Bible Strands
Proverbs 19:14
Houses and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — An unnamed wise man in the "words of the wise" collection (Prov 19:1) addresses a general audience, likely young men managing household resources, contrasting what is received from family with what is received from God.
The words — נַחֲלַת (nachat) means "inheritance" in the legal sense of a portion passed down (cf. Deut 21:16), and it is the structural pivot: everything before it is inherited, everything after it is given.
The thread — Proverbs 18:22 pairs "finding a wife" with "obtaining favor from the LORD," and Proverbs 31:10 calls such a wife more precious than rubies, reinforcing that the prudent wife is a divine gift rather than a market acquisition.
Why it lands — It asks the reader to stop treating a good wife as a lucky acquisition and start treating her as a request to be made, a dependence to be acknowledged.
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
House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: and a prudent wife is from the Lord.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 18:22 He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD.
- Proverbs 31:10 A wife of noble character, who can find? She is far more precious than rubies.
- Proverbs 13:22 A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is passed to the righteous.
- Proverbs 3:6 in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
- James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.
- Genesis 28:1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. “Do not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” he commanded.
- 2 Corinthians 12:14 See, I am ready to come to you a third time, and I will not be a burden, because I am not seeking your possessions, but you. For children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.
- Deuteronomy 21:16 when that man assigns his inheritance to his sons he must not appoint the son of the beloved wife as the firstborn over the son of the unloved wife.
- Joshua 11:23 So Joshua took the entire land, in keeping with all that the LORD had spoken to Moses. And Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to the allotments to their tribes. Then the land had rest from war.
- Genesis 24:7 The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me from my father’s house and my native land, who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land’—He will send His angel before you so that you can take a wife for my son from there.