What Does Proverbs 20:14 Mean in the King James?

It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.

Proverbs 20:14 · 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.

THE KEY

The buyer’s “bad, bad” is bargaining speech; his boast appears once the seller is gone.

THE MEANING

The repeated dismissal is strategic speech: once the buyer is away, he boasts about what he has obtained. His private celebration reveals that his public judgment serves the transaction, not a settled appraisal.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie is that the buyer’s public dismissal is an honest measure of the thing’s worth; his later boast exposes how that judgment serves his advantage.

THE ROOT

הַקּוֹנֶה

haqqoneh

GROWS FROM

קנה

qanah

Acquire, get, possess.

“buyer” in this verse is haqqoneh. The root holds buying together with the wider acts of getting and possessing. English names him by his role in a sale; Hebrew names him by what he is doing: acquiring.

ALSO GROWS

qaniti: I have acquired or obtained.

קָנִיתִי

The same root describes what Eve has obtained, showing that its reach extends beyond commerce to getting more broadly.

qanani: Possessed or acquired me.

קָנָנִי

This branch makes the buyer’s identity as an acquirer visible: the word carries the sense of taking something into one’s possession.

יִתְהַלֵּל

yithallel

GROWS FROM

הלל

halal

Praise, acclaim, boast.

“boasteth” in this verse is yithallel. The verb belongs to the same root as praise. After calling the thing bad, the buyer turns to acclaiming his acquisition once he is away from the seller.

ALSO GROWS

halelu: Praise or acclaim.

הַלְלוּ

The root commonly names praise; here its self-directed form makes the buyer’s private celebration audible.

tehillah: Praise or a song of praise.

תְּהִלָּה

The noun shows the same root naming praise itself, linking the buyer’s boast to an act of acclaim.

THE PATTERN

When desire for gain controls judgment, speech and measures can be bent to disguise what someone values.

A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.

Proverbs 11:1 · KJVThe false balance makes the measure serve private advantage instead of giving an honest account.

Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

Amos 8:5 · KJVThe sellers shrink the measure and inflate the price, bending the terms of exchange toward gain.

For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness:

1 Thessalonians 2:5 · KJVThis verse names flattering speech as a possible cover for covetousness, joining language to hidden motive.

THE THREAD

And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.

Genesis 4:1 · KJV

The word translated “gotten” is ⁨קָנִיתִי⁩ (qaniti, “I have gotten”), from the same root as “buyer.” That shared root names acquisition beyond a purchase, bringing the buyer’s defining act into focus: what he obtains.

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