For a servant when he reigneth; and a fool when he is filled with meat;
Parallel translations
- WEB For a servant when he is king; a fool when he is filled with food;
- BSB a servant who becomes king, a fool who is filled with food,
- NKJV For a servant when he reigns, A fool when he is filled with food,
- NASB Under a slave when he becomes king, And a fool when he is satisfied with food,
- NLT a slave who becomes a king, an overbearing fool who prospers,
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 slave who becomes king and a fool who is glutted with food are two unbearable reversals.
Overview
These examples show the danger of authority or abundance placed in the hands of those unprepared to handle them wisely. Such reversals breed pride, folly, and oppression rather than good order. The saying values fitness for one's calling and warns that elevation without character corrupts, a lesson answered in Christ, the true King whose worthiness perfectly fits His throne.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Prov 19:10Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes.
- Eccl 10:7I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.
- 1 Sam 25:25Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.
- 1 Sam 25:3Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.
- 1 Sam 30:16And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah.
- Isa 3:4–5And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
- 1 Sam 25:10–11And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.
- 1 Sam 25:36–38And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.
- Prov 28:3A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food.
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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 30:22 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.