What Does Leviticus 19:17 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The opposite of hidden hatred here is not silence but direct correction that refuses to leave the wrong buried.
THE MEANING
The verse meets the reader where resentment is kept quiet: the wrong is brought into speech instead of stored as hate. It also warns that another person’s wrong can become weight the reader bears if it is left unaddressed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that keeping quiet is always the loving choice: silence can leave both resentment and wrongdoing in place.
THE ROOT
הוֹכֵחַ תּוֹכִיחַ
hokheach tokhiach
GROWS FROM
יכח
To decide, prove, or demonstrate; in this form, to reprove.
“rebuke” in this verse is hokheach tokhiach. The doubled verb makes the command emphatic: reprove directly and surely. Its root also carries the sense of proving or deciding, so the wrong is brought into the open where it can be addressed instead of held inside as hatred.
ALSO GROWS
tokhechah: Reproof or correction
תּוֹכֵחָה
This noun from the same root names the direct correction that replaces concealed resentment.
mokhiach: One who reproves
מוֹכִיחַ
This form appears in Proverbs 28:23, linking direct correction with the favor that truthful speech can find.
חֵטְא
chet
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss, err, or incur guilt.
“sin” in this verse is chet. The word carries the sense of a missing or going wrong, not only a fixed label for a person. In this verse, that missing is not meant to stay buried beneath either hatred or silence.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss, do wrong, or become guilty
חָטָא
The verb shows the movement from a wrong act to the guilt that can cling to it.
chatta’t: Sin; also an offering associated with sin
חַטָּאת
This related form keeps the focus on the wrong that needs to be brought into the open.
תִּשָּׂא
tissa
GROWS FROM
נשא
To lift, carry, or bear.
“bear” in this verse is tissa. The verse describes guilt with the weight of something carried. Its wording ties the reader’s response to whether another person’s wrong remains unaddressed and burdened between them.
ALSO GROWS
massa: A burden
מַשָּׂא
This related word makes the carrying image concrete: guilt can be borne like a weight.
nasi: A chief or prince, one elevated
נָשִׂיא
This related form carries the sense of being lifted up, showing the root’s range from bearing to raising.
THE PATTERN
Love brings a neighbor’s wrong into truthful speech instead of sealing it inside as hate or leaving it hidden.
Open rebuke is better than secret love.Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:THE THREAD
He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue.The Hebrew מוֹכִיחַ (mokhiach, one who reproves) in Proverbs shares the יכח (y-kh-ch, prove or reprove) root that appears twice in Leviticus’s command. Proverbs adds that direct correction can find favor, while smooth speech can conceal.
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