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Proverbs of Solomon
Proverbs › Chapter 21 › Proverbs 21:17

What Does Proverbs 21:17 Mean?

He who loves pleasure will be a poor man;He who loves wine and oil will not be rich.Proverbs 21:17 · NKJV

Quick answer

Loving the good time is the problem, not having one. The verse names an appetite and follows it to an empty account.

Read both lines

Loves is the verb in both halves, which is the same construction the book used against loving sleep at 20:13, and it does the same work here: this is about what a person is drawn to rather than what they occasionally do. Wine and oil are not vices in this literature. Oil in particular is a sign of blessing and turns up in the next-but-three verse as a good thing stored in a wise man's house. What the verse observes is that a life organized around consumption spends what it never accumulates, and the second line understates it deliberately: not ruined, simply never rich.

Related: Proverbs 21:20 · Proverbs 20:13 · Proverbs 23:20–21 · Proverbs 13:11

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.