What Does Proverbs 15:11 Mean in the King James?
Hell and destruction are before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?
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
Even the realm of ruin is before the LORD’s face, so the human heart is not too deep or hidden to be seen.
THE MEANING
Sheol and Abaddon, the realm of the dead and the field of ruin, are already before the LORD. How much more, then, is your heart within that seeing: no depth of your inner life falls beyond it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that the most hidden or ruined places lie outside God’s sight dissolves: the verse places even Sheol and Abaddon before him, then brings the human heart closer still.
THE ROOT
לִפְנֵי
lifnei
GROWS FROM
פנה
panah
Turn, face toward; the related noun means face or presence.
The Hebrew לִפְנֵי יְהוָה (lifnei YHWH, “before the LORD”) pictures Sheol and Abaddon within the LORD’s presence. The “how much more” then turns from the deepest imagined place to the human heart: if even that is before him, the heart is no exception.
ALSO GROWS
panim: Face, presence, front
פָּנִים
The word translated “before” carries the image of being at someone’s face or in their presence.
lifnei: Before, in the presence of
לִפְנֵי
This is the form used in the verse: even Sheol and Abaddon stand within the LORD’s presence.
אֲבַדּוֹן
Abaddon
GROWS FROM
אבד
abad
Perish, be lost; lose the way.
Abaddon grows from אבד (abad, “perish, be lost”), the same seed as words for perishing and loss. What English renders as “destruction” carries that root sense of loss, and the verse places even this domain before the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
abad: Perish, be lost
אָבַד
The verb exposes the seed inside Abaddon: destruction is bound to perishing and loss.
avedah: Loss, lost thing
אֲבֵדָה
This branch shows the same root naming loss itself; even loss lies before the LORD.
THE PATTERN
No depth or inward place lies beyond the LORD’s sight; what is hidden is already open before him.
The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.THE THREAD
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.The Hebrew word שְׁאוֹל (Sheol, the realm of the dead) is the word translated “hell” in Psalm 139:8. Proverbs says even Sheol is before the LORD; the psalm makes that nearness personal, placing the speaker there within God’s presence.
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