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Proverbs 13:23

The poor man's field and injustice

"Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment (mishpat)." The Hebrew blames the loss of the poor farmer's harvest on the absence of justice. The library's Greek has a different saying in this place: "The righteous shall spend many years in wealth, but the unrighteous shall perish quickly." The Vulgate reads "fathers" for "poor."

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The proverb as first composedCollections from the monarchy to the Persian period (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The proverb as first composed
Greek
  1. Greek Proverbs (library: Giguet's French)Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Proverbs
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew
New Testament quotation

    Every witness, in order

    1. Collections from the monarchy to the Persian period (debated)

      The proverb as first composed

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. The oldest Hebrew copies of Proverbs are two small Qumran fragments (4Q102, 4Q103, 1st century BC – 1st century AD, reported).

    2. Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592

      Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

      Multi cibi in novalibus patrum, et aliis congregantur absque judicio.

      Latin position: Proverbs 13:23. Jerome translated Proverbs from Hebrew (c. AD 398); the Clementine Vulgate sometimes also carries lines from the Greek.

    3. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The proverb as first composed

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      רָב־אֹ֭כֶל נִ֣יר רָאשִׁ֑ים וְיֵ֥שׁ נִ֝סְפֶּ֗ה בְּלֹ֣א מִשְׁפָּֽט׃

      Much food is in the fallow ground of the poor, but it is swept away without justice

      Hebrew position: Proverbs 13:23.

    4. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment.

    5. Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

      Greek Proverbs (library: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Proverbs

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      Les justes passeront beaucoup d’années dans la richesse; les injustes périront rapidement.

      Greek (digital file) position: Proverbs 13:22. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check). In these chapters the Greek verse positions in the digital file shift; the matching line was found by content. No Göttingen critical edition of Greek Proverbs is published; a C check needs Rahlfs–Hanhart and specialist studies.

    What changed, and why

    The Hebrew rashim ("poor") is a rare word; nir is newly broken, fallow ground. Most translators read: the poor man's ground produces plenty, but it is swept away "without justice": seized by creditors, officials or powerful neighbours (compare Isaiah 5:8; Micah 2:1–2). This saying stands against reading Proverbs as if every poor person were poor through laziness.

    The Vulgate ("much food in the fallow fields of the fathers," patrum) read rashim as rashim / ra'shim, "heads, chiefs," an example of different vowel readings. The Greek offers a different thought altogether, a generalization about the righteous and the wicked; whether the translator had a different Hebrew text or could not make sense of this one is unknown (C check).

    The site treats the Masoretic reading as the base, shows the alternatives, and notes that its point (injustice causing hunger) is consistent with other sayings (14:31; 22:22–23).

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documentedThe library's Greek has a different saying at 13:23.
    • Strongly supportedThe Hebrew 13:23 attributes the poor man's loss to injustice. The usual reading of 'without mishpat.'
    • Independently documentedThe Vulgate reads 'fathers' in 13:23.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Proverbs 13: Hope Deferred Maketh the Heart Sick →Chapter 13 joins sayings on accepting teaching (vv. 1, 13–14, 18, 20) with sayings on wealth that look beneath appearances: some pretend to be rich, others pretend to be poor (v. 7); dishonest wealth dwindles (v. 11); "Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment" (v. 23), a saying that blames injustice, not laziness, for hunger. "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick" (v. 12). And it contains one of the most debated lines in Proverbs: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son" (v. 24).