What Does Proverbs 21:28 Mean in the King James?
A false witness shall perish: but the man that heareth speaketh constantly.
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 verse makes lasting speech a fruit of hearing: the false witness is lost, while the hearer keeps speaking.
THE MEANING
The false witness is headed toward loss; the one who hears speaks into lastingness. This is true now: speech that begins in attentive reception carries a durability that fabrication cannot claim.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Confident speech is not the same as lasting truth: false testimony can sound forceful and still be the thing that disappears.
THE ROOT
שֹׁמֵעַ
shomea
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen, heed, and respond.
“heareth” in this verse is shomea. The word for the hearer belongs to a root that can carry responsive listening, not just sound entering the ear. The verse connects speech that lasts with hearing at its source.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This branch shows the active sense of hearing that frames the lasting speaker.
shemuah: A report; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
A report begins as something received, echoing the verse’s movement from hearing to speech.
יֹאבַד
yōʾvad
GROWS FROM
א־ב־ד
ʾ-b-d
To be lost or perish.
“perish” in this verse is yōʾvad. The root holds both perishing and becoming lost. The false witness does not endure; the verse pictures that witness ending in loss.
ALSO GROWS
oved: One perishing; one who is lost.
אֹבֵד
This form appears in the description of one on the verge of perishing, making loss part of the root’s concrete sense.
avedah: A lost thing or lost property.
אֲבֵדָה
The branch makes clear that this root can describe what has gone missing, not only death.
יְדַבֵּר
yedabber
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak or declare; word or matter.
“speaketh” in this verse is yedabber. The verb for speaking shares its root with a word for both “word” and “matter.” The hearer’s speech is presented as something with substance and staying power.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This branch lets speech carry the sense of something substantial, fitting the verse’s lasting words.
dibber: Spoke; declared.
דִּבֵּר
This verb form shares the root of the hearer’s enduring speech.
THE PATTERN
Words grounded in what is true endure, while false testimony loses its footing.
The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment.So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.THE THREAD
He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.The Hebrew verb behind “heareth” in both verses comes from שמע (shama, hear and respond). There, answering before hearing ends in folly; here, speech that follows hearing is the speech that endures.
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