What Does Proverbs 19:7 Mean in the King James?

All the brethren of the poor do hate him: how much more do his friends go far from him? he pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him.

Proverbs 19:7 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Poverty becomes a geography: friends grow distant, and the poor person is left doing all the pursuing.

THE MEANING

When you have little, even kin can hate you and friends can withdraw; this verse names that betrayal plainly. You may still reach after them with words while their presence remains absent.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that enough pleading can close a distance other people choose to keep.

THE ROOT

רָחֲקוּ

raḥăqû

GROWS FROM

רחק

to be far away or distant

“go far from him” in this verse is raḥăqû. The line makes rejection spatial: the friends have moved far away. Then the poor person is the one pursuing them, leaving all the motion with the one already made poor.

ALSO GROWS

rāḥōq: far, distant

רָחוֹק

This adjective names the distance the friends enter when they withdraw.

hirḥîq: to put far away, remove

הִרְחִיק

This form of the same root can describe making something distant, giving the friends’ withdrawal a spatial force.

THE PATTERN

When vulnerability strips away social protection, companionship can turn into distance, leaving the exposed person reaching after those who withdraw.

The poor is hated even of his own neighbour: but the rich hath many friends.

Proverbs 14:20 · KJVMaterial need exposes how sharply social regard can shift with a person’s means.

My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.

Psalm 38:11 · KJVThe speaker’s bodily suffering is met by friends and family keeping their distance.

At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.

2 Timothy 4:16 · KJVA person left exposed describes the loneliness of having no one stand beside him.

THE THREAD

My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.

Psalm 38:11 · KJV

The Hebrew uses the same distance-root here: friends and kin stand far from the speaker’s wound. Proverbs locates that distance around poverty; the psalm places it around bodily pain, showing how abandonment gathers around vulnerability.

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