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Journey of a Passage

Proverbs 21:31

"The horse is prepared against the day of battle"

"The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety (teshu'ah, victory, deliverance) is of the LORD." The witnesses agree. The saying holds preparation and trust together: the horse is made ready, and the outcome belongs to God.

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

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 this verse · ▢ 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).

      Equus paratur ad diem belli; Dominus autem salutem tribuit.

      Latin position: Proverbs 21:31. 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.

      ס֗וּס מ֭וּכָן לְי֣וֹם מִלְחָמָ֑ה וְ֝לַֽיהוָ֗ה הַתְּשׁוּעָֽה׃

      A horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD

      Hebrew position: Proverbs 21:31.

    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).

      The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord.

    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.

      Le cheval est tout prêt pour le jour du combat; mais le secours vient du Seigneur.

      Greek (digital file) position: Proverbs 21:30. 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

    Horses and chariots were the elite military arm of Iron Age states. Assyrian reliefs show chariotry and cavalry; Shalmaneser III's Kurkh Monolith credits Ahab of Israel with 2,000 chariots at Qarqar (853 BC). 1 Kings 10:26–29 remembers Solomon trading in horses and chariots; Deuteronomy 17:16 warns kings not to multiply horses.

    Psalm 20:7, 33:16–17 and Isaiah 31:1 set trust in God against trust in horses. Proverbs 21:31 is milder: it does not condemn preparation but places victory with God. It is the culmination of the chapter's opening theme (21:1, 30).

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documentedThe library's witnesses agree on 21:31.
    • Independently documentedThe Kurkh Monolith credits Ahab with 2,000 chariots.
    • Conflicts with current evidenceProverbs 21:31 forbids military preparation.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Proverbs 21: The King's Heart Is in the Hand of the LORD →Chapter 21 is framed by God's sovereignty: the king's heart is like channels of water in the LORD's hand (v. 1), and "The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD" (v. 31). Between them: "To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice" (v. 3); dishonest gain (vv. 6–7); two sayings on a quarrelsome wife (vv. 9, 19); the poor man's cry (v. 13); the secret bribe (v. 14); the wise man who takes a city (v. 22); and the lazy man's desire that kills him (v. 25).