Proverbs 6:15

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Therefore his calamity will come suddenly. He will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

Septuagint runs shorter here — compare

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פֶּ֥תַע

pethaʻ

H6621

“suddenness”

Adverb

Appears 7× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Numbers 6:9

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from an unused root meaning to open (the eyes)

TWOT: 1859

suddenness, in an instant

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 →

9: words
9: distinct lemmas
Wisdom: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is פֶּ֥תַע suddenness H6621 — appearing just 7 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

פֶּ֥תַע suddenness H6621 occurs in 7 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
2 nouns
1 preposition
2 adverbs
2 particles

Verb forms

יָב֣וֹא Qal · Imperfect
יִ֝שָּׁבֵ֗ר Niphal · Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 15 words from the Hebrew and 10 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the Septuagint runs noticeably shorter here. See the side-by-side →

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 9 Hebrew tokens and 11 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.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Proverbs 6:15 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

2 Chronicles 36:16 but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against his people, until there was no remedy.
Jeremiah 19:11 and shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, that can't be made whole again; and they shall bury in Topheth, until there be no place to bury.
1 Thessalonians 5:3 For when they are saying, "Peace and safety," then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman; and they will in no way escape.
Psalms 73:18–20 Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction.
Proverbs 1:27 When calamity overtakes you like a storm, When your disaster comes on like a whirlwind; When distress and anguish come on you.
Isaiah 30:13–14 therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant.
Psalms 50:22 "Now consider this, you who forget God, Lest I tear you into pieces, and there be none to deliver.
Proverbs 29:1 He who is often rebuked and stiffens his neck Will be destroyed suddenly, with no remedy.

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.

Here the Septuagint runs noticeably shorter than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 10 words vs World English Bible 15. A rough length comparison of the two English translations, not a word-level alignment — read both below.

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

Hebrew Proverbs 6:15 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

עַל כֵּ֗ן פִּ֭תְאֹם יָב֣וֹא אֵיד֑וֹ פֶּ֥תַע יִ֝שָּׁבֵ֗ר וְאֵ֣ין מַרְפֵּֽא

Therefore his calamity will come suddenly. He will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Proverbs 6:15 Septuagint · lemma form

διά οὗτος ἐξαπίνης ἔρχομαι ὁ ἀπώλεια αὐτός διακοπή καί συντριβή ἀνίατος

Therefore his destruction shall come suddenly; overthrow and irretrievable ruin.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, The Pulpit Commentary discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

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 6:15 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 6:15 Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.

Ver. 15. Suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.] A dismal doom: broken, and not bruised only; "suddenly" broken, when they least dream or dread the danger. And this "without remedy"; no possibility of piecing them up again, or putting them into a better condition. See this exemplified in Nabal, {1Sa 25:36-38} and Doeg. {Psa 52:1-9}

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.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

6:15 Even if wicked people seem to prosper, they will suddenly be punished.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

Suddenness aggravates evil (compare Pro 6:11; Pro 29:1).

calamity--literally, "a crushing weight."

broken--shivered as a potter's vessel; utterly destroyed (Psa 2:9).

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 15. Suddenly shall he be broken] Probably alluding to some punishment of the adulterer, such as being stoned to death. A multitude shall join together, and so overwhelm him with stones, that he shall have his flesh and bones broken to pieces, and there shall be no remedy-none to deliver or pity him.

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

(15) Suddenly shall he be broken.—Shattered as a potter’s vessel (Isa_30:14), without hope of recovery. This character of a malicious mischief-maker would seem to be especially hateful to God; it is described in like terms in Psalms 64 and a similar fate foretold of it; in Pro_6:19 also it is held up as the very worst of the seven detestable things there mentioned.

