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Proverbs 22:27

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Proverbs 22:27 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
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Proverbs 22:27 (World English Bible). Public Domain. Lemma interlinear Bible study tool, https://lemma.gebible.app/v/proverbs/22/27.

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English Translation
If you don't have means to pay, Why should he take away your bed from under you?
World English Bible · Public Domain
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Compare translations 3

The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.

Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.

Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    If you don't have means to pay, Why should he take away your bed from under you?
  • King James Version Public Domain
    If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    If there is nothing to you to make payment, why should he take away your bed from under you?

unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).

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Show all 18 translations

Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    If you don't have means to pay, Why should he take away your bed from under you?
  • Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
    If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you?
  • Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
    If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you?
  • King James Version Public Domain
    If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?
  • American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
    If thou hast not wherewith to pay, Why should he take away thy bed from under thee?
  • Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
    If thou hast not wherewith to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?
  • Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
    If thou hast nothing to paye, why causest thou that he should take thy bed from vnder thee?
  • Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
    For if thou have not wherewith to restore, what cause is there, that he should take the covering from thy bed?
  • Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
    If thou hast nothing to pay, Why doth he take thy bed from under thee?
  • Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    If you have nothing to pay, || Why does he take your bed from under you?
  • Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
    If you lack the means to pay, what could stop someone from taking away your bed from under you?
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    If there is nothing to you to make payment, why should he take away your bed from under you?
  • Darby Bible Public Domain
    if thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?
  • World Messianic Bible Public Domain
    If you don’t have means to pay, why should he take away your bed from under you?
  • Webster's Bible Public Domain
    If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?
  • Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    for if you can't pay, why should your bed be taken away from beneath you?
  • Bible in Basic English Public Domain
    If you have nothing with which to make payment, he will take away your bed from under you.
  • JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
    If thou hast not wherewith to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?

Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).

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About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

8
words
7
distinct lemmas
Wisdom
section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מִ֝שְׁכָּבְךָ֗ bed H4904 occurs in 44 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

  • 2 verbs
  • 1 noun
  • 2 prepositions
  • 1 conjunction
  • 2 particles

Verb forms

  • לְשַׁלֵּ֑ם Piel · Infinitive Construct
  • יִקַּ֥ח Qal · Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 17 words from the Hebrew and 18 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 8 Hebrew tokens and 14 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

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Cross-references

3

Topical passages linked to Proverbs 22:27 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

  • Proverbs 20:16 Take the garment of one who puts up collateral for a stranger; And hold him in pledge for a wayward woman.
  • Exodus 22:26–27 If you take your neighbor's garment as collateral, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down,
  • 2 Kings 4:1 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets to Elisha, saying, Your servant my husband is dead; and you know that your servant did fear Yahweh: and the creditor is come to take to him my two children to be bondservants.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Proverbs 22:27 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

אִם אֵֽין לְךָ֥ לְשַׁלֵּ֑ם לָ֥מָּה יִקַּ֥ח מִ֝שְׁכָּבְךָ֗ מִתַּחְתֶּֽיךָ

If you don't have means to pay, Why should he take away your bed from under you?

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Proverbs 22:27 Septuagint · lemma form

ἐάν γάρ μή ἔχω πόθεν ἀποτίνω λαμβάνω ὁ στρῶμα ὁ ὑπό ὁ πλευρά σύ

For if those have not whence to give compensation, they will take the bed that is under you.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Proverbs 22:27 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Pro 22:27 If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?

Ver. 27. If thou hast nothing to pay.] And yet art gotten into the usurer’s furnace, he will leave thee at last neither metal nor matter.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He - i. e., The man to whom the surety has been given. The practice of distraining for payment of a debt, seems, though prohibited Exo 22:27, to have become common.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

should he take, &c.--that is, the creditor.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 27. If thou hast nothing to pay] Should any man give security for more than he is worth? If he does, is it not a fraud on the very face of the transaction?

Why should he take away thy bed from under thee?] The creditor will not pursue the debtor whom he knows to be worth nothing; but he will sue the bail or bondsman. And why shouldst thou put thyself in such circumstances as to expose thyself to the loss even of thy bed?

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(27) Why should he take away thy bed from under thee?—If the mantle was taken in pledge, it had to be restored before sundown for the poor man to sleep in; but this merciful provision of the Law was evidently evaded. (Comp. Eze_18:12.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

27. he] i.e. the creditor.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

If thou hast nothing to pay,.... When the debtor this, and the creditor demands the debt of the surety: it is weakness in a man to be a surety for another, when he knows he is not able to pay the debt he is bound for, since it may be an injury to himself and family; but it is a piece of wickedness to engage for the payment of a debt, in case of insolvency, which he knows he is not able to answer; for this is deceiving and imposing upon the creditor; and therefore it is no wonder, being provoked by such ill usage, if he goes to extremity, as follows:

why should he take away thy bed from under thee? as in all likelihood he will, being irritated by such a conduct; and as he might, notwithstanding the law in Exo 22:26; for that respects a pledge, and not a debt; and raiment pledged, the covering of a man when in bed, and not the bed itself; for even wife and children might be taken for debt, Kg2 4:1. This is said to deter from suretyship, especially in such circumstances; since a man may bring himself into such a condition as not to have a bed to lie on; yea, to have it taken from under him when upon it; and be turned out from house and home, naked and destitute.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Why wilt thou put thyself into the hands of such a man, who will exact the debt from thee without any compassion? For though God did not allow this practice, covetous creditors would frequently do it.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Kretzmann's Popular Commentary

Paul E. Kretzmann

v. 27. If thou hast nothing to pay, being called upon to make good his pledge, why should he take away thy bed from under thee? the bed having been pledged as a guarantee for the payment of the debt here concerned. Pro 6:1-4; Pro 11:15; Pro 17:18; Pro 20:16.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Proverbs, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 8 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is mishkâb (“bed”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

  1. How does “bed” (mishkâb) shape what this verse is saying?
  2. Genesis 49:4 shares the word «bed» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
  3. These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
  4. The verb «לְשַׁלֵּ֑ם» is Piel Infinitive Construct. How does its form color the action?
  5. Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

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Reading text

Shown beneath each verse's original-language words.

Old Testament
Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

Comparing translations? Open the Compare panel on any verse page to stack up to four side by side.