What Does Proverbs 11:19 Mean in the King James?
As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death.
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 destination is already inside the direction: the pursuit of evil carries its own death.
THE MEANING
Righteousness here is alignment, and it tends toward life. Pursuing evil is a continuing movement whose end belongs to the pursuer himself. The verse places the outcome inside the path, so the direction already carries its destination.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that pursuing harm leaves the pursuer untouched dissolves here: its destination is the pursuer’s own death.
THE ROOT
צְדָקָה
tsedaqah
GROWS FROM
צדק
tsdq
To be right or just; to be in alignment.
The seed צדק carries the sense of what is right or in alignment, so righteousness is more than a label for moral worth. Here that alignment is oriented toward life, setting a path whose outcome coheres with its direction.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Rightness, justice.
צֶדֶק
This branch shows righteousness as a quality of what is aligned or right.
tsaddiq: One who is right or just.
צַדִּיק
This branch names a person by the alignment expressed in the verse.
מְרַדֵּף
meraddef
GROWS FROM
רדף
radaph
To pursue or chase.
“pursueth” in this verse is meraddef. The root describes chasing after something, giving the clause motion rather than merely assigning guilt. Evil is not passively present here: the person keeps following it, and that movement runs toward death.
ALSO GROWS
radaph: To pursue, chase.
רָדַף
This names the active motion at the heart of the verse.
nirdaf: One pursued or persecuted.
נִרְדָּף
The same root can name the one being chased, revealing pursuit as a movement between pursuer and pursued.
THE PATTERN
A path’s end is carried in the direction a person pursues.
He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour.For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.THE THREAD
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.The same word, צְדָקָה (tsedaqah, alignment), appears in both verses, while Hosea renders it as something sown and harvested. Hosea opens the lifeward direction in Proverbs further: alignment is already planted in the path that leads to its harvest.
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