What Does Proverbs 2:1 Mean in the King James?
My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
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
Wisdom begins when words are received and kept as treasure within you.
THE MEANING
Wisdom meets you as words you receive and instruction you keep close. What you store within remains with you, shaping how you see and respond.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that instruction stays external information: the words become yours as you receive and keep them within.
THE ROOT
תִּצְפֹּן
titzpon
GROWS FROM
צפן
tsaphan
To hide, store up, or treasure.
The verb holds concealment and safekeeping together, so “hide” can carry the sense of treasuring a word inwardly. The verse pictures commandments kept close as a living possession, carried within you.
ALSO GROWS
tsaphan: To hide, store up, treasure.
צָפַן
This verb’s sense of storing something valuable deepens the image of keeping the commandments with you.
tsafun: Hidden, stored away.
צָפוּן
This related form describes what is kept concealed, echoing the commandments held close within you.
תִּקַּח
tiqqach
GROWS FROM
לקח
laqach
To take, receive, or grasp.
“receive” in this verse is tiqqach. The verse uses an active verb of taking in. The same root forms a word for instruction, so learning is pictured as something received and made one’s own.
ALSO GROWS
laqach: To take or receive.
לָקַח
This verb shows that receiving the words involves taking them in.
leqaḥ: Instruction, learning.
לֶקַח
This related noun connects receiving the words with the instruction they carry.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom grows as received words are carried inward until they shape the life.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.THE THREAD
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.The verb translated “hid” shares צפן (tsaphan, “to hide or store up”) with “hide” in Proverbs 2:1. Psalm 119 makes the inward keeping explicit: the word is stored in the heart and shapes the speaker’s path.
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