Read the passage and its setting
Proverbs 3:27–35, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Proverbs 3:27–35
Timely neighbor-love and refusal of violent envy
The Main Point
contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it”; by 3:35, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wise shall inherit glory” against “shame shall be the promotion of fools”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection within “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.”
What Is Happening Here?
Proverbs 3:27–35 opens with “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine…” and closes with “The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.” Those endpoints show the unit's movement from opening claim to reviewed close.
Context That Shapes This Passage
How does this passage relate?
Proverbs 3:27–35In “Timely neighbor-love and refusal of violent envy,” the complete unit develops this passage-specific claim: contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it”; by 3:35, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wise shall inherit glory” against “shame shall be the promotion of fools”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection within “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.”
Why this relationship fits: The reviewed reasoning path begins, “Opening (3:27): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it”.” and concludes, “Close (3:35): the unit uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wise shall inherit glory” against “shame shall be the promotion of fools”, creating the next supported pause.”
How does this passage relate?
Proverbs 3:27–35Proverbs 3:27–35 is the reviewed unit “Timely neighbor-love and refusal of violent envy.” Its parallel lines, repeated address, comparison, or local cluster controls how each verse contributes without borrowing a neighboring unit's subject.
Why this relationship fits: The unit opens “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine…” and closes “The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.”
What earlier material does it rely on?
Proverbs 3:21–26Proverbs 3:27–35 contrasts with the earlier movement “Keep sound wisdom and walk securely” by carrying “Timely neighbor-love and refusal of violent envy.”
Why this relationship fits: The earlier unit ends “For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken,” and this unit opens “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of….”
Where does this sit in the whole book?
Proverbs as a wholeProverbs 3:27–35 belongs to “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.” The prologue teaches readers how to read the sayings: wisdom begins in reverent accountability, must be sought and practiced, and is dramatized as a life-giving woman whose public invitation competes with violent, deceptive, and deadly paths. This unit contributes generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection through its own received wording and form.
Why this relationship fits: The received sequence places Proverbs 3:27–35 inside Proverbs 1:1–9:18; this unit opens “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine…” and closes “The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.” The unit's reviewed main point is: contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it”; by 3:35, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wise shall inherit glory” against “shame shall be the promotion of fools”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection within “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.”
Follow the Wisdom Collection
See why this section appears here and how the author's wisdom movement leads to its meaning.
Why Is This Passage Here?
Proverbs 3:27–35 contrasts with “Keep sound wisdom and walk securely” by carrying “Timely neighbor-love and refusal of violent envy” within the same sustained discourse, admonition, numbered form, or poem.
Follow the Saying or Discourse
Opening (3:27): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it”.
Development (3:27–35): adjacent lines test generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection through parallelism, contrast, motive, image, or consequence.
Close (3:35): the unit uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wise shall inherit glory” against “shame shall be the promotion of fools”, creating the next supported pause.
Why This Interpretation Fits
Exact verse-level work
Every line in Proverbs 3:27–35 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 “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly”: The prologue teaches readers how to read the sayings: wisdom begins in reverent accountability, must be sought and practiced, and is dramatized as a life-giving woman whose public invitation competes with violent, deceptive, and deadly paths.
Proverbial proportion
The unit's instruction and observations concern generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection; they describe moral direction without explaining every exceptional outcome.
Understand the Meaning and Its Boundaries
Clarify the words that matter and keep the conclusion no broader than the passage allows.
What the Passage Is Not Saying
Reading Proverbs 3:27–35 as edited wisdom rather than a detached formula rules out these uses:
The saying does not promise a financial return, compel giving under manipulation, erase prudent limits, or let charity substitute for justice.
The saying does not require enabling abuse, unsafe reconciliation, unlimited access, or replacing qualified care with friendship alone.
The saying does not excuse retaliation, weapons fetishism, domestic violence, cruelty, collective punishment, or forcing a threatened person to remain near danger.
