What Does Proverbs 22:2 Mean in the King James?

The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all.

Proverbs 22:2 · KJV

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

Rich and poor are not two kinds of humanity; they meet within the one making of the LORD.

THE MEANING

Having wealth or lacking it does not give you a different maker. Both stand within the LORD’s making, even while their circumstances differ.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that wealth makes someone more fully human, or poverty makes someone less, is undone: both belong to the same making.

THE ROOT

עֹשֵׂה

ʿoseh

GROWS FROM

עשה

ʿayin

Do, make, act.

“maker” in this verse is ʿoseh. The verse names the LORD as the one who makes. Since rich and poor are both within that same making, rank does not make them different kinds of humanity.

ALSO GROWS

maʿaseh: Work, deed, or act.

מַעֲשֶׂה

The maker and the work share a root, placing both people within the same act of making.

ʿasui: Made or done.

עָשׂוּי

This form names what has been made; neither wealth nor poverty changes the fact of being made.

THE PATTERN

Differences in status do not divide people into separate origins: the same maker holds them together.

Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?

Job 31:15 · KJVThe speaker places himself and another person under the same maker and the same formation.

And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

Acts 17:26 · KJVThe verse traces every nation to one making and one shared human origin.

The poor and the deceitful man meet together: the LORD lighteneth both their eyes.

Proverbs 29:13 · KJVEven people in unequal positions meet under the LORD’s care, which reaches both.

THE THREAD

Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?

Job 31:15 · KJV

The verse repeats the same making verb for both people, then says one maker fashioned them. That shared making gives Proverbs’ rich and poor a common ground deeper than their circumstances.

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