Open in the app
Mid-century illustration of a tree planted by a pool of water on a path

Proverbs 21:17 · World English Bible

Proverbs 21:17 Meaning He Who Loves Pleasure Will Be

He who loves pleasure will be a poor man. He who loves wine and oil won’t be rich.

Read it in the app

What does Proverbs 21:17 mean?

The mind that seeks its peace in what the body can hold will always end with empty hands, not as a penalty but by the nature of what it sought. Pleasure taken from outside is a coin that spends itself the moment it is grasped, and the one who chases it must chase again, poorer each time for having believed the last one was enough.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 21:17 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

The mind that seeks its peace in what the body can hold will always end with empty hands, not as a penalty but by the nature of what it sought. Pleasure taken from outside is a coin that spends itself the moment it is grasped, and the one who chases it must chase again, poorer each time for having believed the last one was enough. What the world offers cannot fill a mind, because a mind is not a thing the world can reach.

The true wealth was never in the cup. It is the fullness the mind already carries and keeps overlooking while it searches the outside for what waits within.

Wine: the intoxication the mind seeks in outer things, the borrowed gladness that fades as fast as it is taken Oil: the comfort and richness the body promises, the passing luxury that leaves the mind emptier for having leaned on it

Christian Psychology lensGo deeper in the app

Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 21:17 today

  1. When you reach for your phone out of boredom today, put it down and stay in the plain unfilled moment for thirty seconds to see what it actually feels like.
  2. At a meal with someone, taste the food and hear them instead of reaching for the next bite, the next topic, the next screen.
  3. In a hard stretch of the day, when you want the snack or the drink or the online cart to fix it, name what you are really after and let yourself want it without buying anything.

What am I hoping the next purchase will finally quiet in me?

The same truth in other traditions

Buddhism · Second Noble Truth

Craving is a thirst that drinking does not end. Each satisfaction teaches the mind to want again.

Stoicism · Seneca

It is not the person with little who is poor, but the one who always wants more. Wealth is having enough, and enough is a decision.

Tao Te Ching 46

There is no greater poverty than not knowing when you already have plenty.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

Free · No account needed

Read all of Proverbs 21 through 17 lenses

Lensightful opens every verse of the Bible through the traditions you choose. Save readings, ask a follow-up question, and get one verse a day.

Get Lensightful on the App Store