Proverbs 28:16–19, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Proverbs 28:16–19
Justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation — The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great…
uses contrastive parallelism to place “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great…” against “he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days”; by 28:19, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread” against “he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty…”. Together the unit concentrates on justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
Why this sits here
Proverbs 28:16–19 forms a reviewed local cluster inside “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” Its lines concentrate on justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception, while each sentence proverb retains its own force and the neighboring database unit does not supply its meaning.
What helps us understand it
How this passage works
Proverbs 28:16–19Proverbs 28:16–19 is the reviewed unit “Justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation — The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great….” Its parallel lines, repeated address, comparison, or local cluster controls how each verse contributes without borrowing a neighboring unit's subject.
The unit opens “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor: but he that…” and closes “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after….”
Place in the book
Proverbs as a wholeProverbs 28:16–19 belongs to “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” The collection heading makes editorial transmission explicit. Court access, conflict, speech, fools, friendship, agriculture, poverty, law, and rulers are held under justice rather than political absolutism. This unit contributes justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception through its own received wording and form.
The received sequence places Proverbs 28:16–19 inside Proverbs 25:1–29:27; this unit opens “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor: but he that…” and closes “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after….” The unit's reviewed main point is: uses contrastive parallelism to place “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great…” against “he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days”; by 28:19, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread” against “he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty…”. Together the unit concentrates on justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
Proverbs 28:16–19 opens with “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor: but he that…” and closes with “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after….” Those endpoints show the unit's movement from opening claim to reviewed close.
How the passage moves
Development (28:16–19): adjacent lines test justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception through parallelism, contrast, motive, image, or consequence.
Why this reading fits
Exact verse-level work
Every line in Proverbs 28:16–19 retains its own Verse Lens role and does not borrow a neighboring verse's claim.
Proverbial proportion
The unit's instruction and observations concern justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception; they describe moral direction without explaining every exceptional outcome.
A needed correction
Reading Proverbs 28:16–19 as edited wisdom rather than a detached formula rules out these uses:
The saying does not authorize vigilantism, collective blame, discriminatory policing, cruelty, or a claim that one modern institution always speaks for God.
The saying does not establish divine-right politics, nationalism, authoritarian obedience, partisan demonization, or an unqualified mandate for a modern state.
The saying does not make a proverb a universal guarantee, label people permanently, reward contempt, or replace careful attention to exceptional cases.
The unit does not turn a normal wisdom pattern into a universal promise, a complete causal explanation of suffering, or a mandate broader than Proverbs 28:16–19.
What remains true
Wisdom requires honest judgment and active regard for people who can be exploited, ignored, or misrepresented. Public authority is judged by truth, justice, restraint, and its treatment of people with less power. Wisdom is practiced moral perception: learning how words, desires, habits, relationships, and power ordinarily tend toward life or harm. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
How this should shape us
How does the application follow proportionately?
Use verifiable evidence, fair procedure, proportionate response, and meaningful access for the person with less power. Evaluate leaders and institutions by transparent process, material effects, protection of rights, and willingness to receive correction. For a difficult choice, seek correction, compare the likely effects of competing paths, and choose the option that protects truth, justice, and teachability. In 28:16–19, let the concrete wording “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a…” keep that response tied to the people, action, comparison, or consequence actually named.
Teach it back
Explain Proverbs 28:16–19 in your own words. Identify its form and collection, trace one line from role through contextual meaning and enduring truth to application, name one uncertainty, and reject one misuse explicitly.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Exact verse-level work
Every line in Proverbs 28:16–19 retains its own Verse Lens role and does not borrow a neighboring verse's claim.
Collection context
The superscription and placement identify this unit inside “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men”: The collection heading makes editorial transmission explicit. Court access, conflict, speech, fools, friendship, agriculture, poverty, law, and rulers are held under justice rather than political absolutism.
Proverbial proportion
The unit's instruction and observations concern justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception; they describe moral direction without explaining every exceptional outcome.
What the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Edited wisdom and social setting
This unit belongs to solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men. Aitken's printed pages 405-422 and the book-specific sources identify family, community, agricultural, commercial, scribal, court, and royal settings as relevant possibilities without proving one setting for every saying.
How certain? probableEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
Israelite wisdom setting
The unit's first horizon is Israel's wisdom collection under fear of the LORD. Torah-shaped justice, creation, household teaching, royal responsibility, and community life may inform the language, but no cross-reference overrides this unit's own parallelism and collection role.
How certain? probableHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Responsible canonical location
Within the received book, The collection heading makes editorial transmission explicit. Court access, conflict, speech, fools, friendship, agriculture, poverty, law, and rulers are held under justice rather than political absolutism. This local unit is read through that movement before broader canonical comparison.
How certain? probableTextual variantsManuscript differences only when they affect meaning
Material textual or translation question
The complete NET notes attached to Proverbs 28:16–19 were inspected alongside MorphHB. No unreviewed alternative replaces the pinned KJV; any verse whose wording materially affects interpretation carries an expanded Lens and visible uncertainty rather than a silent emendation.
How certain? probableWhere careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful readers disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters disagree over how much literary meaning adjacent sentence sayings gain from small clusters. This package treats Proverbs 28:16–19 as a useful local cluster while preserving each saying's independent force and marking the boundary as revisable.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
The unit places practical wisdom under a moral order answerable to the LORD: Wisdom requires honest judgment and active regard for people who can be exploited, ignored, or misrepresented. Public authority is judged by truth, justice, restraint, and its treatment of people with less power. Wisdom is practiced moral perception: learning how words, desires, habits, relationships, and power ordinarily tend toward life or harm.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
Within Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men, uses contrastive parallelism to place “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great…” against “he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days”; by 28:19, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread” against “he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty…”. Together the unit concentrates on justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
How certain? strongCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
The saying does not authorize vigilantism, collective blame, discriminatory policing, cruelty, or a claim that one modern institution always speaks for God.
