What Does Proverbs 12:3 Mean in the King James?
A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.
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 locates lasting stability beneath the person: wrongdoing cannot establish a life, while alignment takes root and holds.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now as a truth about what can hold a life steady: wrongdoing cannot give it durable footing, while alignment reaches beneath the visible life like a root. The root of the righteous remains firm even when circumstances shake.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that wrongdoing can secure lasting stability just because it seems to work in the moment.
THE ROOT
צַדִּיק
tsaddiq
GROWS FROM
צדק
ts-d-q
to be just or rightly aligned
“Righteous” carries the sense of alignment, not just a moral label. The verse pictures that alignment as a root beneath a person: what is rightly ordered at the core is what holds.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: justice, rightness, alignment
צֶדֶק
It shows that the root behind the righteous person also names what is right and just.
tsedaqah: righteousness, justice
צְדָקָה
It carries the same root into the way right alignment takes shape in life.
יִכּוֹן
yikkōn
GROWS FROM
כון
k-w-n
to be firm, set, or established
“established” in this verse is yikkōn. This word speaks of firm footing: wrongdoing cannot make a person stand securely. Set beside the root that will not be moved, it points to what a life draws its stability from.
ALSO GROWS
kōnēn: to establish or set up
כּוֹנֵן
It shares the sense of setting something firmly in place.
mekhōnāh: base, foundation, or stand
מְכוֹנָה
It makes the image of footing concrete: the question is what can truly serve as a foundation.
THE PATTERN
What is rooted in what is right endures, while stability built on a false foundation cannot hold.
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.Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.THE THREAD
I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.Both verses use מוֹט (môṭ), “totter” or “be moved.” Proverbs says the root of the righteous does not totter; the Psalm uses the same word for the speaker’s steadiness with the LORD at his right hand.
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