What Does Proverbs 26:20 Mean in the King James?
Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.
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
Strife is not self-sustaining: when the whispering that feeds it stops, the fire goes out.
THE MEANING
This image speaks to conflict in the reader’s present: whispered reports can keep a quarrel burning. When that source is absent, the strife falls quiet; the fire has been fed, not sustained by itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that strife sustains itself. The verse shows that when talebearing stops, the conflict can lose its fuel.
THE ROOT
נִרְגָּן
nirgan
GROWS FROM
רגן
Murmur or whisper
The Hebrew names the talebearer through the murmuring itself: the person and the kind of speech are joined. That makes the verse’s fire image precise, the strife keeps burning as this speech circulates, and goes quiet when it is absent.
ALSO GROWS
ragan: To murmur or whisper
רָגַן
The verbal sense points to the speech that keeps the conflict supplied.
nirgan: A whisperer or talebearer
נִרְגָּן
The noun names the person by the murmuring that can keep strife alive.
THE PATTERN
Words can feed conflict, while the flow of speech that sustains it can also stop.
A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!THE THREAD
The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.The same Hebrew word, נִרְגָּן (nirgan), names the talebearer in both verses. Proverbs 18:8 shows what those murmured words can do as they travel inward, while Proverbs 26:20 shows how their absence lets strife go quiet.
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