Key Verse Spotlight
Proverbs 21:16 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: King James Version
" The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead. "
Proverbs 21:16
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
14 A gift in secret pacifieth anger: and a reward in the bosom strong wrath.
15 It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.
16 The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.
17 He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich.
18 The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor for the upright.
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Here we see, first, the sinner on his wandering path. He goes out of the way of understanding, and once he leaves that good path, he keeps wandering. The way of religion is the way of true understanding. Those who are not truly godly are not truly wise. When people leave this path, they break through the boundary God has set and follow the lead of the world and the flesh. They go astray like lost sheep.
Second, we see the sinner at rest, or rather in ruin. He shall remain, he shall rest, but not in peace, in the company of the giants, the sinners from the old world who were swept away by the flood. Scripture often compares the ruin of sinners to that judgment, and sometimes to the destruction of Sodom, when people are said to have their portion in fire and brimstone. Or this may mean the company of the damned, those under the power of the second death, the final death that follows judgment. There is a great company of damned sinners, bound together for the fire, and there they will remain forever, away from the company of the righteous. Whoever leaves the way to heaven and does not return will surely sink into the depths of hell.
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From This Chapter
Proverbs 21:1
"The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will."
Proverbs 21:2
"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts."
Proverbs 21:3
"To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice."
Proverbs 21:4
"An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin."
Proverbs 21:5
"The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want."
Proverbs 21:6
"The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death."
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