Proverbs 15:16 Explained in Context

Read It With

• Proverbs 15:16–19

Read Proverbs 15:16 with 15:16–19. Read alone, “Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure…” could turn a compressed observation, warning, comparison, or command into a guarantee or complete policy. The full unit establishes: contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith”; by 15:19, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns” against “the way of the righteous is made plain”. Together the unit concentrates on reverent accountability before the LORD, wealth, poverty, provision, and economic power, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life within “First Solomonic sentence-saying collection.”

Why This Verse Appears Here

Proverbs 15:16–19 forms a reviewed local cluster inside “First Solomonic sentence-saying collection.” Its lines concentrate on reverent accountability before the LORD, wealth, poverty, provision, and economic power, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, while each sentence proverb retains its own force and the neighboring database unit does not supply its meaning. Within that relationship, this verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith”.