Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Proverbs 22:21 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 21. 21That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse uses two-part parallelism to place “That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of…” beside “that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that…”.
The words of the wise begin by asking for a bowed ear and an applied heart
This verse is one part of that explanation in Proverbs 22:17–21. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.
Read It With
- Proverbs 22:17–21
Read Proverbs 22:21 with 22:17–21. Read alone, “That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of…” 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 “Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge”; by 22:21, it uses two-part parallelism to place “That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of…” beside “that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that…”. Together the unit concentrates on speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception, reverent accountability before the LORD within “Sayings of the wise.”
Why This Verse Appears Here
Proverbs 22:17–21 appears here because its explicit heading or opening purpose begins “Sayings of the wise” and establishes the collection work that follows: Longer admonitions address attention, social power, debt, appetite, wealth, boundaries, vulnerable people, discipline, envy, resilience, witness, and neighbor-love. Within that relationship, this verse uses two-part parallelism to place “That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of…” beside “that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that…”.
Follow the Context
- Opening (22:17): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge”.
- Development (22:17–21): adjacent lines test speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception, reverent accountability before the LORD through parallelism, contrast, motive, image, or consequence.
- Close (22:21): the unit uses two-part parallelism to place “That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of…” beside “that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that…”, creating the next supported pause.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Proverbs 22:21 does not allow “That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of…” to become a universal promise, complete policy, diagnosis, insult, or authorization detached from Proverbs 22:17–21. The saying does not require silence about abuse, guarantee that gentle words stop danger, or make a harmed person responsible for another's aggression.
What Remains True
Words can reveal character, transmit truth, inflame conflict, protect others, or cause durable harm. In Proverbs 22:21, that bounded truth is expressed through “That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of…,” not through a promise detached from its literary form.
How It Can Shape Life
- Pause, verify, listen, and choose truthful speech fitted to the hearer, timing, risk, and public consequences. Proverbs 22:21 names that responsibility through “That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of…,” so the response must remain accountable to the person, action, comparison, or consequence in this line.
Teach It Back
Explain Proverbs 22:21's exact role in Proverbs 22:17–21. Distinguish pattern from guarantee, include “That I might make thee know the certainty…,” name one uncertainty, and explicitly reject one harmful use.
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Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read Proverbs 22:17–21 — The sayings of the wise begin with attentive hearingSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
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 22:17–21, 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 22:17-22:21
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. 1148-1152, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 22:17–21
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 22:17–21 and the Sayings of the wise 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 22:17–21
Open source ↗