Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.
Parallel translations
- WEB Pride only breeds quarrels, but with ones who take advice is wisdom.
- BSB Arrogance leads only to strife, but wisdom is with the well-advised.
- NKJV By pride comes nothing but strife, But with the well-advised is wisdom.
- NASB Through overconfidence comes nothing but strife, But wisdom is with those who receive counsel.
- NLT Pride leads to conflict; those who take advice are wise.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Pride produces strife, but those who take advice gain wisdom. Teachability is the path to peace and understanding.
Overview
Pride insists on its own way and so breeds quarrels, whereas humility welcomes counsel and grows wise. The proverb commends the willingness to be corrected as a mark of true wisdom. This echoes the gospel pattern, where humbling oneself to receive instruction stands opposite the self-exalting pride that resists God (James 4:6).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Prov 19:20Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.
- Prov 12:15–16The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.
- Prov 17:14The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with.
- 1 Tim 6:4He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
- 3 Jn 1:9–10I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
- Luke 22:24And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.
- Jas 3:14–16But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
- Jas 4:1From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
- Prov 21:24Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath.
- Luke 14:28–32For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
- 1 Kgs 12:16So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents.
- Judg 8:1–3And the men of Ephraim said unto him, Why hast thou served us thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites? And they did chide with him sharply.
- Prov 20:18Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.
- Acts 6:1–5And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.
- 1 Kgs 12:10–11And the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us; thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins.
- 2 Kgs 14:10Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart hath lifted thee up: glory of this, and tarry at home: for why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee?
- Prov 25:8Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbour hath put thee to shame.
- Judg 12:1–6And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and went northward, and said unto Jephthah, Wherefore passedst thou over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? we will burn thine house upon thee with fire.
- Jas 4:5–6Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 13:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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