What Does Proverbs 21:5 Mean in the King James?
The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want.
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
Plenty is the margin that remains when plans are carried with care; haste tends to leave a shortage.
THE MEANING
The verse names a present pattern: plans carried with diligence tend toward surplus, while rushing tends toward shortage. Plenty is practical margin, what remains available, and “want” here is lack, not merely desire.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that moving faster is the surest way to have more: haste can produce lack, while considered work tends toward surplus.
THE ROOT
מַחְשְׁבוֹת
machashavot
GROWS FROM
חשב
To think, reckon, or devise.
The word translated “thoughts” is machashavot, from a root that also carries reckoning and design. These are not only private ideas; they are plans worked through, which the verse connects with what can accumulate.
ALSO GROWS
chashav: To think, reckon, or devise.
חָשַׁב
The verb shows that these thoughts can be active planning, not passing ideas.
cheshbon: An account or reckoning.
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
This branch brings calculation into the root, fitting the verse’s contrast between considered plans and haste.
machashavah: A thought, plan, or design.
מַחֲשָׁבָה
The singular form makes the design within the plural “thoughts” visible.
מוֹתָר
motar
GROWS FROM
יתר
To remain, be left over, or have excess.
The word translated “plenteousness” means surplus or remainder. Abundance here is what remains available; the verse sets that margin against the shortage named at its close.
ALSO GROWS
yether: Remainder or surplus.
יֶתֶר
This related word makes clear that plenty can mean what is left over.
yithron: Advantage or profit.
יִתְרוֹן
This branch shows how what remains can become a gain or advantage.
מַחְסוֹר
machsor
GROWS FROM
חסר
To lack, be missing, or be deficient.
“Want” here names shortage, not simply desire. Its root sets what is missing directly against the surplus that remains, giving the verse a concrete contrast between lack and margin.
ALSO GROWS
chaser: Lacking or deficient.
חָסֵר
This form describes the state of having something missing.
chesron: Lack or deficiency.
חֶסְרוֹן
This noun makes the shortage in the verse’s ending explicit.
THE PATTERN
Considered plans and sustained effort tend to preserve a surplus, while haste and slackness tend toward lack.
He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?THE THREAD
A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.“Deviseth” comes from the same root, חשב (chashav), as “thoughts” in Proverbs 21:5. One verse shows a way being designed; the other shows how such considered plans tend toward surplus when carried with diligence.
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