What Does Proverbs 23:23 Mean in the King James?
Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
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
Truth is treated as a possession whose value lies in keeping it joined with wisdom, correction, and discernment.
THE MEANING
This verse treats truth as something the reader acquires and keeps, not merely a statement the reader agrees with. Wisdom, instruction, and understanding stand beside it as ways of seeing clearly and being shaped by what is true. Its warning names the loss plainly: what is received as valuable can still be traded away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that truth is disposable once it becomes inconvenient or costly.
THE ROOT
אֱמֶת
ʾĕmet
GROWS FROM
אמן
To be firm, reliable, or trustworthy.
אֱמֶת (ʾĕmet, truth) belongs to the family of words for what is firm and dependable. The verse presents truth as something sturdy enough to acquire and keep, alongside wisdom and discernment.
ALSO GROWS
amen: Firm; sure; truly.
אָמֵן
Its shared root gives truth the sense of something that can be affirmed as reliable.
emunah: Trust; steadiness; leaning your full weight on.
אֱמוּנָה
This branch shows the root’s movement from what is dependable to the trust placed in it.
קְנֵה
qĕnēh
GROWS FROM
קנה
To acquire, gain, or possess.
The word translated “buy” carries the broader sense of acquiring and possessing. The verse’s market image therefore points to truth as something gained and held, not simply encountered in passing.
ALSO GROWS
qanah: To acquire, buy, or possess.
קָנָה
This verb names the act behind “buy”: truth is gained as something to hold.
miqneh: Possessions, property, or livestock.
מִקְנֶה
This noun shows the root’s use for acquired goods, sharpening the verse’s image of truth as wealth.
בִּינָה
bīnāh
GROWS FROM
בין
Between; to distinguish or discern.
Understanding grows from a root associated with what lies “between”: the capacity to perceive distinctions. The verse pairs truth with this discerning sight, so the valued possession includes the ability to recognize what is true.
ALSO GROWS
bein: Between; among.
בֵּין
The basic sense points to noticing distinctions, an essential part of understanding.
hevin: To understand, perceive, or discern.
הֵבִין
This verb makes understanding an active seeing that distinguishes, rather than a store of information.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats its deepest goods as possessions worth acquiring, with a value that exceeds their price.
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.THE THREAD
Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.The word behind “get” here is קנה (qanah, acquire or possess), the same root rendered “buy” in Proverbs 23:23. Proverbs 4:5 applies that acquisition language to wisdom and understanding, placing them alongside truth in one field of what is worth gaining and keeping.
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