Bible Strands
Proverbs 27:16
restraining her is like holding back the wind or grasping oil with one’s right hand.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The wisdom writer addresses a general audience, continuing the comparison to a contentious woman from Proverbs 27:15 and placing it immediately before the proverb on mutual sharpening in 27:17.
The words — The verb צָֽפַן (tza.fan) means to hide or restrain, while ר֑וּחַ (Ru.ach) denotes wind and שֶׁ֖מֶן (she.men) denotes oil, both used to illustrate physical impossibility.
The thread — The use of oil appears in John 12:3, where nard is applied for anointing rather than restrained.
Why it lands — The text states that restraining a contentious person is as futile as stopping wind or gripping oil in a closed right hand, requiring the reader to acknowledge the practical impossibility of such control.
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
Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind, and the ointment of his right hand, which bewrayeth itself.
Cross-references
- John 12:3 Then Mary took about a pint of expensive perfume, made of pure nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.