What Does Proverbs 23:18 Mean in the King James?

For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

Proverbs 23:18 · 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

The “end” here is an afterward still waiting to arrive, and the hope reaching toward it remains unsevered.

THE MEANING

Your present does not contain the whole story: what comes afterward remains open, and your hope is not cut off. Even when something feels final, that feeling does not decide what is still ahead.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie this verse undoes is that delay or interruption proves the future is gone for good.

THE ROOT

אַחֲרִית

acharit

GROWS FROM

אחר

After, behind; what follows.

Acharit names what comes after, the later portion or outcome, so “end” can hold a future in view rather than merely a stop. The verse places that afterward beside expectancy: what lies ahead remains open.

ALSO GROWS

achar: After, behind.

אַחַר

This basic sense shows that the “end” is what follows.

acharon: Last, latter.

אַחֲרוֹן

This branch carries the sense of what comes later, giving the verse’s “end” a forward-facing dimension.

תִּקְוָה

tiqvah

GROWS FROM

קוה

To wait for, hope for, or expect.

Tiqvah grows from a root of waiting and expectation, joining hope to an orientation toward what is still coming. The English “expectation” can sound like a thought; the root carries the waiting that holds that thought open.

ALSO GROWS

qovey: Those who wait or hope.

קוֹיֵי

Isaiah uses this form for those waiting for the LORD, showing the same root as an active orientation toward what is ahead.

qivviti: I wait or hope.

קִוִּיתִי

This first-person form in Psalm 130:5 shows hope as something held through waiting.

תִּכָּרֵת

tikkaret

GROWS FROM

כרת

To cut or sever.

“cut off” in this verse is tikkaret. The closing image is one of severance: expectancy is not cut away from the future. The same root appears in the phrase “cut a covenant,” so its reach includes a binding relation as well as a cutting; here, the promise is that hope is not severed.

ALSO GROWS

karat berit: Cut a covenant.

כָּרַת בְּרִית

This phrase shows the root used for establishing a binding relation, adding depth to the verse’s image of what is or is not severed.

yikkaret: Be cut down or cut off.

יִכָּרֵת

Job uses this form for a tree cut down, yet its hope remains.

THE PATTERN

Hope can wait through an apparent ending because the future remains open.

Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.

Psalm 37:37 · KJVThe word for “end” carries the same sense of what comes afterward, and that later outcome is named as wholeness.

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31 · KJVThe word for “wait” grows from the same root as “expectation,” showing hope carried through waiting into renewed strength.

And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Romans 5:5 · KJVHope remains intact rather than ending in shame, held alongside the love poured into the heart.

THE THREAD

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

Job 14:7 · KJV

Job uses tiqvah, the same Hebrew word for “hope,” and the same karat root behind “cut off” for the tree being cut down. The image makes the claim visible: a severing can be real without being the final word over what can still rise.

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