Proverbs 13:4

These verses belong to the collection headed “The proverbs of Solomon”, which runs from Proverbs 10:1 to 22:16, in a chapter that keeps setting the wise beside the foolish, the righteous beside the wicked and the diligent beside the lazy (Proverbs 13). The sluggard of verse 4 is full of wanting. The word for him, ʻâtsêl, describes a person who is habitually idle and slow to act, and the verb for his desire, ʼâvâh, is a strong one: to long for, to crave, even to lust after. His trouble lies in the distance between what he wants and what he will do. He wants the fruit of work while refusing the work, and so his soul “desireth, and hath nothing.”

The diligent man, chărûwts, is named with a word meaning cut or sharp, and from that, eager. He is decisive and industrious, and he keeps at the work in front of him. His soul “shall be made fat.” The verb dâshên is drawn from the noun for fatness, and in Israel fatness meant healthy flocks, fruitful fields and a well-fed household, in a land where scarcity and famine were always near. Israel lived by farming, so everyone knew the sluggard as the man who let his fields, his animals and his family go untended, and the diligent man as the one whose household thrived.

Both halves of the verse speak of the “soul”, nephesh. The word means a breathing creature, and so a life, a self, the whole person, and very often the appetite. Both men, then, are hungry. One stays hungry and the other is filled.

The rest of Proverbs says the same in many ways. “The hand of the diligent maketh rich” (Proverbs 10:4), and the thoughts of the diligent lead to plenty (Proverbs 21:5). In this same chapter, wealth gathered by labour increases while wealth gotten by vanity dwindles (Proverbs 13:11), and the righteous eat until they are satisfied while the belly of the wicked goes wanting (Proverbs 13:25). Paul gives the church the rule “if any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10), and he states the wider law behind all of these: “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).

In verse 5 the righteous man, tsaddîyq, is the just and lawful man, whose conduct matches God’s standard of what is right. He “hateth lying.” The verb sânêʼ is the ordinary word for hating, and it is strong, the word used of an enemy or a foe. His hatred of falsehood belongs to his character. “Lying” takes in every kind of falsehood, the spoken lie along with treachery and sham, half-truths, misleading silence and even the lies a person tells himself.

He hates it because the LORD is truth and faithfulness. Moses calls him “a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4), and a psalm says that “all his works are done in truth” (Psalm 33:4). The law forbade false witness (Exodus 20:16), “lying lips are abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 12:22), and a lying tongue and a false witness are among the seven things the LORD hates (Proverbs 6:16–19). The one who may dwell in the LORD’s holy hill is the man who “speaketh the truth in his heart” (Psalm 15:1–2), and Paul tells the church to put away lying and speak truth with one another, “for we are members one of another” (Ephesians 4:25). Close by in Proverbs, the truthful witness is set against the deceitful one (Proverbs 12:17), and “he that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life” (Proverbs 13:3).

Verse 6 speaks of righteousness and wickedness as though they were persons at work. Righteousness, tsᵉdâqâh, is rightness in every sense: upright character, justice, virtue, and at times the prosperity that goes with them. In Israel it was bound up with the covenant, the faithful living out of the LORD’s law in justice and integrity. Here righteousness “keepeth”, nâtsar, a verb that means to guard, protect and maintain. It stands guard over the one who is “upright in the way.” The word for upright, tôm, speaks of completeness and integrity, and “the way”, derek, is the Bible’s familiar picture of a person’s course through life.

Wickedness, rishʻâh, does the opposite work. It “overthroweth the sinner”, and the verb çâlaph means to wrench, to subvert, to overthrow or pervert. Sin twists a life until it falls. The ruin is built into wickedness itself, so the path of sin defeats itself, and behind that order stands the God who made it and upholds justice in it. “The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness” (Proverbs 11:5), and “righteousness delivereth from death” (Proverbs 11:4). The first psalm sets out the same two ways, the tree planted by the rivers of water and the chaff that the wind drives away (Psalm 1).

Verse 7 teaches that a person’s real wealth can be the reverse of what others see. Both its verbs are reflexive. ʻâshar means to grow rich, and in this form to make oneself rich, to strive after riches or to make a display of them. rûwsh means to be destitute or in need, and here to make oneself poor. The word for the “great riches” of the second man, hôwn, means wealth or substance, and by implication enough.

“There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing.” This man may be putting on a show he cannot afford, living beyond his means and in debt, or he may be piling up wealth by dishonest gain. Whatever his display, he is empty of what lasts: integrity, peace, contentment and a right standing before God. “There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.” This man may live simply and humbly, be content with little, or give so freely that he has little to show. His wealth lies in wisdom, character and his bond with God and with others, and it stays hidden from anyone who judges by the surface.

Scripture often turns the world’s measure of worth upside down. “The LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7), wisdom is worth more than jewels (Proverbs 8:11), and “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6–10). Jesus tells us to lay up treasures in heaven, safe from moth, rust and thieves (Matthew 6:19–21), and he tells of the rich fool who filled his barns and lost his soul that very night, because he was “not rich toward God” (Luke 12:15–21).

