What Does Proverbs 21:4 Mean in the King James?
An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.
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 calls the lifted gaze, the self-enlarged heart, and the wicked person’s work one and the same miss.
THE MEANING
When your gaze rises above others and your heart swells with self-importance, that posture reaches into what you cultivate. The verse names the whole pattern sin: a missing of the mark that begins in how you see and extends into what you do.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that productive work is automatically good: the plowing of the wicked receives the same verdict as the high look and proud heart.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאת
ḥaṭṭāʾt
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss, err, or fall short.
“sin” in this verse is ḥaṭṭāʾt. The verdict reaches beyond a single bad act: חַטָּאת grows from חטא, to miss. The raised gaze, enlarged heart, and wicked person’s labor are gathered under one name because each departs from right measure.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss, err, or sin.
חָטָא
This verb reveals the movement inside the verse’s verdict: the posture and work miss their mark.
ḥēṭʾ: A miss, error, or sin.
חֵטְא
This noun keeps the idea of missing visible beneath the familiar English word “sin.”
רְחַב־לֵב
reḥav-lev
GROWS FROM
רחב
To be broad, wide, or spacious.
The proud heart is pictured as a broad heart, one that has expanded itself. The same root can describe a broad place or making room; beside the high gaze here, that breadth becomes self-enlargement.
ALSO GROWS
hirḥiv: To make wide or enlarge.
הִרְחִיב
The verb makes the image active: the heart’s breadth is an expansion of the self.
reḥov: A broad place or open square.
רְחֹב
The same root can name open space; here the neighboring high look shows that the heart’s breadth is turned toward self-exaltation.
רוּם עֵינַיִם
rûm ʿênayim
GROWS FROM
רום
To rise, be high, or exalt.
“high look” in this verse is rûm ʿênayim. The eyes are described through elevation: the gaze itself is raised. Pride becomes visible in the way a person looks before it is spoken aloud.
ALSO GROWS
rām: High or exalted.
רָם
It carries the same height that shapes the image of the elevated gaze.
romēm: To lift up or exalt.
רוֹמֵם
This branch makes the upward movement explicit: the gaze lifts the self above its measure.
THE PATTERN
Self-exaltation puts the inner posture and its work out of measure.
Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.THE THREAD
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.Both verses use חַטָּאת (ḥaṭṭāʾt), meaning “sin” or “missing.” Genesis gives this miss the image of something at the door; Proverbs names the lifted gaze, expanded heart, and wicked labor as already belonging to that same field.
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