A wise servant will rule over a disgraceful son and share his inheritance as one of the brothers.
Parallel translations
- WEB A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who causes shame, and shall have a part in the inheritance among the brothers.
- KJV A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren.
- NKJV A wise servant will rule over a son who causes shame, And will share an inheritance among the brothers.
- NASB A servant who acts wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully, And will share in the inheritance among brothers.
- NLT A wise servant will rule over the master’s disgraceful son and will share the inheritance of the master’s children.
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
A wise servant may rise above a disgraceful son and even share the inheritance. It matters because wisdom and character, not mere birth, ultimately determine honor.
Overview
This proverb teaches that a prudent servant can come to rule over a shameful son and inherit alongside heirs. Worth is measured by wisdom and conduct rather than status alone. It anticipates the gospel reversal in which faithfulness, not lineage, brings inheritance, and outsiders become heirs in Christ (Galatians 4:7).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Prov 10:5He who gathers in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.
- Eccl 4:13Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take a warning.
- Prov 14:35A king delights in a wise servant, but his anger falls on the shameful.
- Prov 19:26He who assaults his father or evicts his mother is a son who brings shame and disgrace.
- Prov 29:15A rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.
- Prov 11:29He who brings trouble on his house will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart.
- Gen 24:4–67but will go to my country and my kindred to take a wife for my son Isaac.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 17:2 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.