Proverbs 10:2 Explained in Context

Read It With

• Proverbs 10:1–5

Read Proverbs 10:2 with 10:1–5. Read alone, “Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness…” could turn a compressed observation, warning, comparison, or command into a guarantee or complete policy. The full unit establishes: uses contrastive parallelism to place “The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father” against “a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother”; by 10:5, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “He that gathereth in summer is a wise son” against “he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame”. Together the unit concentrates on family teaching, responsibility, and mutual care, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception, justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation within “First Solomonic sentence-saying collection.”

Why It Needs Context

Proverbs 10:2 uses contrastive parallelism to place “Treasures of wickedness profit nothing” against “righteousness delivereth from death”. Because this line supplies setup, support, continuation, or result, “Family teaching, responsibility, and mutual care — The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father:…” provides the meaning it cannot responsibly carry alone.