What Does Proverbs 10:1 Mean in the King James?
The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.
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
Wisdom does not stay inside the wise son; it becomes another person’s joy.
THE MEANING
A child’s wisdom reaches beyond the child and becomes gladness in the father. A child’s foolishness also reaches beyond the child, settling as heaviness in the mother.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that a child’s choices affect only the child: wisdom and folly become another person’s joy or burden.
THE ROOT
חָכָם
ḥākām
GROWS FROM
חכם
To be wise or discerning.
English can make “wise” sound like a private trait, but חָכָם (ḥākām), “wise,” shares its consonantal seed with חָכְמָה (ḥokhmāh), “wisdom,” and חָכַם (ḥākham), “to act wisely.” Here, wisdom has an outward effect: gladness reaches the father.
ALSO GROWS
ḥokhmāh: Wisdom.
חָכְמָה
This noun shares the root חכם and names the quality embodied by the חָכָם, the wise son.
ḥākham: To be wise or act wisely.
חָכַם
This verb shares the root חכם and shows wisdom as something expressed in action, not just possessed as a trait.
THE PATTERN
A child’s path becomes part of a parent’s lived joy or grief.
A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother.I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.THE THREAD
A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother.The same Hebrew word חָכָם (ḥākām), “wise,” appears in both verses. Its pairing with a glad father returns alongside the mother’s burden, making the family contrast clear.
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