What Does Proverbs 15:19 Mean in the King James?
The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain.
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 “plain” way is pictured as a road raised into a prepared route, while sloth is pictured as an enclosure of thorns.
THE MEANING
Your way takes shape in the present: sluggishness meets a thorn hedge, while uprightness is paired with a route made passable. The verse pictures clarity not as untouched ground, but as a course brought into shape.
THE ROOT
סְלֻלָה
selulah
GROWS FROM
סלל
s-l-l
To raise or build up a road; to cast up a route.
The word translated “made plain” belongs to a root that can picture a road being raised or built up. The way is not merely empty of obstacles; it is a prepared route.
ALSO GROWS
mesillah: Highway; a raised or prepared road.
מְסִלָּה
This is the same root in Isaiah’s image of a highway prepared through the wilderness.
sollu: Cast up; build up a highway.
סֹלּוּ
The verb makes the road-building image explicit: a passable way is raised into shape.
יְשָׁרִים
yesharim
GROWS FROM
ישר
y-sh-r
To be straight, level, or upright.
“righteous” in this verse is yesharim. This word carries uprightness and straightness together. The people are called upright, while related forms describe what is straight or level, giving their way a path-shaped dimension beside the separate image of a road raised up.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: Straight; upright.
יָשָׁר
This form holds the moral and spatial senses together, as the verse pairs upright people with a passable way.
mishor: Level ground; a plain.
מִישׁוֹר
This related form shows how the root can describe a level surface as well as uprightness.
THE PATTERN
A way becomes passable when it is prepared and straightened into a clear course.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.THE THREAD
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.Isaiah brings the two roots in this proverb together: “make straight” comes from ישר, and “highway” comes from סלל. The pairing reveals the upright way as a course both straightened and raised into shape.
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