Proverbs 13:25

Proverbs 13:25, in plain English

The righteous person experiences genuine satisfaction and contentment in life, while the wicked person is left perpetually hungry—never satisfied no matter what they get.

Why it's here

Solomon is contrasting two different inner experiences. One person works righteously, provides for their family, and sleeps well at night knowing they've done right. The other person may accumulate things through dishonesty or selfishness, but they're never at peace, never truly satisfied. It's not about literal hunger; it's about the soul's satisfaction.

Who's speaking

Solomon, offering wisdom from his observation of what actually makes people content or restless.

Where it sits in the story

This ties into Jesus's teaching that life isn't found in abundance of possessions, and it echoes the Psalms repeatedly—that those who seek God find their deepest satisfaction in Him. Only righteousness brings the kind of fullness that actually fills you.

The scholarly reading

The righteous person eats with satisfaction and contentment, while the wicked person lives in deprivation—another assertion that virtue correlates with material sufficiency and moral corruption with want.

Language and setting

This verse concludes Proverbs 13 with a return to the consumptive metaphor, establishing a striking antithesis: the righteous eats לְשִׂבְעָה (le-sibah—unto satiety, fullness, repletion), a state of satisfied desire, while the wicked's מְעֵה (meah—stomach, belly, seat of appetite) remains רֵיקָה (reqah—empty, hollow, destitute). The contrast operates simultaneously on literal and metaphorical registers: the righteous person's material circumstances support nourishment, but also—more profoundly—their inner life manifests contentment and fulfillment. The Hebrew psychological vocabulary locates satisfaction in the belly (the seat of desire and appetite), suggesting the wicked's fundamental dissatisfaction stems not merely from external deprivation but from internal spiritual emptiness. Calvin interpreted this as the difference between genuine contentment (felicitas) and the perpetual hunger that attends inordinate desire.

Voice

The wisdom teacher, drawing on observation of how moral orientation shapes not merely external circumstance but interior emotional and spiritual states.

Significance

This verse encapsulates Proverbs' consistent argument that righteousness produces flourishing while wickedness produces diminishment. It anticipates Paul's principle in 1 Timothy 6:6-8 that 'godliness with contentment is great gain,' suggesting the New Testament will internalize this wisdom teaching, locating the satisfied belly primarily in the reoriented heart rather than in external circumstances, yet maintaining the principle that virtue and flourishing remain fundamentally correlated.

23Abundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor, but without justice it is swept away.

24He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.

25A righteous man eats to his heart’s content, but the stomach of the wicked is empty.

Read all of Proverbs 13 — The one who walks with the wise becomes wise. Wealth gained hastily dwindles. Practical truths that compound over a lifetime.