A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both.
Parallel translations
- WEB A stone is heavy, and sand is a burden; but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both.
- BSB A stone is heavy and sand is a burden, but aggravation from a fool outweighs them both.
- NKJV A stone is heavy and sand is weighty, But a fool’s wrath is heavier than both of them.
- NASB A stone is heavy and the sand weighty, But the provocation of a fool is heavier than both of them.
- NLT A stone is heavy and sand is weighty, but the resentment caused by a fool is even heavier.
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 fool's needless provocation weighs on others more than the heaviest physical loads. It warns us how draining unbridled folly is to bear.
Overview
Using vivid images of stone and sand, the proverb stresses that a fool's irritating, contentious behavior is a crushing burden on those around him. Wisdom literature repeatedly contrasts the weight of folly with the lightness of a peaceable spirit. Christ, by contrast, offers an easy yoke and a light burden to all who come to Him (Matthew 11:28-30).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Dan 3:19Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.
- 1 Jn 3:12Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
- 1 Sam 22:18–19And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod.
- Prov 17:12Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.
- Gen 49:7Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
- Gen 34:25–26And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males.
- Esth 3:5–6And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 27:3 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.