Proverbs 27:16 - New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 2021

¹⁶ to restrain her is to restrain the wind or to grasp oil in the right hand.

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

¹⁶ Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind, And the ointment of his right hand, which bewrayeth itself.

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

¹⁶ Whoever attempts to restrain [a contentious woman] might as well try to stop the wind–his right hand encounters oil [and she slips through his fingers].

American Standard Version (1901)

¹⁶ He that would restrain her restraineth the wind; And his right hand encountereth oil.

Common English Bible

¹⁶ anyone who can control her can control the wind or pick up oil in his hand.

Catholic Public Domain Version

¹⁶ He who would restrain her, he is like one who would grasp the wind, or who would gather together oil with his right hand.

Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version

¹⁶ He that retaineth her, is as he that would hold the wind, and shall call in the oil of his right hand.

Proverbs 27:16 Cross References

Proverbs 27:15

A continual dripping on a rainy day and a contentious wife are alike;

Proverbs 27:17

Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens the wits of another.

John 12:3

Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.