What Does Proverbs 22:4 Mean in the King James?
By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life.
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 honor promised here is weight, so humility before God does not make life smaller; it gives life substance.
THE MEANING
Humility and awe of the LORD stand together with riches, weight, and life. The honor in this line carries the sense of substance, so the life described is more than visible status. Abundance here holds provision, significance, and vitality together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that humility shrinks a person’s life or that awe leaves them impoverished; this verse places riches, honor, and life alongside them.
THE ROOT
כָּבוֹד
kavod
GROWS FROM
כבד
כבד (k-b-d): to be heavy or weighty; by extension, to be honored or treated as weighty.
The word translated “honour” is kavod, from a root of weight. Hebrew holds honor together with substance and significance: this verse’s honor is more than acclaim; it is a life that carries weight.
ALSO GROWS
kāvēd: heavy, weighty
כָּבֵד
This adjective makes the root’s physical sense clear: honor is linked to what has substance and weight.
kibbēd: to honor, treat as weighty
כִּבֵּד
This verb shows that honoring someone means assigning weight or significance, illuminating the kind of honor named in the verse.
עֹשֶׁר
ʿōsher
GROWS FROM
עשר
עשר (ʿ-sh-r): to be rich or become wealthy.
Riches belong to the same consonantal family as the word for a wealthy person. The verse places material abundance beside weighty honor and life, so wealth is one part of a wider fullness.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāshar: to become rich, grow wealthy
עָשַׁר
This verb shows wealth as a state that comes into being, rather than only a possession.
ʿāshîr: rich, wealthy
עָשִׁיר
This related form names a wealthy person and confirms the shared consonants ע־ש־ר across the family.
THE PATTERN
Awe and humility before God are joined to a life marked by provision, weight, and fullness.
Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.THE THREAD
O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.The Psalm’s “fear” and this verse’s “fear of the LORD” come from the Hebrew root ירא (y-r-ʾ), which carries fear and awe. Proverbs names riches, honor, and life; the Psalm names freedom from want, making abundance the shared shape of awe.
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