What Does Proverbs 1:31 Mean in the King James?
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
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
This verse closes the loop: the path you tread grows into the fruit you eat, and your own counsel becomes what fills you.
THE MEANING
A path does not stay abstract: it grows fruit, and that fruit becomes what you take in. The counsel you live by returns as the fullness that surrounds you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief this undoes is that the results of your direction come from somewhere unrelated to it; here, the way itself produces what is consumed.
THE ROOT
דַּרְכָּם
darkām
GROWS FROM
דרך
d-r-k
to tread, step
The word translated “way” grows from the root for treading: a way is ground made by steps. The verse pictures the path as productive, with its fruit returning to the one who walks it.
ALSO GROWS
dārakh: to tread, step
דָּרַךְ
The act of treading is the seed of the word for a way.
derek: way, road
דֶּרֶךְ
The route is the ground made into a direction by being trodden.
פְּרִי
perī
GROWS FROM
פרה
p-r-h
to bear fruit, be fruitful, multiply
The Hebrew word for fruit is linked to the verb for bearing fruit. What the way produces is not separate from the way: its product becomes what the walker takes in.
ALSO GROWS
pārāh: to bear fruit, be fruitful
פָּרָה
The verb names the producing that the noun “fruit” makes visible.
perī: fruit, produce
פְּרִי
This is the outcome that the verse says the people eat.
מֹעֲצוֹתֵיהֶם
moʿatsōtêhem
GROWS FROM
יעץ
y-ʿ-ts
to advise, counsel
The word rendered “devices” means counsels or plans, from the root for advising. The verse links what they counsel themselves to the fullness that comes back to them.
ALSO GROWS
ʿētsāh: counsel, plan
עֵצָה
This noun names the counsel behind the “devices” in the verse.
yōʿēts: adviser, counselor
יוֹעֵץ
The root also names the one who gives counsel, revealing the personal source of the plan.
yāʿats: to advise, take counsel
יָעַץ
The verb makes clear that these plans arise through the act of advising.
THE PATTERN
A chosen direction produces an outcome that returns to the one who chose it.
The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.THE THREAD
Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.Hosea uses the same Hebrew roots for “fruit” (פְּרִי, perī) and “way” (דֶּרֶךְ, derek), making the link explicit: trust in a way produces fruit that is then eaten. Proverbs compresses that same movement into the image of being filled by one’s own counsels.
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