וּבָֽא מִתְהַלֵּ֥ךְ רֵישֶׁ֑ךָ וּ֝מַחְסֹרֶ֗יךָ כְּאִ֣ישׁ מָגֵֽן
So shall your poverty come as a robber, And your want as an armed man.
World English Bible · Public Domain
Proverbs 24:34
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Proverbs 24:34 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.
English Translation
So shall your poverty come as a robber, And your want as an armed man.
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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.
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World English Bible Public Domain
So shall your poverty come as a robber, And your want as an armed man.
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King James Version Public Domain
So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
and your poverty will come one who walks around, and your needs like a man of shield.
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Show all 18 translations
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
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World English Bible Public Domain
So shall your poverty come as a robber, And your want as an armed man.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and need like a bandit.
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and need like a bandit.
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King James Version Public Domain
So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
So shall thy poverty come as a robber, And thy want as an armed man.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
So shall thy poverty come as a robber; and thy want as an armed man.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
So thy pouertie commeth as one that traueileth by the way, and thy necessitie like an armed man.
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
And poverty shall come to thee as a runner, and beggary as an armed man.
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
And thy poverty hath come `as' a traveller, And thy want as an armed man!
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
And your poverty has come [as] a traveler, || And your want as an armed man!
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
and poverty comes marching upon you, and your needs like an armed soldier.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
and your poverty will come one who walks around, and your needs like a man of shield.
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Darby Bible Public Domain
So shall thy poverty come [as] a roving plunderer, and thy penury as an armed man.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
so your poverty will come as a robber and your want as an armed man.
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
So shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth; and thy want as an armed man.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
and poverty will attack you like a robber, destitution like an armed warrior.
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
So loss will come on you like an outlaw, and your need like an armed man.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
So shall thy poverty come as a runner, and thy want as an armed man.
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).
Word by word
More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →
Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →
רֵישֶׁ֑ךָ
rêysh
H7389
“poverty · your”
Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular
- Appears 7× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Proverbs 6:11
- Part of Speech
- Noun
- Type
- Common
- Gender
- Masculine
- Number
- Singular
- State
- Construct
Full BDB Definition
poverty
- וּבָֽא bôwʼ H935 “and · to enter” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- מִתְהַלֵּ֥ךְ hâlak H1980 “walking” Verb, Hithpael, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- רֵישֶׁ֑ךָ rêysh H7389 “poverty · your” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular
- וּ֝מַחְסֹרֶ֗יךָ machçôwr H4270 “and · needs · your” Conjunction + Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular
- כְּאִ֣ישׁ ʼîysh H376 “like/as · man” Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- מָגֵֽן mâgên H4043 “shield” Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute
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 →
- 6
- words
- 6
- distinct lemmas
- Wisdom
- section
Notable vocabulary
The rarest word here is רֵישֶׁ֑ךָ poverty H7389 — appearing just 7 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
Shared distinctive vocabulary
רֵישֶׁ֑ךָ poverty H7389 occurs in 7 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
- 2 verbs
- 4 nouns
Verb forms
- וּבָֽא Qal · Sequential Perfect
- מִתְהַלֵּ֥ךְ Hithpael · Participle Active
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 15 words from the Hebrew and 17 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.
Cross-references
2Topical passages linked to Proverbs 24:34 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- Proverbs 10:4 He becomes poor who works with a lazy hand, But the hand of the diligent brings wealth.
- Proverbs 13:4 The soul of the sluggard desires, and has nothing, But the desire of the diligent shall be fully satisfied.
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.
ἐάν δέ οὗτος ποιέω ἥκω προπορεύομαι ὁ πενία σύ καί ὁ ἔνδεια σύ ὥσπερ ἀγαθός δρομεύς
But if you do this, your poverty will come speedily; and your lack like a swift courier.
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 →
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 6 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is rêysh (“poverty”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- What does “poverty” (rêysh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
- Proverbs 6:11 shares the word «poverty» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
- These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
- The verb «וּבָֽא» is Qal Sequential Perfect. How does its form color the action?
- Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?
Things to notice
- These translations choose different wording for 13 words in this verse.
- 6 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 6 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on Proverbs 24:34 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
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
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
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.
Kretzmann's Popular Commentary
Paul E. Kretzmann
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Rashi
Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)
Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.