What Does Proverbs 22:18 Mean in the King James?
For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy lips.
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 mouth does not invent fitting words; what is guarded within becomes established there.
THE MEANING
Wisdom is a pleasure as it takes root within you. What is guarded there becomes established on your lips, linking your inner life with the words you speak.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that fitting speech comes from verbal polish alone; it grows from what has been kept within.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁמְרֵם
tishmerem
GROWS FROM
שמר
sh-m-r
Guard, watch over, keep.
“keep” in this verse is tishmerem. The verb carries the sense of guarded attention: this root also names a watchman and a charge entrusted to a keeper. Wisdom is pictured as something held under care within you, and those guarded words become speech.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Keeper, watchman.
שֹׁמֵר
The watchman image shows the attentiveness carried by keeping wisdom within.
mishmeret: Guard, watch, or entrusted charge.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
Wisdom held within is treated as something entrusted to your care.
יִכֹּנוּ
yikkonu
GROWS FROM
כון
k-w-n
Become firm, established, or prepared.
The verb behind “fitted” means to become established or ready. The words held within take a settled form on your lips, moving from inward keeping into stable speech.
ALSO GROWS
nakhon: Established, ready.
נָכוֹן
This branch echoes how wisdom becomes ready for speech.
makon: A fixed or established place.
מָכוֹן
The image of a settled place illuminates how the words take their place on the lips.
שְׂפָתֶיךָ
sephateka
GROWS FROM
שׂפה
s-p-h
Lip; also language or speech.
שָׂפָה (safah) means “lip” and is also the Hebrew word for “language.” The lip is named as the threshold where what is held inward becomes shared speech, so the verse’s movement from inner keeping to lips is built into the word itself.
ALSO GROWS
sefatayim: Lips.
שְׂפָתַיִם
The physical lips are where the inward words take spoken form.
safah: Language, speech.
שָׂפָה
The same Hebrew word joins the lips that speak with the language they form.
THE PATTERN
What is held within takes shape in the words and actions that come from a person.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.THE THREAD
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.Both verses use שָׁמַר (shamar, to guard or keep): wisdom is guarded within here, and the heart is guarded there. Proverbs 4:23 adds that life’s outflow comes from this interior, opening why what is kept within becomes established on the lips.
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