What Does Proverbs 10:20 Mean in the King James?
The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth.
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
A tongue shaped by alignment carries the value of selected silver, while the wicked heart is measured as almost nothing.
THE MEANING
Your words carry value when they come from alignment, like silver chosen for its worth. The wicked heart comes to little; the verse places tongue and heart side by side so the contrast is heard at once.
THE ROOT
צַדִּיק
tsaddiq
GROWS FROM
צדק
To be right or just; alignment.
The word rendered “just” carries the sense of being in alignment. The verse presents the tongue’s value as something rooted in that alignment, not merely in how pleasing its sound is.
ALSO GROWS
tzedek: Alignment; what is right.
צֶדֶק
It names the quality that gives the just person’s tongue its value.
tzedakah: Aligned action; justice.
צְדָקָה
It extends the root from a state of alignment into what that alignment does.
נִבְחָר
nivchar
GROWS FROM
בחר
To choose or select.
“choice” in this verse is nivchar. The silver is described as selected, recognized and set apart for its worth. That word makes the comparison more precise: the just tongue is precious speech, discerned as valuable.
ALSO GROWS
bachar: Choose; select.
בָּחַר
This is the action carried in “choice”: someone selects what is valued.
mivchar: Choice; the selected or finest thing.
מִבְחָר
It carries the same sense of something distinguished by selection.
THE PATTERN
Speech carries recognizable worth, while the heart from which it comes reveals its inner measure.
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.THE THREAD
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.Both verses use the Hebrew word כֶּסֶף (kesef), “silver,” to give speech a material value. Psalm 12:6 adds the image of silver tested in a furnace, opening the comparison here toward words whose worth can be recognized and tested.
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