Proverbs 20:14

14 Each buyer saith, It is evil, it is evil; and when he hath gone away, then he shall have glory (but after he hath gone away, then he shall boast about it).

Proverbs 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.

Proverbs 20:14 In-Context

12 An ear hearing, and an eye seeing [The hearing ear, and the seeing eye], God made ever either (God made them both).

13 Do not thou love sleep, lest neediness oppress thee; open thine eyes, and be thou [ful]filled with loaves.

14 Each buyer saith, It is evil, it is evil; and when he hath gone away, then he shall have glory (but after he hath gone away, then he shall boast about it).

15 Gold, and the multitude of gems, and a precious vessel, be the lips of knowing (be the value of words of knowledge, or of wise words).

16 Take thou away the cloth of him that was (a) borrow of another man; and for strangers take thou away a wed from him. (Take thou the cloak of him who pledged for another person; and take thou a pledge from him for strangers.)