Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Proverbs 21:22 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 22. 22A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof”.
Read It With
- Proverbs 21:22–25
The line at Proverbs 21:22 contributes the claim, image, or instruction “A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof”. Its place in Proverbs 21:22–25 matters because the edited collection joins it to wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence, violence, predation, conflict, and protection.
Why This Verse Appears Here
At verse 21:22, Proverbs contributes the claim, image, or instruction “A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof”. The line belongs to “Wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception — A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and casteth...” and remains governed by the unit's source limits and misuse boundaries.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and casteth down the...”
In plain language: wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception
This verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof”.
Why it matters: This wording gives the verse its distinct role inside the cluster.
How certain? strongWhat Remains True
Wisdom is practiced moral perception: learning how words, desires, habits, relationships, and power ordinarily tend toward life or harm. In Proverbs 21:22, that bounded truth is expressed through “A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and casteth down the...,” not through a promise detached from its literary form.
How It Can Shape Life
- Read the whole saying, identify its contrast and setting, seek correction, and test a proposed action by its likely effects on others. For Proverbs 21:22, preserve the sequence: verse role (contributes the claim, image, or instruction “A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof”) -> contextual meaning in Proverbs 21:22–25 -> proportionate truth -> this accountable response.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Proverbs 21:22–25 — Wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception — A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and casteth...Sources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
Where care is needed
This sentence saying states a context-shaped moral pattern. Its small-cluster boundary and degree of generality remain reviewable; exceptional outcomes do not make the observation meaningless or turn it into a guarantee.
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 21:22–25, 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 21:22-21:25
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 21:22–25
Open source ↗