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 3:27–35.
Context check: Within purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of wisdom and folly, contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it”; by 3:35, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wise shall inherit glory” against “shame shall be the promotion of fools”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection within “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.” 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.
What Remains True Today
Wisdom treats timely material care and openhandedness as moral practices, not merely private feeling. Wise relationships join loyal presence and honest counsel with boundaries that refuse exploitation. Violence and uncontrolled conflict destroy trust, endanger bodies, and often rebound upon those who organize them. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
Respond and Remember
Let the meaning shape life carefully, then practice explaining the section in context.
How This Should Shape Us
Why these applications follow
Proverbs 3:27–35 applies generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection through the people, action, comparison, and consequence named in its complete movement.
Within purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of wisdom and folly, contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it”; by 3:35, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wise shall inherit glory” against “shame shall be the promotion of fools”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection within “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.” 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 treats timely material care and openhandedness as moral practices, not merely private feeling. Wise relationships join loyal presence and honest counsel with boundaries that refuse exploitation. Violence and uncontrolled conflict destroy trust, endanger bodies, and often rebound upon those who organize them. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
How does the application follow proportionately?
Identify the concrete need, preserve the recipient's agency, give transparently, and combine immediate help with fair structures. Show up consistently, speak difficult truth with care, receive correction, and protect the relationship from secrecy, flattery, and enabling harm. Prioritize immediate safety, de-escalation where possible, accountable intervention, evidence preservation, and competent help. In 3:27–35, let the concrete wording “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when…” keep that response tied to the people, action, comparison, or consequence actually named.
A Concrete Example
When a neighbor's urgent need is within your present ability to meet, do not postpone merely to preserve convenience or leverage.
Teach It Back
Explain Proverbs 3:27–35 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 main explanation above stands on its own. Open these optional sections for fuller language, history, disagreements, and source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Exact verse-level work
Every line in Proverbs 3:27–35 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 “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly”: The prologue teaches readers how to read the sayings: wisdom begins in reverent accountability, must be sought and practiced, and is dramatized as a life-giving woman whose public invitation competes with violent, deceptive, and deadly paths.
Proverbial proportion
The unit's instruction and observations concern generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection; they describe moral direction without explaining every exceptional outcome.
Original-language wording and grammarTechnical detail appears only where it helps
No individual Hebrew or KJV expression in Proverbs 3:27–35 needs a separate lexical card beyond the complete saying or discourse explanation.
What the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Edited wisdom and social setting
This unit belongs to purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of wisdom and folly. 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? probableWhy translations sometimes differMaterial translation choices
KJV “froward”
crooked, perverse, or contrary rather than merely forward
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 prologue teaches readers how to read the sayings: wisdom begins in reverent accountability, must be sought and practiced, and is dramatized as a life-giving woman whose public invitation competes with violent, deceptive, and deadly paths. This local unit is read through that movement before broader canonical comparison.
How certain? probableTextual variantsManuscript differences only when they affect meaning
No reviewed textual variant changes Proverbs 3:27–35's central wisdom movement; the exact Hebrew and NET notes were still checked against the pinned KJV.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
No major competing interpretation changes Proverbs 3:27–35's central wisdom movement; pattern, exception, and collection limits still remain visible.
Theology 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 treats timely material care and openhandedness as moral practices, not merely private feeling. Wise relationships join loyal presence and honest counsel with boundaries that refuse exploitation. Violence and uncontrolled conflict destroy trust, endanger bodies, and often rebound upon those who organize them.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
Within Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly, contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it”; by 3:35, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wise shall inherit glory” against “shame shall be the promotion of fools”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection within “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.”
How certain? strongCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
The saying does not promise a financial return, compel giving under manipulation, erase prudent limits, or let charity substitute for justice.
A compact saying is easy to detach and universalize.
