What Does Proverbs 14:23 Mean in the King James?
In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.
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 same verse places surplus on the far side of effort and lack on the far side of words that stay at the lips.
THE MEANING
Your effort leaves something beyond the exertion itself. Speech that stays only at the lips tends toward lack, so the verse distinguishes what is said from what takes form.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that talking about a thing is the same as producing it: lips alone do not leave the surplus that labor yields.
THE ROOT
עֶצֶב
etsev
GROWS FROM
עצב
ʿ-ṣ-b
Toil, pain, and grief, the strain of exertion.
“labour” in this verse is etsev. The same seed names labor that hurts and the experience of being grieved: this is effort with a real cost. Yet the verse says that effort can yield a remainder, so its cost is not its only result.
ALSO GROWS
ʿiṣṣāvōn: Painful toil, sorrow
עִצָּבוֹן
This related form shows the strain carried in the verse’s word for labour.
vayyitʿatsev: He was grieved
וַיִּתְעַצֵּב
The same root’s movement from toil to grief reveals the pain held within exertion.
מוֹתָר
motar
GROWS FROM
יתר
y-t-r
To remain or be left over; hence, surplus.
“Profit” here is what remains after the labor: an excess, not just the effort itself. The word’s root keeps the focus on what is left over.
ALSO GROWS
yoter: More, additional, remaining
יוֹתֵר
This form makes the surplus in the verse concrete: there is something left beyond what was spent.
yitron: Advantage, gain
יִתְרוֹן
This related noun shows the lasting gain that can remain after effort.
מַחְסוֹר
machsor
GROWS FROM
חסר
ḥ-s-r
To lack, be short, or be diminished.
“penury” in this verse is machsor. The verse’s final word points to something missing, not merely a small amount. Set against surplus, it gives the contrast a sharp shape: one side leaves something over, while the other leaves a lack.
ALSO GROWS
ḥaser: Lacking, short
חָסֵר
The verb names the condition behind penury: something is missing.
ḥesron: Deficiency, loss
חֶסְרוֹן
This related noun makes clear that lack is a deficit, the opposite of what remains.
THE PATTERN
Labor leaves a remainder, while words without embodied work leave only lack.
He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.THE THREAD
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;The word translated “sorrow” is עִצָּבוֹן (ʿiṣṣāvōn), painful toil or sorrow, from the same root as “labour” here. Proverbs shows that this costly exertion can still leave מוֹתָר (motar), a surplus; the strain is not the whole story.
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