A compact saying is easy to detach and universalize.
Within solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men, uses contrastive parallelism to place “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great…” against “he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days”; by 28:19, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread” against “he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty…”. Together the unit concentrates on justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” The sayings function as context-shaped instruction and observation: general patterns are not automatic guarantees, commands stay bounded by their ancient role, and an individual line must not erase the edited collection around it.
Wisdom requires honest judgment and active regard for people who can be exploited, ignored, or misrepresented. Public authority is judged by truth, justice, restraint, and its treatment of people with less power. Wisdom is practiced moral perception: learning how words, desires, habits, relationships, and power ordinarily tend toward life or harm. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
The context-supported contribution remains: uses contrastive parallelism to place “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great…” against “he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days”; by 28:19, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread” against “he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty…”. Together the unit concentrates on justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
The saying does not establish divine-right politics, nationalism, authoritarian obedience, partisan demonization, or an unqualified mandate for a modern state.
An ancient authority, household, wealth, gender, or consequence image can be imported into modern power without following the interpretation chain.
Within solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men, uses contrastive parallelism to place “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great…” against “he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days”; by 28:19, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread” against “he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty…”. Together the unit concentrates on justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” The sayings function as context-shaped instruction and observation: general patterns are not automatic guarantees, commands stay bounded by their ancient role, and an individual line must not erase the edited collection around it.
Wisdom requires honest judgment and active regard for people who can be exploited, ignored, or misrepresented. Public authority is judged by truth, justice, restraint, and its treatment of people with less power. Wisdom is practiced moral perception: learning how words, desires, habits, relationships, and power ordinarily tend toward life or harm. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
The context-supported contribution remains: uses contrastive parallelism to place “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great…” against “he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days”; by 28:19, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread” against “he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty…”. Together the unit concentrates on justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
The saying does not make a proverb a universal guarantee, label people permanently, reward contempt, or replace careful attention to exceptional cases.
An ancient authority, household, wealth, gender, or consequence image can be imported into modern power without following the interpretation chain.
Within solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men, uses contrastive parallelism to place “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great…” against “he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days”; by 28:19, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread” against “he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty…”. Together the unit concentrates on justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” The sayings function as context-shaped instruction and observation: general patterns are not automatic guarantees, commands stay bounded by their ancient role, and an individual line must not erase the edited collection around it.
Wisdom requires honest judgment and active regard for people who can be exploited, ignored, or misrepresented. Public authority is judged by truth, justice, restraint, and its treatment of people with less power. Wisdom is practiced moral perception: learning how words, desires, habits, relationships, and power ordinarily tend toward life or harm. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
The context-supported contribution remains: uses contrastive parallelism to place “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great…” against “he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days”; by 28:19, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread” against “he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty…”. Together the unit concentrates on justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
The unit does not turn a normal wisdom pattern into a universal promise, a complete causal explanation of suffering, or a mandate broader than Proverbs 28:16–19.
An ancient authority, household, wealth, gender, or consequence image can be imported into modern power without following the interpretation chain.
Within solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men, uses contrastive parallelism to place “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great…” against “he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days”; by 28:19, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread” against “he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty…”. Together the unit concentrates on justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” The sayings function as context-shaped instruction and observation: general patterns are not automatic guarantees, commands stay bounded by their ancient role, and an individual line must not erase the edited collection around it.
Wisdom requires honest judgment and active regard for people who can be exploited, ignored, or misrepresented. Public authority is judged by truth, justice, restraint, and its treatment of people with less power. Wisdom is practiced moral perception: learning how words, desires, habits, relationships, and power ordinarily tend toward life or harm. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
The context-supported contribution remains: uses contrastive parallelism to place “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great…” against “he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days”; by 28:19, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread” against “he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty…”. Together the unit concentrates on justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule, wisdom, folly, teachability, and moral perception within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, canonical order, paragraph flags, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Proverbs 28:16–19, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology used only for the exact unit's lexical, grammatical, parallel, superscription, number-saying, and acrostic questions.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Prov.xml, OSIS 28:16-28:19
Supports: Verse-attached textual, lexical, grammatical, syntactic, parallelism, and older-English controls for the exact range.
NET Bible Proverbs PDF, printed pp. 1171-1175, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 28:16–19
Supports: Whole-book and collection orientation, local commentary, social-setting proposals, and named interpretation limits.
Aitken, ‘Proverbs,’ Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 405-422, subsection covering 28:16–19 and the Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men outline
Supports: Abstract-level control for the dispute over individual-saying, small-cluster, and collection context; no uninspected detailed claim.
Weeks, ‘Context in the Sayings Collections,’ Early Israelite Wisdom (2000), official abstract and chapter pp. 20-40; methodological question applied to Proverbs 28:16–19
Supports: One historical-social account of poverty, wealth, interest, oppression, labor, and differing evaluations within the collection.
Wittenberg, ‘Situational context of statements concerning poverty and wealth,’ Scriptura 21, pp. 1-23, especially the sayings and redactional comparison relevant to Proverbs 28:16–19
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
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 28:16–19, 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 28:16-28:19
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. 1171-1175, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 28:16–19
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 28:16–19 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 28:16–19
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 28:16–19
Open source ↗