What Does Proverbs 13:6 Mean in the King James?

Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way: but wickedness overthroweth the sinner.

Proverbs 13:6 · KJV

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 binds protection to alignment itself: what is whole in its way is kept, while wickedness turns the one who misses toward ruin.

THE MEANING

Alignment guards the person whose path is whole, while wickedness overturns the one who misses. The verse presents the shape of a person’s way as part of what preserves or undoes them now.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the idea that a crooked course can secure the one who walks it: wickedness itself becomes the force that overturns.

THE ROOT

צְדָקָה

tsedaqah

GROWS FROM

צדק

ts-d-q

Alignment; what is right or just.

Here righteousness carries the texture of alignment: the path is held in right relation. That alignment is not separate from protection; it is what keeps the person in the way.

ALSO GROWS

tsedeq: Justice, rightness, alignment.

צֶדֶק

This branch names the quality of the way that righteousness keeps.

tsaddiq: A righteous or aligned person.

צַדִּיק

The same root describes both the alignment and the person shaped by it.

תִּצֹּר

titzor

GROWS FROM

נצר

n-ts-r

To guard, watch over, or preserve.

“Keepeth” in this verse is titzor. The verb makes righteousness an active guard over a person’s way. The same root also names a shoot, joining keeping with the preservation of living growth.

ALSO GROWS

notser: One who guards or keeps.

נֹצֵר

This form makes the guarding in the verse something watchful and ongoing.

netser: A shoot or branch.

נֵצֶר

A shoot is living growth preserved into continuation, echoing the keeping of the person’s way.

תָּם

tam

GROWS FROM

תמם

t-m-m

To be complete or whole.

“Upright” describes integrity and wholeness, not merely posture. The person being kept is described through the wholeness of their way.

ALSO GROWS

tamim: Complete, whole, blameless.

תָּמִים

This form makes explicit the sense of a way that is whole.

tom: Integrity or completeness.

תֹּם

This branch links the person’s uprightness to an undivided way of being.

THE PATTERN

Alignment keeps the whole path intact, while wickedness turns the one who misses toward ruin.

He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.

Proverbs 2:8 · KJVKeeping and preserving are joined to the paths themselves, as righteousness guards the person walking in the way.

For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Psalm 1:6 · KJVThe verse sets the enduring way of the righteous beside the perishing way of the ungodly.

Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:5 · KJVThe one kept is carried toward deliverance, echoing the preservation attached to the way in Proverbs.

THE THREAD

He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.

Proverbs 2:8 · KJV

Proverbs 2:8 uses the same Hebrew root ⁨נצר⁩ (natsar, to guard or preserve) found in “keepeth” here, and its object is the paths of judgment. The shared root makes the mechanism visible: alignment does not merely describe the path; it guards it.

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