What Does Proverbs 26:17 Mean in the King James?
He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.
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 uses the same root for “passeth” and “meddleth,” revealing meddling as a crossing into a quarrel that is not yours.
THE MEANING
When you enter a dispute that does not belong to you, you cross into its danger, like taking hold of a dog by the ears. The verse shows how a passing encounter can become a painful entanglement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that stepping into someone else’s quarrel is harmless simply because you mean to intervene.
THE ROOT
מִתְעַבֵּר
mit'abber
GROWS FROM
עבר
ʿavar
to pass over, cross, or go beyond
The words translated “passeth” and “meddleth” both grow from עבר, so Hebrew links passing by with crossing into the conflict. The English separates those motions; the shared root reveals the boundary-crossing inside the intervention.
ALSO GROWS
ʿover: passing by or crossing over
עֹבֵר
This is the verse’s opening word, from the same root as “meddleth”; together they trace a move from passing a dispute to entering it.
ʿever: the other side, beyond or across
עֵבֶר
This branch carries the root’s sense of crossing to the far side, illuminating how meddling takes someone beyond the boundary of a quarrel that is not theirs.
THE PATTERN
Crossing into another person’s conflict can draw you into its harm.
It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling.And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.THE THREAD
A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.The word translated “rageth” is מִתְעַבֵּר (mit’abber), the same Hebrew form translated “meddleth” here. The shared word reveals the heat inside the meddling: crossing into another’s quarrel can mean becoming inflamed by it.
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