Proverbs 16:5

Proverbs 16:5, in plain English

Pride—that deep certainty that you're better or more important than you actually are—is something God absolutely hates, and consequences will follow for the proud person.

Why it's here

In a hierarchical society like Solomon's, people were constantly jockeying for position and status. This verse cuts across all that posturing and says God has zero tolerance for the attitude underneath it. Pride isn't just unattractive to Him; it's detestable.

Who's speaking

Solomon, naming what he's observed about how God responds to human arrogance.

Where it sits in the story

This theme runs through all of Scripture—Satan's fall in Isaiah 14 was rooted in pride, and throughout the biblical narrative, God opposes the proud. It's a constant thread in Jesus's teaching too.

The scholarly reading

God finds everyone with an arrogant heart fundamentally abhorrent, and such people will certainly face punishment.

Language and setting

Addressed to a society structured by honor and shame, where personal status and dignity were paramount concerns. The sage directly confronts the pride that naturally arises from wealth, position, or ancestry—particularly dangerous in the ancient Near Eastern court where status competition was fierce.

Voice

The wisdom teacher, employing the recurring motif that God hates what humans often celebrate: pride, arrogance, and self-exaltation.

Significance

This verse develops the biblical theme that God opposes the proud (Proverbs 3:34, 1 Peter 5:5, James 4:6). It reflects the consistent biblical arc from Genesis (the Tower of Babel representing human overreach) through the prophets (denouncing nations' arrogance) to the Gospels' inversion of honor, where 'whoever exalts himself will be humbled' (Matthew 23:12). Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas identified pride as the root of all sin—superbia—precisely because it represents rebellion against the proper order God established.

3Commit your works to the LORD and your plans will be achieved.

4The LORD has made everything for His purpose— even the wicked for the day of disaster.

5Everyone who is proud in heart is detestable to the LORD; be assured that he will not go unpunished.

6By loving devotion and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns aside from evil.

7When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even the man’s enemies live at peace with him.

Read all of Proverbs 16 — The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. Human ambition meets divine sovereignty in a single verse.