What Does Proverbs 10:29 Mean in the King James?
The way of the LORD is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.
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 LORD’s way is a stronghold for the whole, but the same way becomes ruin for those who work harm.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s way is a place of strength for you when your life is whole and undivided. It brings ruin to those who make harm their work; the verse presents the path as carrying different outcomes for different ways of living.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the LORD’s way is a neutral path with the same outcome for everyone: here it shelters the upright and brings ruin to workers of harm.
THE ROOT
דֶּרֶךְ
derekh
GROWS FROM
ד־ר־ך
To tread or step; a way is a path traveled by walking.
English “way” can sound like an abstract direction, but derekh shares its root with the verb for treading. The verse presents the LORD’s way as lived ground: a path that shelters the whole and brings ruin to those who work harm.
ALSO GROWS
darakh: To tread, step, or walk upon.
דָּרַךְ
The verb behind “way” makes the path something traveled, not merely an idea.
midrakh: A place to tread; a foothold or footprint.
מִדְרָךְ
This branch makes the way concrete as ground underfoot, echoing the verse’s image of a stronghold.
תֹּם
tom
GROWS FROM
ת־מ־ם
To be complete or whole.
The word translated “upright” carries the sense of integrity and wholeness. The person who finds the LORD’s way to be a stronghold is described by an undivided life, not merely by outward posture.
ALSO GROWS
tamam: To be complete, whole, or finished.
תָּמַם
This verb shows the root’s basic sense of completeness beneath “upright.”
tamim: Complete, whole, or blameless.
תָּמִים
This related form makes the connection between wholeness and the integrity named in the verse.
מְחִתָּה
mechittah
GROWS FROM
ח־ת־ת
To be shattered or dismayed.
The word translated “destruction” can also carry the sense of terror or dismay. Its contrast with the stronghold is not only a ruined outcome but a collapse that brings alarm.
ALSO GROWS
chathath: To be shattered, broken, or dismayed.
חָתַת
The verb shows the force beneath the noun translated “destruction.”
mechittah: Ruin, terror, or dismay.
מְחִתָּה
This noun names the outcome set against the stronghold offered to the upright.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s way is refuge to those aligned with it and a stumbling or ruin to those who oppose it.
As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.THE THREAD
For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.Both verses use derekh (דֶּרֶךְ), meaning “way” or “path,” to show that a path carries an outcome. Proverbs names the LORD’s way as a stronghold for the whole; Psalm 1 sets the righteous and ungodly ways against each other, with one known by the LORD and the other perishing.
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