Please Support the Bible Translation Work of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

$5.00

Success Comes from Hard Work While Failure Comes from Much Talk

Proverbs 14:23 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

²³In all hard work there is profit,
but much talk leads only to poverty.

In all hard work there is profit: The Hebrew (עֶצֶב etseb) here translated hard work can also be rendered “toil” or “hard labor,” which is referring to what is often manual labor that is tiring, hard, difficult, and painful. Here (מוֹתָר mothar) profit refers to financial gain or something that someone is trying to attain.

but much talk leads only to poverty: The Hebrew (שָׂפָה דָּבָר saphah dabar) here translated much talk is literally “word of the lips.” Here it is referring to idle talk or bragging while one is at work. Poverty (מַחְסוֹר machsor or מַחְסֹר machsor) here refers to having little or no money and few material possessions, with the sense of one who has to beg for money at times.

Whether one is working hard by physical work or mental work, few words mean you get more work done, and thus more profit. Regardless of one’s financial status, busy, hard-working, diligent, enterprising people are at every income bracket level, from the person selling products on the street or the subway to the person running a Fortune 500 company. The hard-working hand and mind get the profit. What your hand or mind finds to do, do with all your power, not your idle talk or bragging.

When a man spends most of his workday in idle talk or bragging, he gets little work done and thus will live in poverty. You can get little done when you are busy talking about what you do instead of doing what you do. The same is true in our work on behalf of God as his servant. If we are busy without boasting about our service to God, striving earnestly in prayer, we will get much done. But if we are busy telling others how hard we work for God, just how hard can we be working for God? If our labor for God is only on the lips, then we will be spiritually poor, ending our life by having done nothing.