What Does Proverbs 1:30 Mean in the King James?
They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
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
Reproof’s Hebrew root also means “to prove,” so this verse names a refusal to let wisdom make its case.
THE MEANING
Counsel reaches you, yet its correction can be treated as contemptible. Once reproof is pushed away, the insight it carries cannot reshape the course you are on.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that correction can be rejected without loss: despising reproof also shuts out the understanding it could make clear.
THE ROOT
תּוֹכַחְתִּי
tōḵaḥtî
GROWS FROM
יכח
Root yāḵaḥ (יכח; y-kh-ch): decide, prove, reprove.
The same root can mean to decide or prove as well as to reprove. Reproof is more than a verdict: it carries the reasoning that makes a matter plain, and the verse says this, too, is what they refuse.
ALSO GROWS
hôḵîaḥ: to prove, reprove, or correct
הוֹכִיחַ
This form makes reproof an act of showing what is wrong, rather than merely voicing disapproval.
môḵîaḥ: one who proves, argues, or reproves
מוֹכִיחַ
The same root names the one making the case; rejecting reproof means refusing the case being made.
עֲצָתִי
ʿăṣātî
GROWS FROM
יעץ
Root yaʿats (יעץ; y-ʿ-ṣ): advise, deliberate, form a plan.
The root connects counsel to the act of advising and to the counselor, not just to an opinion. Their refusal turns away the deliberation that could shape another course.
ALSO GROWS
yāʿaṣ: to advise or counsel
יָעַץ
The verb shows counsel as an act of guidance that can be accepted or refused.
yôʿēṣ: counselor or adviser
יוֹעֵץ
This related form names the one who gives counsel, showing how the rejected advice belongs to a relationship of guidance.
THE PATTERN
Correction opens a path to wisdom and life when it is received instead of despised.
Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish.Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.THE THREAD
The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise.Both verses use the יכח root in the word for reproof. Here that reproof is rejected; there, the same kind of correction is called life-giving and keeps the hearer among the wise.
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