What Does Proverbs 28:19 Mean in the King James?
He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.
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 repeats “be filled” for both outcomes: what you pursue determines what fills you.
THE MEANING
The life that works its ground receives bread in abundance. The life that pursues emptiness is filled too, but with poverty. What you pursue shapes what eventually occupies your life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that empty pursuits are harmless because they produce nothing: the verse says they produce a fullness of poverty.
THE ROOT
רֵיקִים
reqim
GROWS FROM
ריק
r-y-q
Empty; to be empty.
The word rendered “vain persons” carries the sense of “empty ones,” naming the emptiness that shapes the pursuit. Its kin רֵיקָם (reqam), “empty-handed,” makes the outcome echo the object: pursuing emptiness culminates in lack.
ALSO GROWS
req: Empty, void.
רֵיק
This is the singular form behind the word for what is pursued in the verse.
reqam: Empty-handed; without result.
רֵיקָם
This branch lets the verse’s ending echo its beginning: the pursuit of emptiness leaves a person with lack.
יִשְׂבַּע
yisbaʿ
GROWS FROM
שבע
s-b-ʿ
To be full or satisfied.
“shall have plenty / shall have poverty enough” in this verse is yisbaʿ. יִשְׂבַּע (yisbaʿ) repeats in both halves, though the KJV renders it “shall have plenty” and “shall have … enough.” The Hebrew makes the structure sharper: both paths fill a life, but one fullness is bread and the other is poverty.
ALSO GROWS
sāvēaʿ: Full, sated, satisfied.
שָׂבֵעַ
It makes explicit the shared action beneath the two different outcomes.
sōvaʿ: Satiety, fullness, abundance.
שֹׂבַע
It names fullness as a state, echoing the verse’s repeated verb.
עֹבֵד
ʿoved
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
To work, labor, or serve.
“tilleth” in this verse is ʿoved. The word for tilling belongs to the Hebrew work-and-service root. The ground is not just something possessed; it is what receives sustained work and yields bread.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: Servant.
עֶבֶד
This noun from the same root makes the service contained in the act of working audible.
ʿavodah: Work, service.
עֲבֹדָה
This branch connects tending the land with the wider idea of labor as service.
THE PATTERN
The object of a life’s labor and pursuit shapes its harvest.
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.THE THREAD
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.Both verses use the Hebrew root שבע (s-b-ʿ), “to be full or satisfied.” Proverbs shows one pursuit filling a life with poverty; Ecclesiastes shows that wealth itself cannot satisfy the one who keeps pursuing more.
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