What Does Proverbs 24:23 Mean in the King James?
These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment.
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 first distortion in judgment happens when the face weighs more than the case.
THE MEANING
This verse names a live pressure inside every decision: a person’s face, name, or standing can start to outweigh the matter being judged. Wisdom keeps the measure on the case, so the same matter does not become heavier or lighter when a different person stands before it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a familiar or influential face makes a case more deserving of a favorable judgment.
THE ROOT
הַכֵּר פָּנִים
haker panim
GROWS FROM
נכר
To recognize, acknowledge, or distinguish.
“respect of persons” in this verse is haker panim. The phrase literally pictures “recognizing faces,” and its force here is partiality: letting recognition of a person shape the decision. The same root appears in words for recognizing someone and for a stranger, linking recognition with the way identity can sort people as familiar or other.
ALSO GROWS
hikkir: Recognize or acknowledge.
הִכִּיר
The decision is distorted when recognition of who someone is starts to affect how their case is weighed.
nokri: A stranger or foreigner.
נָכְרִי
This branch shows how identity can mark someone as an outsider before the matter itself is considered.
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge, decide, or govern.
The verse’s judgment is a decision about a case, not only a private opinion. Joined to “recognizing faces,” the root locates the distortion where someone’s identity changes the outcome.
ALSO GROWS
shafat: Judge or render a decision.
שָׁפַט
The verb points to the act of deciding that must remain steady across different people.
shofet: A judge or one who decides.
שֹׁפֵט
The decision-maker’s role is to weigh the case rather than the standing of the person before them.
THE PATTERN
Just judgment gives the case the same weight regardless of the face of the person before it.
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.THE THREAD
Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.Proverbs uses הַכֵּר פָּנִים (haker panim, “recognizing faces”); Deuteronomy repeats the same Hebrew phrase in its warning against partiality. Together they reveal the pressure clearly: a person’s identity must not tilt the ruling.
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