Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Proverbs 23:23 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 23. 23Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse uses two-part parallelism to place “Buy the truth, and sell it not” beside “also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding”.
Read It With
- Proverbs 23:22–25
Proverbs 23:22–25 is the required frame for Proverbs 23:23. Here the saying uses two-part parallelism to place “Buy the truth, and sell it not” beside “also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding”; its collection setting controls whether the words describe a pattern, warning, invitation, or bounded command.
Why This Verse Appears Here
This verse uses two-part parallelism to place “Buy the truth, and sell it not” beside “also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding”. This contributes necessary evidence to “Family teaching, responsibility, and mutual care — Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not...,” where family teaching, responsibility, and mutual care, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception, instruction, correction, and formation are read together without erasing the sentence saying's own force.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction,...”
In plain language: instruction, correction, and formation
This verse uses two-part parallelism to place “Buy the truth, and sell it not” beside “also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding”.
Why it matters: This wording gives the verse its distinct role inside the cluster.
How certain? strongWhat Remains True
Wise correction aims at learning, responsibility, and protection rather than domination or pain for its own sake. In Proverbs 23:23, that bounded truth is expressed through “Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction,...,” not through a promise detached from its literary form.
How It Can Shape Life
- Use calm, age-appropriate, nonviolent guidance, clear boundaries, repair, and qualified support when ordinary correction is not enough. For Proverbs 23:23, preserve the sequence: verse role (uses two-part parallelism to place “Buy the truth, and sell it not” beside “also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding”) -> contextual meaning in Proverbs 23:22–25 -> proportionate truth -> this accountable response.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Proverbs 23:22–25 — Family teaching, responsibility, and mutual care — Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not...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 23:22–25, 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 23:22-23:25
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. 1152-1156, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 23:22–25
Open source ↗