What Does Proverbs 26:22 Mean in the King James?
The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
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 same whisper can be swallowed as a morsel and felt as a wound, because speech descends into the one who receives it.
THE MEANING
A whisper can reach you like a small morsel, easy to receive, while carrying the force of a wound. The words do not stay at the surface: they descend into hidden inner chambers and become something carried within.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that whispered talk is harmless because it is small, private, or quickly forgotten; the verse pictures it entering and settling inside.
THE ROOT
מִתְלַהֲמִים
mithlahamim
GROWS FROM
ל־ה־ם
L-H-M
To gulp or swallow greedily; in this form, something consumed as a morsel.
The KJV’s “wounds” names the sting, while this Hebrew form also carries a morsel image. The next phrase makes that image physical: these words go down into the inner chambers of the belly.
ALSO GROWS
laham: To swallow greedily or devour.
לָהַם
The root gives the words the quality of something taken in, not merely heard.
mithlahamim: Morsels or tidbits; the KJV renders the word here as “wounds.”
מִתְלַהֲמִים
The morsel image links the speech to the verse’s picture of it descending into the belly.
יָרְדוּ
yaredu
GROWS FROM
י־ר־ד
Y-R-D
To descend or go down.
“go down” in this verse is yaredu. The verb gives the words a direction: they keep descending from the moment of hearing into concealed interior places. The harm is pictured as a process of penetration, not just a passing sting.
ALSO GROWS
yarad: To descend or go down.
יָרַד
This is the verb’s basic motion, carried by the words as they enter the listener.
Yarden: The Jordan River, traditionally linked to “descend” or “the descender.”
יַרְדֵּן
The name preserves the same downward movement, making the proverb’s image of descent concrete.
THE PATTERN
Speech can become an inward substance: what sounds smooth or bite-sized can still descend, lodge, and wound.
The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.THE THREAD
The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.This line recurs almost word for word in Proverbs 18:8, with the same Hebrew image of morsels and the same descent into the belly. The repetition holds both pictures together: speech can arrive as something taken in and settle as an injury.
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