Proverbs 16:18
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The context
This is one of the sayings in the Solomonic collections, in a chapter much occupied with providence, plans, and the Lord's direction of the king's heart. The verse is a couplet, pairing destruction with a fall and pride with a haughty spirit. It belongs to the wisdom genre rather than to prophecy.
What it establishes
The saying observes a regular connection between arrogance and ruin, and it states that connection as a general truth about how human affairs run. The second line intensifies the first rather than adding a new claim.
What it does not establish
It is a proverb, not a mechanism. The verse does not promise that every proud person falls soon or that every fall is caused by pride, and it gives no timetable for the reversal it describes.
Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.
Cited in these answers
Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.