Proverbs 13:25
The righteous find satisfaction, but the wicked live in continual emptiness.
25 The righteous one eats to the satisfying of his soul, but the belly of the wicked goes hungry.
The righteous find satisfaction, but the wicked live in continual emptiness.
To contrast the satisfying provision experienced by the righteous with the unfulfilled hunger that characterizes the life of the wicked.
This proverb concludes the sayings of Proverbs 13 with a final contrast between the righteous and the wicked. The chapter repeatedly marks outcomes of wisdom and folly in concrete life terms (speech, discipline, diligence, companionship), and verse 25 ends with the basic human experience of hunger and fullness. The imagery functions as a summary-style closing line: righteousness is linked with sustaining sufficiency, and wickedness with persistent want. The proverb’s form is antithetical parallelism, pressing readers to see the two paths as fundamentally different. In the immediate flow, the prior verses address provision disrupted by injustice (13:23) and the formative role of loving discipline (13:24), setting the reader to interpret “satisfaction” and “hunger” as both practical and character-shaped realities. As a closing statement, 13:25 seals the chapter’s moral logic: the wise path is not merely correct but life-sustaining, while the wicked path hollows out desire and leaves emptiness.
Instruction, Speech, Desire, Wealth, and the Way of the Wise
Wisdom receives instruction, guards speech, walks with the wise, handles desire and wealth patiently, and embraces loving discipline, while folly rejects correction and reaps ruin, shame, and hunger.