Bible Strands
Proverbs 24:31
Thorns had grown up everywhere, thistles had covered the ground, and the stone wall was broken down.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses the reader immediately after passing the neglected field and vineyard of a lazy man in the preceding verse. He stands at the ruined boundary, describing the physical decay before drawing a lesson in the following verse.
The words — The Hebrew עָלָה ('alah) translates to "it had grown up," describing the unchecked proliferation of קִמְּשִׂנִים (kim'sînîm, thorns) and חֲרֻלִּים (ḥărullîm, nettles) that completely cover the ground. The verb כָּסָּה (kāssâ) means "they were covered," emphasizing total suffocation of the soil surface.
The thread — The physical description of abandoned boundaries and overgrown land runs in Isaiah 5:5 and Genesis 3:17. Ecclesiastes 10:18 parallels this pattern by linking structural collapse to inactivity.
Why it lands — The text reports the visible result of neglect without moralizing, stating that thorns, nettles, and broken walls simply occupy what is left unguarded. It requires the reader to recognize that decay is the inevitable outcome of inaction and to apply that observation to personal stewardship.
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
And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 5:5 Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.
- Ecclesiastes 10:18 Through laziness the roof caves in, and in the hands of the idle, the house leaks.
- Genesis 3:17 And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
- Proverbs 22:13 The slacker says, “There is a lion outside! I will be slain in the streets!”
- Jeremiah 4:3 For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your unplowed ground, and do not sow among the thorns.
- Matthew 13:22 The seed sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
- Job 31:40 then let briers grow instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley.” Thus conclude the words of Job.
- Proverbs 19:23 The fear of the LORD leads to life, that one may rest content, without visitation from harm.
- Proverbs 20:4 The slacker does not plow in season; at harvest time he looks, but nothing is there.
- Proverbs 23:21 For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe them in rags.