Proverbs 20:14 · World English Bible
Proverbs 20:14 Meaning It’s No Good
“It’s no good, it’s no good,” says the buyer; but when he is gone his way, then he boasts.
What does Proverbs 20:14 mean?
The mind that has decided to attack will always find the other worthless first, for it must make a thing small before it feels safe to take from it. The buyer who scorns and then boasts is a picture of guilt at work: it belittles what it wants so that grasping feels like justice rather than need.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
Proverbs 20:14 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
The mind that has decided to attack will always find the other worthless first, for it must make a thing small before it feels safe to take from it. The buyer who scorns and then boasts is a picture of guilt at work: it belittles what it wants so that grasping feels like justice rather than need. This is how the ego trades, forever diminishing the brother to enlarge itself, and forever quietly aware that the bargain was a theft.
Forgiveness sets a different price. When the value of another is no longer talked down to excuse the wish to gain, there is nothing left to boast of and nothing that had to be stolen. Two minds meet as equals, and the whole anxious economy of getting falls silent.
Buyer: the grasping mind that must make a thing worthless before it takes it, the ego bargaining so that getting can feel like justice rather than need.
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Christian Psychology lens
Live Proverbs 20:14 today
- Before you bargain or complain about a price, a deal, a split bill, say honestly to yourself what you actually want. Wanting it is fine. Pretending the thing is worthless so you can feel justified is the part that costs you.
- In a conversation today, catch the moment you start downgrading someone in your head to win the point. Stop there and let them be as capable and as reasonable as they actually are, even if you still disagree.
- In a negotiation at work, or a tense group chat about money or credit, try asking for what you want straight out instead of building a case against the other person first. Straight asking feels riskier and leaves nothing to hide afterward.
Who have I been quietly talking down so that what I want from them would feel deserved?
The same truth in other traditions
Tao Te Ching
The sage does not strive to take, and so loses nothing; grasping tightens the hand until it can hold nothing at all.
Buddhism
The root of taking is craving dressed up as need, and craving always begins by telling a story in which the other has too much and deserves less.
Judaism · Pirkei Avot
Who is rich? The one who is content with their portion. The one who must shrink another's portion to feel full was never counting honestly.
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