What Does Proverbs 19:26 Mean in the King James?
He that wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother, is a son that causeth shame, and bringeth reproach.
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 portrays the son as a ravager who makes his mother flee, then names the resulting disgrace twice.
THE MEANING
When a child ruins a father’s well-being and drives a mother away, the verse calls that harm shame and reproach. Its words still name the damage wherever a parent is despoiled or forced out.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief is that ruinous treatment of a parent is only a private dispute or can be dismissed as harmless. The proverb names it as shame and reproach.
THE ROOT
מְשַׁדֵּד
meshadded
GROWS FROM
שׁדד
To devastate, despoil, or ravage.
“wasteth” in this verse is meshadded. The verb carries the force of stripping or ruining, more than simply wasting something. The verse depicts harm done to the father as an act of ravaging.
ALSO GROWS
shod: Devastation or plunder.
שֹׁד
This branch makes the destructive force in “wasteth” visible: the father is being despoiled.
shoded: A plunderer or ravager.
שֹׁדֵד
The shared root turns the act into a portrait of the son as one who ravages.
יַבְרִיחַ
yavriaḥ
GROWS FROM
ברח
To flee or escape; in this causative form, to make someone flee.
“chaseth away” in this verse is yavriaḥ. The verb says more than that the mother leaves: the son makes her flee. Another word from this root, בְּרִיחַ (beriaḥ), means a bar or bolt, an echo of exclusion alongside the forced departure.
ALSO GROWS
baraḥ: To flee or escape.
בָּרַח
This is the basic action the son’s causative verb forces upon his mother.
beriaḥ: A bar or bolt.
בְּרִיחַ
This related word lends a concrete echo of a closed way or exclusion to the mother being driven away.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats a child’s ruinous or rejecting treatment of a parent as a breach of family honor with real consequences.
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer.Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)THE THREAD
He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.Both verses use מֵבִישׁ (mevish), “one who causes shame,” for the son. Proverbs 10:5 applies that same shame-making word to neglect; here it names the result of ravaging and driving away.
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