Bible Strands
Proverbs 8:36
But he who fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Personified Wisdom, having called out publicly (8:1–3), states the final stakes of her pursuit. The audience is everyone who has heard her and chosen to miss her.
The words — חֹמֵס (choMes, H2554) is a participle from the root חמס, meaning "violence, oppression, wrongdoing"; the BSB's "harms himself" understates a word that elsewhere names brutal injustice.
The thread — Proverbs 15:32 equates ignoring discipline with despising oneself, and Proverbs 1:31 says the wayward eat the fruit of their own devices. John 15:23 tightens the logic: hating the Son is hating the Father.
Why it lands — The verse removes the option of neutrality: missing Wisdom is not a passive failure but an act of self-violence, and hating her is an active alignment with death. It asks the reader to stop treating the invitation as optional.
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
But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 15:32 He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.
- Proverbs 1:31 So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
- John 15:23 Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well.
- 1 Corinthians 16:22 If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be under a curse. Come, O Lord!
- Proverbs 12:1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.
- Proverbs 20:2 The terror of a king is like the roar of a lion; whoever provokes him forfeits his own life.
- Proverbs 5:11 At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
- John 3:19 And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.
- Hebrews 10:29 How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
- Proverbs 5:22 The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.