What Does Proverbs 15:22 Mean in the King James?
Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.
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
A purpose gains steadiness not through the planner’s certainty alone, but by passing through many counselors.
THE MEANING
Your plans can falter when they remain without counsel; they can stand more firmly when many voices help examine them. The verse presents discernment as something that takes shape between people, not only inside one mind.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that inner certainty alone is enough to make a purpose stand.
THE ROOT
תָּקוּם
taqum
GROWS FROM
קום
qûm
To rise, stand, or endure.
The word translated “established” carries the image of standing or rising: the purpose comes to stand. The root adds a bodily, visible quality to what can sound abstract in English.
ALSO GROWS
qām: Rose or stood.
קָם
This is the same standing image that gives the purpose its firmness.
hēqîm: Raised or established.
הֵקִים
This causative form shows the same root describing something being made to stand.
māqōm: Place.
מָקוֹם
The related word for place suggests a position where something stands.
מַחְשָׁבוֹת
machashavot
GROWS FROM
חשב
ḥāshab
To think, reckon, devise, or form a plan.
The Hebrew word for “purposes” belongs to the same word family as words for thought, design, and reckoning. A purpose is an inner design taking shape, and this verse shows how that design can either be frustrated or come to stand.
ALSO GROWS
machshevet: Thought, design, or plan.
מַחְשֶׁבֶת
This form makes clear that a purpose begins as a thought or design.
cheshbon: Account or reckoning.
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
The shared root links planning with weighing and reckoning, echoing the examination that counsel brings.
יוֹעֲצִים
yoʿatsim
GROWS FROM
יעץ
yāʿaṣ
To advise or counsel.
“counsellors” in this verse is yoʿatsim. The counselors are people actively giving counsel, not merely adding more voices to a room. The word family connects the person who advises with the advice itself, so counsel is a shared act that helps a plan take shape.
ALSO GROWS
yāʿaṣ: To advise or counsel.
יָעַץ
The verb names the act the counselors bring to the purpose.
ʿēṣāh: Advice or counsel.
עֵצָה
This noun names the counsel itself, linking it directly to the counselors who offer it.
THE PATTERN
A purpose gains steadiness when counsel tests and shapes it beyond a single mind.
Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;THE THREAD
Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.The Hebrew word rendered “thoughts” here is מַחְשָׁבוֹת (machashavot), from the same root חשב (ḥāshab) as “purposes” in Proverbs 15:22. Both verses show inner plans coming to stand, while this one adds committed work as another ground for their steadiness.
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