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Proverbs 11:26 · World English Bible

Proverbs 11:26 Meaning People Curse Someone Who Withholds Grain

People curse someone who withholds grain, but blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.

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What does Proverbs 11:26 mean?

To hoard what could nourish another is to sit in judgment, deciding that some deserve and some do not, and this withholding is felt within as a hardening the mind then hears as the world's reproach. The curse is not laid on him from outside; it is the guilt of separation echoing back to the one who chose it.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 11:26 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

To hoard what could nourish another is to sit in judgment, deciding that some deserve and some do not, and this withholding is felt within as a hardening the mind then hears as the world's reproach. The curse is not laid on him from outside; it is the guilt of separation echoing back to the one who chose it. To offer freely, holding nothing back from anyone, is to release that judgment, and the mind that gives without conditions finds itself already at peace, blessed by the very openness it extended.

Withholding and giving are choices about how to see a brother. Each returns to the mind that made it, wearing the face of the world.

Corn: the nourishment of love and truth the mind can either share or hoard, the sustenance meant to be extended. Head: the seat of the mind's decision, the place where the choice to bless or condemn settles and is felt as one's own condition.

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Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 11:26 today

  1. If you are sitting on something useful, a contact, a document, a piece of hard won know how, send it today to whoever needs it. Watch the small reluctance and go past it.
  2. With someone you privately think has not earned your help, help anyway, this once, without the lesson attached. The judgment you drop is the weight you were carrying.
  3. When you are stretched and someone asks for your time, resist the quick calculation about whether they deserve it. Give what you can honestly give, and say the limit kindly rather than making them wrong for asking.

Who am I quietly deciding does not deserve what I could easily share?

The same truth in other traditions

Tao Te Ching

To hold back what the world needs is to harden, and what hardens breaks. Open hands keep a person supple and whole.

Judaism · Talmud

Whoever is able to give and does not is answerable for the hunger they could have eased. The hardening is the cost, long before anyone complains.

Stoicism · Seneca

A kindness measured out to only the deserving is not kindness, it is a verdict. Give because giving is what you are for.

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