What Does Proverbs 15:5 Mean in the King James?
A fool despiseth his father’s instruction: but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.
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 wise person does not merely notice correction; the Hebrew says they keep watch over it, letting reproof become the ground of prudence.
THE MEANING
Your response to correction is already shaping your judgment: what you despise cannot form you, while what you keep in view can make you discerning. The verse presents wisdom as something formed through relationship, not a status protected from challenge.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that wisdom means being beyond correction: here, the prudent person is the one who keeps reproof.
THE ROOT
מוּסָר
musar
GROWS FROM
יסר
To discipline, correct, or train.
מוּסָר (musar, instruction or discipline) carries correction within the idea of teaching. The father’s instruction is formative: the fool despises the very shaping that can give wisdom.
ALSO GROWS
yasar: To discipline, admonish, or correct.
יָסַר
The verb shows the active shaping through correction beneath the word for instruction.
musar: Discipline, correction, or instruction.
מוּסָר
This word holds instruction and the discomfort of correction together in the verse.
שֹׁמֵר
shomer
GROWS FROM
שמר
To keep, watch, or guard.
שֹׁמֵר (shomer, keeping or guarding) gives “regardeth” a watchful, retaining sense: correction stays in view instead of being dismissed. Set against despiseth, this makes prudence a way of handling correction rather than a natural superiority.
ALSO GROWS
shamar: To keep, guard, or watch.
שָׁמַר
This verb makes the act behind “regardeth” concrete: reproof is kept rather than cast aside.
mishmeret: A watch, charge, or guard duty.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch carries the sense of something entrusted to one’s care, echoing the verse’s picture of keeping correction.
תּוֹכַחַת
tokhechat
GROWS FROM
יכח
To correct, reprove, or decide a dispute.
תּוֹכַחַת (tokhechat, reproof or correction) is more than a vague feeling of disapproval; it is correction that brings something into the open. The verse pairs it with שֹׁמֵר (shomer, keeping or guarding), showing prudence as retaining correction long enough for it to expose what needs shaping.
ALSO GROWS
yakach: To rebuke, correct, or argue a case.
יָכַח
The verb’s corrective force shows that reproof addresses something specific, not merely the person receiving it.
tokhechah: Rebuke or correction.
תּוֹכֵחָה
This related form confirms the root’s recurring link between reproof and correction.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom takes shape when instruction and correction are received and retained.
My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish.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
My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:Proverbs 3:11 uses the same Hebrew words מוּסָר (musar, instruction or discipline) and תּוֹכַחַת (tokhechat, reproof or correction) at the heart of this verse. Together they show instruction and correction as one formative current, the contrast is whether it is despised or kept.
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