Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Proverbs 21:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard”.
Read It With
- Proverbs 21:10–13
Proverbs 21:10–13 is the required frame for Proverbs 21:13. Here the saying contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard”; its collection setting controls whether the words describe a pattern, warning, invitation, or bounded command.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The unit needs this line's exact work: it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard”. That placement develops friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, humility, teachability, pride, and reputation, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception while leaving exceptional cases visible.
Follow the Context
- Opening (21:10): the unit opens with “The soul of the wicked desireth evil” and develops the line through “his neighbour findeth no favour in his eyes”.
- Development (21:10–13): adjacent lines test friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, humility, teachability, pride, and reputation, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception through parallelism, contrast, motive, image, or consequence.
- Close (21:13): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard”, creating the next supported pause.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall...”
In plain language: wealth, poverty, provision, and economic power
This verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard”.
Why it matters: This wording carries interpretive, pastoral, or misuse risk requiring the full unit and explicit limits.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
The verse does not blame poor people for unmet needs or claim that anyone currently suffering once ignored another person's cry.
What Remains True
Proverbs treats resources as morally consequential but never reduces wealth to virtue or poverty to personal failure. In Proverbs 21:13, that bounded truth is expressed through “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall...,” not through a promise detached from its literary form.
How It Can Shape Life
- Examine how money was obtained, who bears the cost, whether basic needs are met, and how resources can serve justice and durable care. For Proverbs 21:13, preserve the sequence: verse role (contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard”) -> contextual meaning in Proverbs 21:10–13 -> proportionate truth -> this accountable response.
Teach It Back
Explain Proverbs 21:13's exact role in Proverbs 21:10–13. Distinguish pattern from guarantee, include “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the...,” name one uncertainty, and explicitly reject one harmful use.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Proverbs 21:10–13 — Friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries — The soul of the wicked desireth evil: his neighbour...Sources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Reciprocal warning intensifies the duty to hear poor people's cries; it describes moral consequence rather than a complete prediction of every unanswered prayer.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, canonical order, paragraph flags, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: Proverbs 21:10–13, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Proverbs
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology used only for the exact unit's lexical, grammatical, parallel, superscription, number-saying, and acrostic questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Prov.xml, OSIS 21:10-21:13
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Proverbs with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-attached textual, lexical, grammatical, syntactic, parallelism, and older-English controls for the exact range.
Exact location: NET Bible Proverbs PDF, printed pp. 1144-1148, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 21:10–13
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
Proverbs
K. T. Aitken
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001
Supports: Whole-book and collection orientation, local commentary, social-setting proposals, and named interpretation limits.
Exact location: Aitken, ‘Proverbs,’ Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 405-422, subsection covering 21:10–13 and the First Solomonic sentence-saying collection outline
Open source ↗scholarly monograph chapter abstract and metadata
Context in the Sayings Collections
Stuart Weeks
Oxford University Press, in Early Israelite Wisdom, 2000
Supports: Abstract-level control for the dispute over individual-saying, small-cluster, and collection context; no uninspected detailed claim.
Exact location: Weeks, ‘Context in the Sayings Collections,’ Early Israelite Wisdom (2000), official abstract and chapter pp. 20-40; methodological question applied to Proverbs 21:10–13
Open source ↗