Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Proverbs 27:23 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 23. 23Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds”.
Read It With
- Proverbs 27:23–27
Read Proverbs 27:23 inside Proverbs 27:23–27: it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds”. The unit then locates that line within work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, wealth, poverty, provision, and economic power, family teaching, responsibility, and mutual care rather than treating it as a free-standing formula.
Why This Verse Appears Here
At verse 27:23, Proverbs contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds”. The line belongs to “Work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits — Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and...” and remains governed by the unit's source limits and misuse boundaries.
Follow the Context
- Opening (27:23): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds”.
- Development (27:23–27): adjacent lines test work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, wealth, poverty, provision, and economic power, family teaching, responsibility, and mutual care through parallelism, contrast, motive, image, or consequence.
- Close (27:27): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “And thou shalt have goats’ milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for...”, creating the next supported pause.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well...”
In plain language: work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits
This verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds”.
Why it matters: This wording carries interpretive, pastoral, or misuse risk requiring the full unit and explicit limits.
How certain? strongWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
The saying does not blame unemployment, disability, caregiving, illness, exploitation, or poverty on laziness, and it does not command work without rest or safety.
What Remains True
Diligent, skillful work is normally fruitful, yet outcomes also depend on health, opportunity, justice, weather, and other conditions beyond one worker's control. In Proverbs 27:23, that bounded truth is expressed through “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well...,” not through a promise detached from its literary form.
How It Can Shape Life
- Plan sustainable effort, practice the relevant skill, share burdens fairly, and address structural obstacles rather than judging only the outcome. For Proverbs 27:23, preserve the sequence: verse role (contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds”) -> contextual meaning in Proverbs 27:23–27 -> proportionate truth -> this accountable response.
Teach It Back
Explain Proverbs 27:23's exact role in Proverbs 27:23–27. Distinguish pattern from guarantee, include “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy...,” 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 27:23–27 — Work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits — Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and...Sources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
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 27:23–27, 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 27:23-27:27
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. 1168-1171, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 27:23–27
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 27:23–27 and the Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men 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 27:23–27
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access journal article
The situational context of statements concerning poverty and wealth in the Book of Proverbs
G. H. Wittenberg
Scriptura 21, 1987; open archive 2020
Supports: One historical-social account of poverty, wealth, interest, oppression, labor, and differing evaluations within the collection.
Exact location: Wittenberg, ‘Situational context of statements concerning poverty and wealth,’ Scriptura 21, pp. 1-23, especially the sayings and redactional comparison relevant to Proverbs 27:23–27
Open source ↗