What Does Proverbs 17:5 Mean in the King James?
Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.
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 Hebrew behind “unpunished” also means “cleared”: delight in another’s calamity leaves the delighted person unable to stand clear.
THE MEANING
When you mock someone for being poor, the insult reaches the one who made them; their poverty does not erase their place as the Maker’s handiwork. When you are glad at another person’s calamity, you do not come away clear, the verse says you are not cleared.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Poverty makes someone a fair target, and another person’s disaster is harmless to me as long as it is not mine.
THE ROOT
יִנָּקֶה
yinnāqeh
GROWS FROM
נקה
n-q-h
To be clean, clear, or free of guilt.
“unpunished” in this verse is yinnāqeh. The verse frames the consequence as not being cleared, not merely receiving a penalty. Delight in another’s calamity leaves the delighted person unable to claim innocence.
ALSO GROWS
nāqî: Clean, clear, innocent.
נָקִי
This related form makes the verse’s concern with standing clear visible beneath “unpunished.”
niqqāyôn: Cleanness, innocence.
נִקָּיוֹן
Its language of innocence echoes the question raised by taking pleasure in someone else’s ruin.
עֹשֵׂהוּ
ʿōśēhû
GROWS FROM
עשה
ʿ-ś-h
To do or make.
“Maker” is formed from the ordinary Hebrew verb for doing and making. The word keeps the mocked person connected to the one who made them: contempt directed at the person reaches their Maker.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāśâ: To do, make, or bring about.
עָשָׂה
This is the verb at the heart of “his Maker,” showing the relationship as one of making.
maʿăśeh: A work or deed.
מַעֲשֶׂה
The shared root connects the Maker with what is made, sharpening the verse’s claim that mockery of the poor reaches their Maker.
THE PATTERN
Contempt toward the poor reaches beyond them, while delight in another’s calamity leaves the delighted person unable to stand clear.
He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?THE THREAD
He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.Both verses use the root חרף (ḥ-r-p, to reproach or taunt) for the offense against the Maker, and עֹשֵׂהוּ (ʿōśēhû, his Maker) for its target. Proverbs 14:31 makes the connection even clearer by setting that reproach against honoring the Maker through mercy toward the poor.
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