Bible Strands
Proverbs 10:3
The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry, but He denies the craving of the wicked.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — A wisdom teacher addressing a student in the didactic frame of Proverbs, no narrative moment; the verse stands as a standalone aphorism between two parallel proverbs (10:2, 10:4).
The words — נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh, "appetite, soul") and הוּת (huth, "craving, lust") are set in deliberate opposition: the righteous person's nephesh is sustained, the wicked person's huth is driven out by יֶהְדֹּף (yehdof, "he rejects, drives away").
The thread — The same provision-for-the-faithful pattern appears in Psalms 34:9 ("those who fear Him lack nothing"), Psalms 37:3 ("trust in the LORD and do good"), and Matthew 6:30 (God clothes the grass).
Why it lands — The verse forces a diagnostic: is your hunger a nephesh or a huth, and which one are you actually feeding? It offers no blanket promise of material abundance; it distinguishes between a legitimate appetite God sustains and a grasping desire God actively rejects.
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
The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.
Cross-references
- Psalms 37:3 Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
- Matthew 6:30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
- Psalms 34:9 Fear the LORD, you His saints, for those who fear Him lack nothing.
- Psalms 37:25 I once was young and now am old, yet never have I seen the righteous abandoned or their children begging for bread.
- Psalms 33:19 to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.
- Psalms 37:19 In the time of evil they will not be ashamed, and in the days of famine they will be satisfied.
- Zephaniah 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the Day of the LORD’s wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of His jealousy.” For indeed, He will make a sudden end of all who dwell on the earth.
- Job 5:20 In famine He will redeem you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword.
- Luke 12:31 But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added unto you.
- Hebrews 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”