What Does Proverbs 18:16 Mean in the King James?
A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.
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 gift is not only what leaves your hand; it can widen your way into another’s presence.
THE MEANING
A gift creates room around the giver, opening a path into the presence of people with influence. What is given outward can also widen the giver’s own access.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what leaves your hand only diminishes you: here, giving can widen your way and bring you into influential company.
THE ROOT
יַרְחִיב
yarchiv
GROWS FROM
רחב
rachav
To widen or make spacious.
The verb translated “maketh room” carries the sense of widening space. The gift opens a path by enlarging the giver’s room to move toward others.
ALSO GROWS
yarchiv: He enlarges, widens, makes room.
יַרְחִיב
This is the verb behind “maketh room,” so the gift’s effect is a widening of the giver’s space.
merchav: An open or spacious place.
מֶרְחָב
This noun names the open space made by the same root, giving a concrete image of the room the gift creates.
מַתָּן
mattan
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
To give, set, or place.
The gift is an act of giving made into something tangible; its root also carries the sense of setting or placing. Read beside the widening verb, it is something placed that creates room for the giver.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The root makes the gift’s movement visible: something is given or placed into another person’s hands.
mattanah: A gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This related form keeps the same root in view, showing the object as something defined by being given.
THE PATTERN
A gift can alter the path between giver and recipient, making approach or access possible.
And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me.And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord.He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him.THE THREAD
Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;The Hebrew behind “Enlarge” is רחב (rachav, widen or make spacious), the same root behind “maketh room” in Proverbs 18:16. Here that widening appears as an expanded tent, making the spatial force beneath “room” visible.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us