What Does Proverbs 24:27 Mean in the King James?
Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house.
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 Hebrew word for building shares its root with “son,” so the house is not only shelter: it is prepared work carried forward into a life beyond itself.
THE MEANING
The verse describes a living order: work beyond the house is brought into readiness, and the house comes afterward. What supports a home is already taking shape in the open field; the structure gathers that preparation into a place to dwell and a future that can continue.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the visible house is the first proof of progress: the work sustaining it is prepared before the house rises.
THE ROOT
וּבָנִיתָ
uvanita
GROWS FROM
בנה
To build or establish.
“build” in this verse is uvanita. The same root gives בֵּן (ben, son), linking building with the one who carries a household forward, and בִּנְיָן (binyan, building or structure), what building produces. English separates house from descendants; this Hebrew word family lets building carry both a dwelling and continuity.
ALSO GROWS
ben: Son
בֵּן
Its link to the root for building gives the household a sense of what is carried forward.
binyan: Building or structure
בִּנְיָן
It names the structure made through the same act of building.
THE PATTERN
Lasting dwelling takes shape after its sustaining work and resources are brought into order.
Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established:For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?And Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders did hew them, and the stonesquarers: so they prepared timber and stones to build the house.THE THREAD
Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.Proverbs 14:1 uses the same root, בנה (banah, to build), and places wisdom inside the act of building a house. Together, the verses show the house as something made through preparation and continuing wisdom, not merely erected walls.
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