Bible Strands
Proverbs 11:14
For lack of guidance, a nation falls, but with many counselors comes deliverance.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The text addresses a people facing communal decisions, positioned between a warning against gossip in 11:13 and a caution about financial guarantees in 11:15.
The words — תַּ֭חְבֻּלוֹת (tachbu.lot) translates as wise directions or guidance, while יוֹעֵֽץ (yo'etz) denotes a counselor or adviser.
The thread — This theme of collective counsel preventing failure appears in Proverbs 24:6, 15:22, and 20:18.
Why it lands — The verse states that a people collapses without direction but gains deliverance through multiple advisers, requiring the reader to actively seek diverse counsel before acting.
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
Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 24:6 Only with sound guidance should you wage war, and victory lies in a multitude of counselors.
- Proverbs 15:22 Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.
- Proverbs 20:18 Set plans by consultation, and wage war under sound guidance.
- Proverbs 16:22 Understanding is a fountain of life to its possessor, but the discipline of fools is folly.
- 1 Kings 12:1 Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.
- Isaiah 19:11 The princes of Zoan are mere fools; Pharaoh’s wise counselors give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am one of the wise, a son of eastern kings”?
- Acts 15:6 So the apostles and elders met to look into this matter.