Quick answer
Hoarding food in a hungry market makes enemies. The verse notices what a community thinks of someone who profits by scarcity.
Read both lines
This is the generosity theme made concrete and public. Withholding grain to drive up its price is a specific, recognizable practice, and the verse reports the ordinary human response to it. What is striking is the second line, since the blessing falls on a man who sells rather than gives. Proverbs is not describing charity here; it is describing a merchant willing to bring goods to market at a moment when he could squeeze more by waiting. Ordinary commerce conducted decently is treated as a public good, which is the same instinct that put honest scales in verse 1.
Related: Proverbs 11:1 · Amos 8:4–6 · Proverbs 11:24
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.