What Does Proverbs 16:25 Mean in the King James?
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
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 path can look straight at the start and still carry the reader toward death.
THE MEANING
A course can look straight by human measure and still lead to death. Its apparent rightness at the outset does not reveal where it goes; the destination is part of the path’s truth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If a course looks right to me, its outcome must be good.
THE ROOT
דֶּרֶךְ
derekh
GROWS FROM
דרך
darak
To tread or step.
English makes “way” sound like an abstract route, while its Hebrew root also means to tread. The way is a course being walked, and this verse sets its destination against how straight it appears.
ALSO GROWS
darak: To tread, step, or walk.
דָּרַךְ
The verb gives the way its rooted image: a path is a course of steps.
derekh: A road, way, or course.
דֶּרֶךְ
The noun names the course whose apparent straightness is tested by its end.
יָשָׁר
yashar
GROWS FROM
ישר
yashar
To be straight or level.
The word rendered “right” also carries the sense of being straight or level. The verse places that apparent straightness “before a man,” showing that what looks level from one’s perspective can still lead somewhere deadly.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: To be straight, level, or upright.
יָשַׁר
This verb shares the verse’s image of a course that appears straight.
meysharim: Uprightness, equity, or straightness.
מֵישָׁרִים
This noun shows how the same root can name straightness as a quality.
mishor: A level place or plain.
מִישׁוֹר
The level-ground sense makes the verse’s image of apparent rightness more concrete.
אַחֲרִיתָהּ
acharitah
GROWS FROM
אחר
achar
After or behind; what comes later.
The Hebrew word for “end” belongs to a root that also means “after.” The verse turns attention to what follows the first impression: the later outcome reveals what the course is carrying toward.
ALSO GROWS
achar: After or behind.
אַחַר
This basic form makes the root’s sense of what follows explicit.
acharon: Later, last, or afterward.
אַחֲרוֹן
This branch carries the same root sense of what comes after or at the end.
THE PATTERN
A path’s character is disclosed by where it leads, not by how straight it looks at the start.
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:THE THREAD
For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.Psalm 1:6 uses the same Hebrew word, derekh, for the way of the righteous and the way that perishes. It makes the test in this verse visible: the course is known by where it arrives.
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