Within purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of wisdom and folly, contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it”; by 3:35, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wise shall inherit glory” against “shame shall be the promotion of fools”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection within “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.” 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 treats timely material care and openhandedness as moral practices, not merely private feeling. Wise relationships join loyal presence and honest counsel with boundaries that refuse exploitation. Violence and uncontrolled conflict destroy trust, endanger bodies, and often rebound upon those who organize them. 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: contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it”; by 3:35, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wise shall inherit glory” against “shame shall be the promotion of fools”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection within “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.”
The saying does not require enabling abuse, unsafe reconciliation, unlimited access, or replacing qualified care with friendship alone.
An ancient authority, household, wealth, gender, or consequence image can be imported into modern power without following the interpretation chain.
Within purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of wisdom and folly, contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it”; by 3:35, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wise shall inherit glory” against “shame shall be the promotion of fools”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection within “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.” 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 treats timely material care and openhandedness as moral practices, not merely private feeling. Wise relationships join loyal presence and honest counsel with boundaries that refuse exploitation. Violence and uncontrolled conflict destroy trust, endanger bodies, and often rebound upon those who organize them. 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: contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it”; by 3:35, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wise shall inherit glory” against “shame shall be the promotion of fools”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection within “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.”
The saying does not excuse retaliation, weapons fetishism, domestic violence, cruelty, collective punishment, or forcing a threatened person to remain near danger.
An ancient authority, household, wealth, gender, or consequence image can be imported into modern power without following the interpretation chain.
Within purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of wisdom and folly, contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it”; by 3:35, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wise shall inherit glory” against “shame shall be the promotion of fools”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection within “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.” 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 treats timely material care and openhandedness as moral practices, not merely private feeling. Wise relationships join loyal presence and honest counsel with boundaries that refuse exploitation. Violence and uncontrolled conflict destroy trust, endanger bodies, and often rebound upon those who organize them. 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: contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it”; by 3:35, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wise shall inherit glory” against “shame shall be the promotion of fools”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection within “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.”
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 3:27–35.
An ancient authority, household, wealth, gender, or consequence image can be imported into modern power without following the interpretation chain.
Within purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of wisdom and folly, contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it”; by 3:35, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wise shall inherit glory” against “shame shall be the promotion of fools”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection within “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.” 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 treats timely material care and openhandedness as moral practices, not merely private feeling. Wise relationships join loyal presence and honest counsel with boundaries that refuse exploitation. Violence and uncontrolled conflict destroy trust, endanger bodies, and often rebound upon those who organize them. 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: contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it”; by 3:35, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “The wise shall inherit glory” against “shame shall be the promotion of fools”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, violence, predation, conflict, and protection within “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.”
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 3:27–35, 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 3:27-3:35
Supports: Verse-attached textual, lexical, grammatical, syntactic, parallelism, and older-English controls for the exact range.
NET Bible Proverbs PDF, printed pp. 1084-1088, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 3:27–35
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 3:27–35 and the Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly outline
Supports: One tested account of urban imagery and continuity across the book without inferring one composition setting.
Dell, ‘Wisdom and Folly in the city,’ SJT 69.4 (2016), pp. 389-401, sections on maxims, social indicators, Proverbs 1-9, and conclusion relevant to Proverbs 3:27–35
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 3:27–35
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 3:27–35, 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 3:27-3:35
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. 1084-1088, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 3:27–35
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 3:27–35 and the Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly outline
Open source ↗peer reviewed journal article
Wisdom and Folly in the city: exploring urban contexts in the book of Proverbs
Katharine J. Dell
Scottish Journal of Theology 69.4, 2016
Supports: One tested account of urban imagery and continuity across the book without inferring one composition setting.
Exact location: Dell, ‘Wisdom and Folly in the city,’ SJT 69.4 (2016), pp. 389-401, sections on maxims, social indicators, Proverbs 1-9, and conclusion relevant to Proverbs 3:27–35
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 3:27–35
Open source ↗