What Does Proverbs 11:26 Mean in the King James?
He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it.
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 grain seller is called a mashbir, echoing the Hebrew word for breaking: provision becomes a blessing when what is held back breaks into circulation.
THE MEANING
When grain is withheld while people need it, their curse gathers around the one holding it back; when it is made available, blessing rests on the seller. The verse shows provision moving from private storage into the lives of others.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that holding needed provision back is neutral simply because it remains yours: the verse links withholding with communal harm and making provision available with blessing.
THE ROOT
מַשְׁבִּיר
mashbir
GROWS FROM
שבר
Deal in or supply grain; the same consonants also appear in the Hebrew verb for breaking.
“selleth it” in this verse is mashbir. The seller is not merely a person with grain but the one who brings it into supply. The sound of שבר also carries the sense of breaking, an echo of provision breaking out of withholding and reaching the people who need it.
ALSO GROWS
shavar: To break or shatter.
שָׁבַר
Its shared consonants make the grain seller’s role sound like a breaking open of what had been held back.
shever: Grain or provision.
שֶׁבֶר
This grain word connects the seller directly to the provision moving through the verse.
בְּרָכָה
berakhah
GROWS FROM
ברך
Bless; the root also names the knee.
The blessing rests on the seller’s head: benefit becomes visible in a person’s life when provision reaches the community. The root’s connection with the knee adds the image of a blessing received with the posture of bending.
ALSO GROWS
barakh: To bless.
בָּרַךְ
This is the verb form of the blessing that rests on the seller.
berekh: Knee.
בֶּרֶךְ
This branch preserves the root’s bodily image of bending within the word for blessing.
THE PATTERN
Provision becomes communal blessing when it moves toward those who need it.
Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.And the famine was over all the face of the earth: and Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.THE THREAD
And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.The Hebrew calls Joseph הַמַּשְׁבִּיר (hamashbir), the same grain-supplier word used in Proverbs 11:26. The shared word makes Joseph’s role a living picture of the verse: blessing rests on the one who puts grain within the people’s reach.
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