What Does Proverbs 11:14 Mean in the King James?
Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.
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 verse calls the safety found in many voices deliverance: shared counsel opens a way where a people would otherwise fall.
THE MEANING
When your choices touch others, shared discernment can keep a community from tipping into a fall. What the verse calls safety also carries the sense of deliverance: a way opening through danger.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a people can remain secure without counsel: where guidance is absent, they fall.
THE ROOT
תְּשׁוּעָה
teshuah
GROWS FROM
ישע
to deliver or rescue
The word translated “safety” shares its root with words for deliverance and a deliverer. It suggests an opening out of danger, not only protection from it; here, that opening is found in the abundance of counsel.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: to deliver, rescue
יָשַׁע
The verb gives the root’s active sense: bringing someone out of danger.
yeshuah: deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun shares the seed of the verse’s “safety,” revealing the movement toward a way through.
moshia: deliverer, rescuer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This branch names the one who brings deliverance about.
יוֹעֵץ
yo'ets
GROWS FROM
יעץ
to advise, deliberate
“counsellors” in this verse is yo'ets. Counsellor and counsel grow from the same seed: the act of deliberating together. The verse’s abundance is more than a pile of opinions; it widens the deliberation that can keep a people upright.
ALSO GROWS
ya'ats: to advise, deliberate
יָעַץ
The verb shows the work behind counsel: weighing and considering what should be done.
etzah: counsel, advice, plan
עֵצָה
This noun names the counsel that emerges from deliberation.
THE PATTERN
A people remain standing when discernment is shared, because collective counsel can open a way through danger.
Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace.For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;THE THREAD
And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.Proverbs’ “safety” and Exodus’s “salvation” share the root ישע (yasha), meaning deliverance. Exodus shows a people finding a way through what seems closed; Proverbs reveals shared counsel as one place that opening can begin.
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