Historic pastoral reading
Pride is treated as a path to ruin across Scripture.
Proverbs 16:18-19
Pride goes before a fall.
The text
WEB
18 Pride goes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.
19 It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor, than to divide the plunder with the proud.
KJV
18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
19 Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.
What kind of text
- Proverb
- Wisdom saying
- Pride
A wisdom couplet about pride and the better company of the lowly.
How Christians have read this
Common misuse
Sometimes aimed at any confidence, which is not what the proverb is doing.
What the next verse does
Verse 20: he who heeds the word finds prosperity.
Older commentary
Matthew Henry
Henry on Proverbs 16:18: pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Charles Spurgeon
Spurgeon treated pride as the sin that makes a man unsafe on any height.