Key Verse Spotlight
Proverbs 11:22 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: World English Bible — Catholic Edition
" Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout, is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion. "
Proverbs 11:22
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
20 Those who are perverse in heart are an abomination to the LORD, but those whose ways are blameless are his delight.
21 Most certainly, the evil man will not be unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will be delivered.
22 Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout, is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion.
23 The desire of the righteous is only good. The expectation of the wicked is wrath.
24 There is one who scatters, and increases yet more. There is one who withholds more than is appropriate, but gains poverty.
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By discretion here, we must understand religion and grace, that is, a true taste and delight in the honors and pleasures that come with a pure life. So a woman without discretion is a woman of loose and wild behavior.
Notice two things. First, the proverb assumes that beauty or bodily grace is like a jewel of gold, something truly valuable. When wisdom and grace guard it against temptation, beauty becomes a real ornament, for virtue looks especially lovely when joined with a beautiful body. But a foolish, wanton woman, with a careless and shameless manner, is rightly compared to a swine, however handsome she may be. She wallows in the mud of filthy lusts, and both mind and conscience are made dirty by them. Even after being washed, she returns to them.
Second, it is sad to see beauty so misused by those who do not have modesty with it. Beauty seems badly placed in such people, like a jewel in a pig’s snout, used only to root in the dungheap. If beauty is not guarded by virtue, then beauty exposes virtue to danger. The same applies to every other bodily gift and accomplishment. It is a pity when such things are given to people who do not have discretion to use them well.
From This Chapter
Proverbs 11:1
"A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but accurate weights are his delight."
Proverbs 11:2
"When pride comes, then comes shame, but with humility comes wisdom."
Proverbs 11:3
"The integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of the treacherous shall destroy them."
Proverbs 11:4
"Riches don’t profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death."
Proverbs 11:5
"The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way, but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness."
Proverbs 11:6
"The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them, but the unfaithful will be trapped by evil desires."
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