Do not tell your neighbor, “Come back tomorrow and I will provide”—when you already have the means.
Parallel translations
- WEB Don’t say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again; tomorrow I will give it to you,” when you have it by you.
- KJV Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.
- NKJV Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come back, And tomorrow I will give it,” When you have it with you.
- NASB Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come back, And tomorrow I will give it to you,” When you have it with you.
- NLT If you can help your neighbor now, don’t say, “Come back tomorrow, and then I’ll help you.”
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
Do not put off helping your neighbor when you have the means now. Wisdom gives promptly rather than delaying needed good.
Overview
Building on v. 27, the verse condemns needless delay in doing good, treating a neighbor's real need as a thing to be deferred. Such procrastination often masks unwillingness. Christian love acts readily and now, reflecting the God who is generous and ready to give (Jas 1:5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Lev 19:13You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.
- Deut 24:12–15If he is a poor man, you must not go to sleep with the security in your possession;
- 2 Cor 8:11Now finish the work, so that you may complete it just as eagerly as you began, according to your means.
- Eccl 9:10Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
- Eccl 11:6Sow your seed in the morning, and do not rest your hands in the evening, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or if both will equally prosper.
- 1 Tim 6:18Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, and to be generous and ready to share,
- 2 Cor 9:3But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove empty, but that you will be prepared, just as I said.
- Prov 27:1Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
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 3:28 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.