Proverbs 28:25

Proverbs 28:25, in plain English

A greedy person creates conflict everywhere they go because they're always competing for more. But someone who trusts God instead of their own appetite finds things actually work out well.

Why it's here

Solomon's world included competitive merchants, ambitious courtiers, and people fighting over resources. He saw that greed wasn't just about money—it poisoned relationships and made peace impossible. Trust in God, by contrast, freed people from that constant friction.

Who's speaking

Solomon, contrasting two ways of living: the anxious, grasping way and the trusting way.

Where it sits in the story

This captures the entire wisdom tradition's core: trusting God leads to shalom (wholeness and peace), while chasing your own desires leads to fragmentation. Proverbs returns to this again and again.

The scholarly reading

The greedy person stokes conflict through their endless appetite, while someone who trusts in God's provision experiences prosperity without the turbulence of constant striving.

Language and setting

The Hebrew 'ta'avah'—here rendered 'greed'—denotes an insatiable appetite that extends beyond material acquisition to encompassing relational domination (see Numbers 11:34, 'Kibroth-hattaavah', the graves of greed). The proverb opposes two psychological orientations: the 'avaricious one' generates strife ('medon', contention, litigation—the language of the courts) because his appetite cannot be bounded, while the 'one trusting in the Lord' (the 'botech' structure recurring throughout Proverbs 28) experiences 'yishmanu'—being made fat, satisfied, prospered. This reflects the theological anthropology developed through the Deuteronomic tradition: trust (emunah/batach) rewires one's relationship to scarcity and enables the psychic peace from which true flourishing emerges.

Voice

The wisdom tradition, speaking from both observation of social dynamics and theological conviction rooted in covenant theology.

Significance

This principle structures much of the Psalter—Psalm 37 expands this exact contrast between the wicked whose appetite generates restlessness and the righteous whose trust generates settledness. Jesus's teaching on anxiety (Matthew 6:25-34) recapitulates this structure: anxiety about provision (greed's psychological correlate) generates the very fragmentation the verse warns against, while trust repositions one toward the gift-character of creation.

23He who rebukes a man will later find more favor than one who flatters with his tongue.

24He who robs his father or mother, saying, “It is not wrong,” is a companion to the man who destroys.

25A greedy man stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the LORD will prosper.

26He who trusts in himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe.

27Whoever gives to the poor will not be in need, but he who hides his eyes will receive many curses.

Read all of Proverbs 28 — The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion. Courage is a fruit of clear conscience.