Better an open rebuke than love that is concealed.
Parallel translations
- WEB Better is open rebuke than hidden love.
- KJV Open rebuke is better than secret love.
- NKJV Open rebuke is better Than love carefully concealed.
- NASB Better is open rebuke Than love that is concealed.
- NLT An open rebuke is better than hidden love!
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
Honest correction openly given is better than affection that stays silent and hidden. It teaches that real love sometimes confronts rather than flatters.
Overview
The verse prizes candid rebuke over a love too timid to speak hard truth, since concealed love that never corrects fails the one it claims to cherish. This reflects the biblical pattern that genuine love seeks another's good even at the cost of comfort. God Himself disciplines those He loves (Hebrews 12:6), and Christ rebukes and chastens those He calls His own (Revelation 3:19).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Prov 28:23He who rebukes a man will later find more favor than one who flatters with his tongue.
- 1 Tim 5:20But those who persist in sin should be rebuked in front of everyone, so that the others will stand in fear of sin.
- Gal 2:14When I saw that they were not walking in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
- Matt 18:15If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
- Lev 19:17You must not harbor hatred against your brother in your heart. Directly rebuke your neighbor, so that you will not incur guilt on account of him.
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 27:5 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.