What Does Proverbs 12:12 Mean in the King James?
The wicked desireth the net of evil men: but the root of the righteous yieldeth fruit.
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 wicked reach for what traps; the righteous are rooted in a source that gives.
THE MEANING
The verse shows two sources of life: the snare sought for capture, and a root in alignment that gives outwardly. What is rooted in you becomes visible in what it yields.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that life is secured by capturing what others have; the verse locates lasting yield in a rooted source that gives.
THE ROOT
יִתֵּן
yitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
“yieldeth” in this verse is yitten. The Hebrew verb is simply “gives”; the KJV names the gift as fruit. The root’s image is not acquisition but outflow: what is rooted in alignment becomes a source of provision.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the verb in the verse: the root gives.
mattanah: Gift.
מַתָּנָה
The same root gives a tangible form to giving: what is given becomes a gift.
צַדִּיקִים
tsaddiqim
GROWS FROM
צדק
To be right, just, or in right order.
The word for the righteous grows from a root of rightness and justice, so the root of the righteous is grounded in alignment. Its fruit is not merely a reward for status; it is what a rightly ordered life gives.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Justice, righteousness, alignment.
צֶדֶק
This names the right order that grounds the root in the verse.
tsedaqah: Righteousness, justice, or almsgiving.
צְדָקָה
The same root can be expressed as generosity toward others, echoing the root that gives.
מְצוֹד
metsod
GROWS FROM
צוד
To hunt, pursue, or capture.
The net belongs to the language of hunting and capture: it is an instrument for taking. Set beside נתן (natan, to give), the verse contrasts reaching for a catch with being rooted in a source that gives.
ALSO GROWS
tsayid: Prey, game, or food obtained by hunting.
צַיִד
It names what hunting and capture pursue.
tsayad: Hunter.
צַיָּד
The same root names the one who pursues and captures.
THE PATTERN
What is rooted in alignment gives outwardly, while the hunger for capture remains bound to the snare.
And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.THE THREAD
And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:The Hebrew word for “take root” shares the root שרש (sh-r-sh; sharash) with שֹׁרֶשׁ (shoresh, root) in Proverbs. Isaiah makes the movement visible: rooting goes downward, and fruit rises upward.
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