What Does Proverbs 18:11 Mean in the King James?
The rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and as an high wall in his own conceit.
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 word for “high” shares its root with “safe” in the verse just before it: security is pictured as being beyond reach.
THE MEANING
When wealth feels like protection, the mind can picture it as a city no threat can breach. The verse locates that wall “in his own conceit”, in the rich man’s image of safety. Feeling fortified does not mean nothing can reach you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that having enough money makes you unreachable: a wall can feel like a fortress while remaining an image of safety.
THE ROOT
נִשְׂגָּבָה
nisgavah
GROWS FROM
שׂגב
To be high, lifted beyond reach, or inaccessible.
The word translated “high” shares a root with the word rendered “safe” in Proverbs 18:10: safety is pictured as being raised beyond reach. The same root also names a refuge, so the rich man’s wealth is imagined as shelter inside his own picture of security.
ALSO GROWS
venisgav: Set high, inaccessible; rendered “is safe” in Proverbs 18:10.
וְנִשְׂגָּב
The same root links being beyond reach with being safe, revealing what the wall seems to promise.
misgav: A high place, refuge, or stronghold.
מִשְׂגָּב
This branch names elevation as shelter, showing that the rich man sees wealth not only as valuable but as a place of refuge.
THE PATTERN
Where wealth becomes a refuge, scripture exposes the gap between confidence in possessions and actual safety.
They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;THE THREAD
The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.Proverbs 18:10 uses the same root, שׂגב, for the one who runs into the LORD’s name, his nature, and “is safe,” or set high beyond reach. Side by side, the verses place that refuge beside the rich man’s wall, which stands in his own image.
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