The verse warns against wealth gained by pretence or dishonesty, and against making possessions the measure of a person. Wealth honestly gained has its place, for it is God who gives the power to get wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18), and Proverbs praises the diligent hand that makes rich.

Verse 8 looks honestly at money. “The ransom of a man’s life are his riches.” The word kôpher, from a root meaning to cover, is the word for a ransom or a bribe, the price paid for a life. The word for riches here, ʻôsher, is plain wealth, a man’s goods and money. In the world of that day a wealthy man could be threatened, accused, fined, held captive or condemned, and courts and powerful men could be swayed by payment. His wealth could buy his way out. Proverbs records this as a fact of life in a fallen world, as when it says, “The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty” (Proverbs 10:15).

“But the poor heareth not rebuke.” The poor man is rûwsh, the same word that in verse 7 describes the man who makes himself poor. The word for rebuke, gᵉʻârâh, means a chiding or reproof, and here a threat, an accusation or a demand for payment. The plainest reading is that the poor man has nothing anyone wants, so nobody threatens him and he needs no ransom. Wealth delivers a man from danger and also draws danger to him, so this proverb lets us neither despise riches nor trust them. A second reading hears sorrow in the line, with the poor going unregarded and their voices and needs passing unnoticed by those with power, a hardship of its own. Against that, “the righteous considereth the cause of the poor” (Proverbs 29:7).

Verse 9 draws on the lamp of an Israelite home. An oil lamp lit the house at night, made work possible and kept the household safe, so a burning lamp stood for life, prosperity, guidance and a family that carries on. A lamp put out meant death, ruin, despair and the end of a family line.

“The light of the righteous rejoiceth.” The word for light, ʼôwr, means illumination, light of every kind. Here the light itself is glad, a picture of a life that flourishes in joy under God’s favour. Proverbs says, “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble” (Proverbs 4:18–19), and a psalm promises, “Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness” (Psalm 112:4).

“But the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.” The wicked man’s lamp, nîyr, a word from a root meaning to glisten, is the household lamp, and it will go dark. The verb dâʻak means to be extinguished, quenched or dried up, and it marks the end of his prosperity, his influence and his name. Proverbs says it again: “For there shall be no reward to the evil man; the candle of the wicked shall be put out” (Proverbs 24:20). The same two ends close the first psalm: “For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish” (Psalm 1:6). Jesus speaks of the wide gate and broad way that lead to destruction and the strait gate and narrow way that lead to life (Matthew 7:13–14).

The light of the righteous is first of all God’s favour, moral clarity and the life of the spirit, and it also takes in the whole of life, health, family and goods. Proverbs promises that those who honour the LORD with their substance will have barns filled with plenty (Proverbs 3:9–10). Such blessings follow from a right relationship with God. The verse also leaves room for dark seasons in a righteous life, because it speaks of where the two lives end.

Jesus is the diligent servant of his Father. He finished the work the Father gave him to do (John 17:4), and his obedience to the cross brought the true fatness of salvation and eternal life to all who believe. Because of him, believers are called to give all diligence to add to their faith virtue, knowledge and the rest (2 Peter 1:5–8), and to work out their salvation, knowing that God works in them both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12–13). The faithful servant of the parable hears his master say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:21).

He is the truth the righteous man loves: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). He “did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22), and he laid bare the falsehood and hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23:13–36). He “endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2), bearing the shame that wickedness earns, so that those once bound for shame receive “the gift of righteousness” and “reign in life” through him (Romans 5:17).

He alone walked upright in the way, “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). God kept him and raised him up, “because it was not possible that he should be holden of it” (Acts 2:24). On the cross he was made sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and the proverb’s warning still stands. Grace is God’s way of rescuing sinners from the overthrowing power of wickedness and setting them on a new way, where they walk “not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:4).

He is the one who made himself poor and had great riches. He “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6–7), and “the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7) he set heavenly treasure above earthly again and again. “Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). The riches we receive in him are forgiveness of sins “according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7), adoption, an inheritance in glory, and “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8).

He is the ransom. Riches may buy back a life from earthly danger, and he paid the price for the soul that no fortune could pay. “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). We were redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ” and “not with corruptible things, as silver and gold” (1 Peter 1:18–19), by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), sent by a God who is “rich in mercy” (Ephesians 2:4–7).

He is the light. Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12), and of the holy city it is written, “the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof” (Revelation 21:23). Those joined to him become the light of the world in turn (Matthew 5:14–16) and walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8), and their light rejoices by his Spirit.

These six proverbs show a God who has woven consequences into his world. Work and laziness, truth and lies, righteousness and wickedness all bear their own fruit, because he made the world that way and he judges in it. He loves truth because he is true. He guards the upright on their way. He weighs riches by the heart, and he sees the poor whom the powerful pass by. He gives the righteous a light that rejoices, and the wicked man’s lamp goes out at his word.

In Christ, God has given all that these sayings point toward: the righteousness that keeps us, the riches the poor in spirit receive, the ransom that no fortune could pay, and a light that lasts. The last line of the passage stands as a promise for everyone who belongs to him: “The light of the righteous rejoiceth.”