Proverbs 14:21 Explained in Context

Read It With

• Proverbs 14:20–25

Read Proverbs 14:21 with 14:20–25. Read alone, “He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth: but he that hath mercy…” 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 poor is hated even of his own neighbour” against “the rich hath many friends”; by 14:25, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “A true witness delivereth souls” against “a deceitful witness speaketh lies”. Together the unit concentrates on wealth, poverty, provision, and economic power, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility within “First Solomonic sentence-saying collection.”

Why This Verse Appears Here

Proverbs 14:20–25 forms a reviewed local cluster inside “First Solomonic sentence-saying collection.” Its lines concentrate on wealth, poverty, provision, and economic power, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, while each sentence proverb retains its own force and the neighboring database unit does not supply its meaning. Within that relationship, this verse uses contrastive parallelism to place “He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth” against “he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he”.