What Does Proverbs 20:18 Mean in the King James?
Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.
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 purpose becomes firm through counsel, and even war is entered by deliberate guidance, not impulse.
THE MEANING
Your plans take shape through counsel, and consequential action, including conflict, requires deliberate guidance. The verse locates a plan’s steadiness in the process of seeking advice, not in intention alone.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a strong intention or force of will is enough to make a plan sound.
THE ROOT
מַחֲשָׁבוֹת
machashavot
GROWS FROM
חשב
chashav
to think, reckon, or devise
The word translated “purpose” carries the sense of thoughts or plans: something devised, not a guaranteed outcome. Its connection to chashav, “to reckon” or “devise,” shows plans as thoughts being worked out, and the verse says counsel is how they become firm.
ALSO GROWS
chashav: to think, reckon, or devise
חָשַׁב
The verb shows that a purpose begins as a thought being formed or worked out.
machashavah: a thought or plan
מַחֲשָׁבָה
This singular form makes the link between a purpose and a considered plan visible.
תִּכּוֹן
tikkon
GROWS FROM
כון
kun
to be set firm, established, or prepared
“established” in this verse is tikkon. Kun carries the sense of being set in place or made firm. The verse presents a purpose as something that gains stability through counsel, rather than something made sound by intention alone.
ALSO GROWS
hekin: to prepare or make ready
הֵכִין
Preparation is another way this root brings something into a settled state.
makhon: a fixed place or foundation
מָכוֹן
A foundation gives a plan a place to stand, echoing the firmness described here.
עֵצָה
etsah
GROWS FROM
יעץ
ya'ats
to advise or counsel
The noun for counsel belongs to the word-family of advising and advisers. Counsel is guidance voiced through another person, the relational process through which a plan finds its footing.
ALSO GROWS
ya'ats: to advise or counsel
יָעַץ
The verb names the act that gives counsel its substance.
yo'ets: an adviser or counselor
יוֹעֵץ
The adviser makes clear that counsel arrives through a person, not merely as an abstract quality.
THE PATTERN
Plans gain firmness through counsel, and consequential action is preceded by deliberate assessment.
Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?THE THREAD
Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.The Hebrew behind “counsellors” comes from ya’ats, the same advising word-family as etsah, “counsel,” in this verse. The shared root makes the mechanism explicit: purposes become established through advice given by advisers.
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