Bible Strands
Proverbs 1:23
If you had repented at my rebuke, then surely I would have poured out my spirit on you; I would have made my words known to you.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Personified Wisdom addresses the simple, scoffers, and fools (v.22) in the moment after their refusal (v.24), stating what would have happened had they responded.
The words — תָּשׁוּבוּ (ta.Shu.vu) is the imperative of שׁוּב, "turn back," the same root behind repentance in the prophets. אַבִּיעָה ('a.Bi.'ah), "I will pour out," uses a liquid-pouring verb to describe the release of wisdom.
The thread — The conditional "turn back and live" pattern recurs in Ezekiel 18:27 and 33:11, and Acts 3:19 calls for the same turning so that sins may be wiped away.
Why it lands — The verse states a closed transaction: the condition was not met, so the gift was withheld. It asks the reader to take correction seriously as the entry point to instruction, not as an optional courtesy.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’
- Acts 3:19 Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away,
- Ezekiel 18:27 But if a wicked man turns from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will save his life.
- Acts 2:36 Therefore let all Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ!”
- Joel 2:28 And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
- Isaiah 32:15 until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high. Then the desert will be an orchard, and the orchard will seem like a forest.
- Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.
- Proverbs 12:1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.
- Isaiah 55:1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost!
- Zechariah 12:10 Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.