Proverbs 30:22

For a servant when he reigneth; and a fool when he is filled with meat;

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
servant	עֶ֭בֶד 'E.ved	H5650	a servant · noun, common masculine singular absolute
reigneth	יִמְל֑וֹךְ yim.Lokh	H4427	to reign · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
fool	וְ֝נָבָ֗ל ve.na.Val	H5036	stupid · conjunction + adjective, masculine singular absolute
filled	יִֽשְׂבַּֽע yis.ba'-	H7646	to sate · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
meat	לָֽחֶם La.chem	H3899	food (for man or beast) · noun, common masculine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Proverbs 19:10 Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes.
Ecclesiastes 10:7 I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.
1 Samuel 25:3 Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenan…
1 Samuel 25:10-11 And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away…
1 Samuel 25:25 Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him:…
1 Samuel 25:36-38 And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for…
1 Samuel 30:16 And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the g…
Isaiah 3:4-5 And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 30:18-23

Here is, I. An account of four things that are unsearchable, too wonderful to be fully known. And here, 1. The first three are natural things, and are only designed as comparisons for the illustration of the last. We cannot trace, (1.) An eagle in the air. Which way she has flown cannot be discovered either by the footstep or by the scent, as the way of a beast may upon ground; nor can we account for the wonderful swiftness of her flight, how soon she has gone beyond our ken. (2.) A serpent upon a rock. The way of a serpent in the sand we may find by the track, but not of a serpent upon the hard rock; nor can we describe how a serpent will, without feet, in a little time creep to the top of…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 30:21

Pride and cruelty, the undue exaltation of those unfit to hold power, produce those vices which disquiet society (compare Pro 19:10; Pro 28:3).

John Gill on Proverbs 30:22

For a servant, when he reigneth,.... Being unfit for it through his education, not having been trained up in and learned the arts of government and maxims of it; and through the disposition of his mind, which is mean, abject, and servile; and as he has been used himself when a servant, so he will use others (c) and through his circumstances, being poor, he will take oppressive methods to become rich; and being raised from a low estate, he is the more imperious, proud, and haughty (d); all which and more make his reign intolerable; see Proverbs 19:10. This may be applied to antichrist, the "servus servorum", who in a haughty, tyrannical, and insolent manner, exalts himself above all that is c…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 30:21-23

It is now not at all necessary to rack one's brains over the grounds or the reasons of the arrangement of the following proverb (vid., Hitzig). There are, up to this point, two numerical proverbs which begin with שׁתּים, Pro 30:7, and שׁתּי, Pro 30:15; after the cipher 2 there then, Pro 30:18, followed the cipher 3, which is now here continued: 21 Under three things doth the earth tremble, And under four can it not stand: 22 Under a servant when he becomes king, And a profligate when he has bread enough; 23 Under an unloved woman when she is married, And a maid-servant when she becomes heiress to her mistress. We cannot say here that the 4 falls into 3 + 1; but the four consists of four ones…

The Church Fathers

"When a servant reigneth: "Israel was a slave in Egypt, and in the land of promise became a ruler. "And a fool when he is filled with meat: "i.e., getting the land in possession readily, and eating its fruit, and being filled, it (the people) kicked.
— Hippolytus of Rome, Fragments from Commentaries on Various Books of Scripture

The shaking (of the earth) signifies the change of things upon earth.-Sin, then, which in its own nature is a slave, has reigned in the mortal body of men: once, indeed, at the time of the flood; and again in the time of the Sodomites, who, not satisfied with what the land yielded, offered violence to strangers; and a third time in the case of hateful Egypt, which, though it obtained in Joseph a man who distributed food to all, that they might not perish of famine, yet did not take well with his prosperity, but persecuted the children of Israel. "The handmaid casting out her mistress: "i.e., the Church of the Gentiles, which, though itself a slave and a stranger to the promises, cast out the free-born and lordly synagogue, and became the wife and bride of Christ. By Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the whole earth is moved. The "fourth it cannot bear: "for He came first by lawgivers, and secondly by prophets, and thirdly by the Gospel, manifesting Himself openly; and in the fourth instance He shall come as the Judge of the living and the dead, whose glory the whole creation will not be able to endure.
— Hippolytus of Rome, Fragments from Commentaries on Various Books of Scripture

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Agur — Gatherer; the collector, mentioned as author of the sayings in Prov. 30. Nothing is known of him beyond what is there recorded.
Gluttony · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Riddle · By Agur — By Agur
Servants · Characteristics of wicked servants: Do not bear to be exalted — Characteristics of wicked servants: Do not bear to be exalted
Wife · UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Proverbs 30:22

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 30:18-23

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 30:21

John Gill on Proverbs 30:22

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 30:21-23

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Proverbs 30:22

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 30:18-23

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 30:21

John Gill on Proverbs 30:22

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 30:21-23

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Proverbs 30:21-23

Rashi on Proverbs 30:20