Proverbs - 23:10



10 Don't move the ancient boundary stone. Don't encroach on the fields of the fatherless:

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Proverbs 23:10.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
Remove not the ancient landmark; And enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
Touch not the bounds of little ones: and enter not into the field of the fatherless:
Remove not a border of olden times, And into fields of the fatherless enter not,
Do not let the landmark of the widow be moved, and do not go into the fields of those who have no father;
Do not touch the boundaries of little ones, and do not enter into the field of the fatherless.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Remove not the old landmark - See Proverbs 22:28 (note).
Enter not into the fields of the fatherless - Take nothing that belongs to an orphan. The heaviest curse of God will fall upon them that do so.

Remove not the old landmark,.... See Gill on Proverbs 22:28;
and enter not into the fields of the fatherless; to carry off the increase of them, to reap their wheat, or mow their grass, or turn in cattle to eat it; or to encroach upon them, take in any part of them, or join the whole to their own; for if there is a woe to them that lay field to field, much more to them that enter into and take the fields of the fatherless, and join them to their own, Isaiah 5:8.

The fatherless are taken under God's special protection. He is their Redeemer, who will take their part; and he is mighty, almighty.

The following proverb forms a new whole from component parts of Proverbs 22:28 and Proverbs 22:22.:
10 Remove not ancient landmarks;
And into the fields of orphans enter thou not.
11 For their Saviour is a mighty one;
He will conduct their cause against thee.
בּוא ב separates itself here to the meaning of injuste invadere et occupare; French, empiter sur son voisin, advance not into the ground belonging to thy neighbour (Fleischer). If orphans have also no goel among their kindred (Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, ἀγχιστεύς) to redeem by purchase (Leviticus 25:25) their inheritance that has passed over into the possession of another, they have another, and that a mighty Saviour, Redemptor, who will restore to them that which they have lost - viz. God (Jeremiah 50:34) - who will adopt their cause against any one who has unjustly taken from them.

Enter not - To possess their lands.

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