Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Proverbs 29:16 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 16. 16When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth: but the righteous shall see their fall.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse uses contrastive parallelism to place “When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth” against “the righteous shall see their fall”.
Read It With
- Proverbs 29:15–17
Within Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men, Proverbs 29:16 uses contrastive parallelism to place “When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth” against “the righteous shall see their fall”. The immediate unit supplies proportion, affected people, and the transition from meaning to application.
Why This Verse Appears Here
At verse 29:16, Proverbs uses contrastive parallelism to place “When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth” against “the righteous shall see their fall”. The line belongs to “Family teaching, responsibility, and mutual care — The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to...” and remains governed by the unit's source limits and misuse boundaries.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth: but...”
In plain language: justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation
This verse uses contrastive parallelism to place “When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth” against “the righteous shall see their fall”.
Why it matters: This wording gives the verse its distinct role inside the cluster.
How certain? strongWhat Remains True
Wisdom requires honest judgment and active regard for people who can be exploited, ignored, or misrepresented. In Proverbs 29:16, that bounded truth is expressed through “When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth: but...,” not through a promise detached from its literary form.
How It Can Shape Life
- Use verifiable evidence, fair procedure, proportionate response, and meaningful access for the person with less power. For Proverbs 29:16, preserve the sequence: verse role (uses contrastive parallelism to place “When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth” against “the righteous shall see their fall”) -> contextual meaning in Proverbs 29:15–17 -> proportionate truth -> this accountable response.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Proverbs 29:15–17 — Family teaching, responsibility, and mutual care — The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to...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 29:15–17, 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 29:15-29:17
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. 1175-1178, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 29:15–17
Open source ↗