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

John Gill's Exposition

These six things doth the Lord hate,.... That is, the six following, which are all to be found in a man of Belial, a wicked man before described. There are other things besides these that God hates, and indeed more so; as sins against the first table, which more immediately strike at his being, horror, and glory; these being such as are against the second table, but are mentioned, as more especially appearing in the character of the above person; and must be hateful to God, as contrary to his nature, will, and law;

yea, seven are an abomination unto him; or, "the abomination of his soul" (c); what his soul abhors, or he abhors from his very heart: meaning not seven others, but one more along with the six, which make seven; a like way of speaking, see in Pro 30:15. Nor is the word "abomination" to be restrained to the "seventh", or "hatred" to the "sixth"; but they are all to be supposed to be hateful and abominable to the Lord; though some think the cardinal number is put for the ordinal, "seven" for the "seventh"; as if the seventh, which is sowing discord among brethren, was of all the most abominable, Pro 6:19; it being what was last mentioned in the character of the wicked man, Pro 6:14; and which seems to have given occasion to, and for the sake of which this enumeration is made.

(c) "abominatio ejus animae", Montanus, Vatablus, Mercerus, Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens.

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

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The duper and the dupe shall share the same calamity.

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

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Heb. and there shall be no healing; no prevention of it beforehand, nor recovery afterward.

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

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

15. Broken — Shivered, dashed to pieces. This verse expresses more forcibly and in a clearer manner the idea of Pro_6:11. Comp. Pro_29:1; Isa_1:28; Isa_30:14; Jer_19:11; Job_40:11.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy. Great sins, as Muffet, in loc., observes, have great punishments; neither only great, but sudden. Therefore; Hebrew, al-ken. A Nemesis or retribution awaits this man of malice and deceit. His calamity or destruction is represented as the direct result of, as flowing forth from, what he has done. His calamity; Hebrew, eydo. On eyd, see Pro_1:26. Shall come suddenly; i.e. sooner than he anticipates; when he thinks his diabolical plans are succeeding, then suddenly his victims will discover his fraud and malice, and will rise and inflict the punishment which is his due. Suddenly; petha, a variation of pithom just used. Shall he be broken; Hebrew, yish-shaver; Vulgate, conteretur. The verb shavar, "to break," "to break to pieces," is used of ships which are wrecked; (Isa_14:29 Eze_27:34 Jon_1:4) of an army which is defeated and dispersed; (Dan_11:22 2Ch_14:12) of the destruction of a kingdom, city, or people; (Isa_8:15 Jer_48:4) and of the complete prostration of the spirit of man by affliction; (Psa_34:19) and as such, in the passage before us, conveys the idea of the complete ruin of this man. It is a destruction that shall break him up. Without remedy (Hebrew, v"eyn marpe; literally, and there is no remedy. There shall be, as Fleischer, as it were, no means of recovery for his shattered members. His destruction shall be irremediable, or as the LXX, a suntribh aniaqtov , a contritio insanibilis; or as the Vulgate, nec habebit ultra medicinam. The idea seems to be taken from the shattered fragments of a potter"s vessel, which it is impossible to reunite. So in the case of the man whose life has been one of fraud, deceit, and malice, there is for him no hope of any recovery. The language may seem exaggerated, but the picture is painted with this high colouring to exhibit a strong deterrent to such a line of conduct, and further, it may be remarked that, in the present day, only the most confiding would again put trust in a man who has wilfully and maliciously deceived them. (cf. Isa_30:14) The second hemistich of this verse occurs again verbatim in Pro_29:1.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

suddenly, etc. suddenly Heb. פתע פתאם. This is an expression of immediacy; he will not be aware of the downfall that is ready to descend upon him.

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.

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 9 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is pethaʻ (“suddenness”). The Greek Septuagint runs shorter here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “suddenness” (pethaʻ) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Numbers 6:9, which shares the word «suddenness», read alongside this verse?
The Septuagint runs shorter here than the Hebrew. What might account for the difference?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«יָב֣וֹא» is a Qal Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Tyndale Open Study Notes read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 11 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 5 words in this verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.