Mishle 20:14

14 It is good for nothing, it is naught, saith the koneh (buyer), but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.

Mishle 20:14 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 20:14

[It is] naught, [it is] naught, saith the buyer
When he comes to the shop of the seller, or to market to buy goods, he undervalues them, says they are not so good as they should be, nor so cheap as he can buy them at; but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth;
after he has brought the seller to as low a price as he can, and has bought the goods, and gone away with them, and got home among his friends; then he boasts what a bargain he has bought, how good the commodity is, how he has been too many for the seller, and has outwitted him; and so glories in his frauds and tricks, and rejoices in his boasting, and all such rejoicing is evil, ( James 4:16 ) . Jarchi applies this to a man that is a hard student in the law, and through much difficulty gets the knowledge of it, when he is ready to pronounce himself unhappy; but when he is got full fraught with wisdom, then he rejoices at it, and glories in it.

Mishle 20:14 In-Context

12 The hearing ozen, and the seeing ayin, Hashem hath made even both of them.

13 Love not sheynah (sleep), lest thou come to poverty; open thine eynayim, and thou shalt have enough lechem.

14 It is good for nothing, it is naught, saith the koneh (buyer), but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.

15 There is zahav, and a multitude of rubies, but the sfatayim (lips) of da’as are a precious jewel.

16 Take his garment that is guaranty for a zar (stranger), and hold it as his pledge for a nokhriyah (foreign woman, strange woman, seductress).