What Does Proverbs 15:10 Mean in the King James?
Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die.
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 makes correction the painful signal of a path being left, and makes hatred of that signal fatal.
THE MEANING
When you leave the way, correction feels grievous; when reproof becomes something you hate, the verse says the consequence is death. Its hard edge is that resistance to being corrected is not a harmless preference.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that rejecting correction simply protects you from pain; the verse says refusal does not preserve life, but ends in death.
THE ROOT
תּוֹכַחַת
tokhachat
GROWS FROM
יכח
y-kh-ḥ
To decide, prove, or reprove, to bring a matter into judgment.
English can make reproof sound like scolding, but this word belongs to a root of proving, deciding, and bringing a matter under judgment. Hating reproof here is hating the moment the path is made clear enough to judge where it leads.
ALSO GROWS
hôḵîaḥ: To prove, decide, or reprove.
הוֹכִיחַ
This verb shows reproof as a demonstration or decision that exposes the matter, not simply hostile words.
tôḵēḥāh: Reproof or rebuke.
תּוֹכֵחָה
This related noun carries the same idea of a truth brought forward for judgment.
מוּסָר
musar
GROWS FROM
יסר
y-s-r
To discipline or chasten; to form through correction and instruction.
Musar grows from yasar, a root family that includes both instruction and chastisement. English “correction” can sound like a verbal note, while this word carries shaping pressure that may hurt, the verse does not conceal that pain.
ALSO GROWS
yāsar: To discipline, chasten, or instruct.
יָסַר
The verb shows correction as an active force that shapes a person, rather than a passing comment.
yissurim: Chastisements or afflictions.
יִסּוּרִים
This related form retains the felt cost of discipline, clarifying why correction may be grievous while still serving a formative role.
THE PATTERN
Correction is a hard encounter with the path: received, it keeps life in view; hated, it becomes the place where the way is lost.
Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish.Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law;Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.THE THREAD
He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth.The Hebrew line repeats musar, meaning discipline or instruction, and tokhachat, meaning reproof, then shows the fork more fully: keeping correction stays on the way of life, while refusing reproof leads astray. Its shared wording makes Proverbs 10:17 a close-up of the mechanism compressed here.
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