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Proverbs › Chapter 29 › Proverbs 29:13

What Does Proverbs 29:13 Mean?

The poor man and the oppressor have this in common:The LORD gives light to the eyes of both.Proverbs 29:13 · NKJV

Quick answer

The man being crushed and the man crushing him receive the same daylight from the same God. The verse states it flatly and leaves it there.

Read both lines

This is the near-kin of 22:2, where "the rich and the poor have this in common, the LORD is the maker of them all," and the difference between the two verses is the second party. There it was merely a rich man; here it is אִישׁ תְּכָכִים, a man of oppressions, someone actively doing harm.

That escalation makes the verse harder and better. Giving light to the eyes is an idiom for life itself, so the claim is that the oppressor's continued existence is also a gift, from the same hand, on the same morning as his victim's. The verse does not say this is fair and does not say it is permanent. It reports a shared condition, which is exactly the ground the book stands on elsewhere when it says that mocking the poor reproaches their Maker (17:5). Both men have one.

Related: Proverbs 22:2 · Proverbs 17:5 · Proverbs 14:31 · Proverbs 29:7

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.