Thorns had grown up everywhere, thistles had covered the ground, and the stone wall was broken down.
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, it was all grown over with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.
- KJV And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.
- NKJV And there it was, all overgrown with thorns; Its surface was covered with nettles; Its stone wall was broken down.
- NASB And behold, it was completely overgrown with weeds; Its surface was covered with weeds, And its stone wall was broken down.
- NLT I saw that it was overgrown with nettles. It was covered with weeds, and its walls were broken down.
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
The neglected field was overgrown with thorns and its wall broken down. Idleness produces visible ruin.
Overview
The thorns, nettles, and collapsed wall picture the inevitable decay that follows neglect, since what is not tended falls apart. Thorns recall the curse of the ground after the fall (Gen 3:18), portraying sloth as a surrender to disorder. The scene warns that spiritual and practical responsibilities, like a vineyard, require ongoing care.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Isa 5:5Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.
- Eccl 10:18Through laziness the roof caves in, and in the hands of the idle, the house leaks.
- Matt 13:22The seed sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
- Jer 4:3For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your unplowed ground, and do not sow among the thorns.
- Prov 22:13The slacker says, “There is a lion outside! I will be slain in the streets!”
- Prov 19:23The fear of the LORD leads to life, that one may rest content, without visitation from harm.
- Prov 20:4The slacker does not plow in season; at harvest time he looks, but nothing is there.
- Job 31:40then let briers grow instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley.” Thus conclude the words of Job.
- Heb 6:8But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless, and its curse is imminent. In the end it will be burned.
- Gen 3:17–19And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
- Matt 13:7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings.
- Prov 23:21For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe them in rags.
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 24:31 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.