What Does Proverbs 24:2 Mean in the King James?
For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief.
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 verb translated “studieth” also describes meditation and a lion’s growl: destructive speech begins as a murmur the heart keeps turning over.
THE MEANING
The verse shows a present pattern: the heart keeps rehearsing destruction, and the lips give that inward rehearsal a voice. What is repeatedly entertained within finds its way into what others hear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that destructive speech begins only when words are spoken; the verse locates its rehearsal already in the heart.
THE ROOT
יֶהְגֶּה
yehgeh
GROWS FROM
הגה
הגה (h-g-h; hagah) means to murmur or mutter, and can describe meditating, uttering, or growling.
The English “studieth” can sound like quiet, detached thought, but hagah carries the sound of something being murmured and repeated. The same verb can describe a heart rehearsing destruction, a person meditating day and night, or a lion growling over its prey: the hidden link is what the inner voice keeps voicing.
ALSO GROWS
yehgeh: Meditates day and night.
יֶהְגֶּה
The same verb describes inward rehearsal; what fills the meditation gives it a different direction.
yehgu: The people imagine a vain thing.
יֶהְגּוּ
The verse uses this root for a shared scheme turning over in people’s minds, echoing the destructive rehearsal here.
yehgeh: A lion growls over its prey.
יֶהְגֶּה
This sound-bearing branch brings out the force in the word: the heart’s rehearsal is not idle reflection but something charged and ready to emerge.
THE PATTERN
What the heart repeatedly rehearses supplies the words the mouth brings into the open.
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.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
But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.The same verb, yehgeh (יֶהְגֶּה), describes meditation in this verse and in Proverbs 24:2. The shared word reveals that the inner murmur can turn in different directions according to what fills it.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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