is their riches, but the foolishness of fools is folly.”
I believe that translations which use the Septuagint will render this verse more accurately.
Upon reading it, the passage didn’t make sense to me which is why I looked it up.
First, since this is parallelism, “the foolishness of fools is folly” does not follow the first statement, so one or the other must be incorrect.
I immediately held the first phrase suspect since it does not agree with the rest of scripture or even the Proverbs.
It indicates that all wise people are wealthy which in other places in Proverbs this is clearly illustrated as not true.
Then it places the value of riches as that which brings honor to the wise, which while there are cases when this might be true, it is not true universally.
So upon looking it up I found that the Septuagint, which I feel is a super safe guide in most cases, translates the word “riches” as “craftiness”. Now you might think this a huge leap but in Hebrew it is only the difference of a single character.
If taken as the Septuagint has it, it would be translated into English as something like this:
– “The crown of the wise is their craftiness, but the garland of fools is folly.”
Others also see a problem with the verse as read but rather than referencing the Septuagint they attempt to find logic in the verse as stated.
- H. Toy suggests that this line probably means that wealth is an ornament to those who use it well (Proverbs [ICC], 269). ‘
- H. Greenstone suggests that it means that the wisdom of the wise, which is their crown of glory, constitutes their wealth (Proverbs, 155).
To me, these explanations are lacking in that too much has to be assumed or read into the passage for it to make sense. Too many pivotal ideas missing which would be key to correctly understanding the proverb. Since these types of proverbs are single line wise statements, I don’t think Solomon would make the mistake of making the proverb so open to interpretation. I know there are some which need to be pondered to really understand but in this case, too much is missing from the phrase to arrive at a solid conclusion.
“(25) A true witness delivers souls, but a deceitful witness speaks lies.
(26) In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence, and His children will have a place of refuge.
(27) The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death.
(28) In a multitude of people is a king’s honor, but in the lack of people is the downfall of a prince.
(29) He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly.
(30) A sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to the bones.”
In English the first part of this proverb serves as a double entendre (ahn TAHN druh) with “heart” being able to be understood as both the organ and the soul of man.
“(31) He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, but he who honors Him has mercy on the needy.
(32) The wicked is banished in his wickedness, but the righteous has a refuge in his death.
(33) Wisdom rests in the heart of him who has understanding, but what is in the heart of fools is made known.”
We have read several proverbs with this theme, but I particularly love the way this one is worded! Most of the time these statements focus on the wise being of few words and that is communicated here as well. But, added to this is the condition of the heart of the wise. It is not chomping at the bit, wishing it could say all it knows, but restraining itself because it is wise. It is painting the picture of a wise heart being inwardly settled, calm and not eager to speak. That is the way I have come to experience wisdom that comes with age and experience. There is a settling that comes on you and you do not feel the need to enter the fray, but sit back looking for a pause in the noise and minds which are open to thoughts beyond them.
This “settledness” often conjures the image of Jesus as He came down the mountain to join His disciples on the day they ran into the man whose son had a demon they could not cast out of him. The situation was tense to begin with and only escalated. As the disciples tried in vain to deliver the boy, the crowd kept getting larger and the father was reaching a point of mad despair. Then Jesus walks in a calm and tranquil as if taking a pleasant walk on a cool day. Everyone shifted their attention to Jesus. The disciples were all up in arms because they were unable to deliver the boy. The father began pressing Jesus to deliver him and the crowd was all focused on Jesus to perform for them. In all of this Jesus never allowed their inner turmoil to influence His inner peace. He stated calm truths and waited for replies before taking any action.
That real life story from the life of Jesus has always deeply impressed me and I strive to become the person who does not allow the outside world to dictate or even speak to my inner tranquility of soul as it is settled under the presence and power of God.
“(34) Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”
This is true of course regardless of whether it is the correct translation of the verse, but the rabbinic exegesis of the Jewish scholar Rashi who lived in 1040-1105 AD took the wording as if it said, “even the kindness of some nations is a sin because they do it only for a show”.
Quite honestly this secondary meaning says more than the first. The first is so obvious as to not require mentioning, but the other seems more insightful.
“(35) The king’s favor is toward a wise servant, but his wrath is against him who causes shame.”
Blessings!
Tri
