Patience and Poverty
If you cease to hear instruction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge. Proverbs 19:27 · Berean Standard Bible
If you stop listening to wise instruction and correction, you'll gradually lose your way and end up disconnected from real knowledge and truth.
The teacher is addressing a young person directly—'my son'—warning them about what happens when you decide you're done learning. It's not dramatic; it's gradual. You stop listening, and slowly you start believing things that aren't true, making decisions that don't work.
A wisdom teacher or father speaking to a younger person they care about, with real concern for their future.
This connects to the whole biblical theme of staying connected to God's word and community. Proverbs is full of this idea: wisdom isn't something you achieve and then coast on. It requires ongoing attention, humility, and willingness to be corrected. That's how you stay on track.
Willful rejection of correction and instruction inevitably leads to moral wandering and loss of knowledge. Continued openness to rebuke is the precondition for remaining on wisdom's path.
The direct address '*bĕnî*' (my son) signals the mentor's intimate appeal. In the scribal schools of ancient Judah, the student who 'ceases to hear' (*ʿāzab lišmôaʿ*) instruction wasn't merely being stubborn—he was actively abandoning the transmission that constituted his cultural and spiritual inheritance. The *dĕbārê daʿat* (words of knowledge) refers to the accumulated wisdom preserved in teaching, sacred text, and mentorial guidance. To reject instruction is to cut oneself off from the very means of moral development.
The wisdom teacher, addressing a student directly in the intimate register of Proverbs 1-9, where the sage functions as quasi-paternal guide.
This echoes Proverbs 1:20-33, where Wisdom herself warns that those who ignore her call will face calamity. It prefigures Hebrews 2:1-3 ('we must pay the more careful attention to what we have heard'), where rejection of instruction carries eschatological weight. The principle: teachability itself is a virtue; its absence is the root of all straying.
25Strike a mocker, and the simple will beware; rebuke the discerning man, and he will gain knowledge.
26He who assaults his father or evicts his mother is a son who brings shame and disgrace.
27If you cease to hear instruction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge.
28A corrupt witness mocks justice, and a wicked mouth swallows iniquity.
29Judgments are prepared for mockers, and beatings for the backs of fools.
Read all of Proverbs 19 — A person's wisdom yields patience. Better to be poor and walk in integrity than to be rich and crooked.
This page covers one. BibleKey does all 31,102 — tap any verse for its meaning, any word for its Hebrew or Greek root, and keep reading without leaving the chapter.
Not just the famous ones. BibleKey is free on iPhone and iPad.
Download on the App StoreFree on iPhone & iPad