What Does Proverbs 28:22 Mean in the King James?
He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.
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 rush to get rich carries a blind spot: the grasping gaze cannot see the lack approaching it.
THE MEANING
When getting rich becomes urgent, your gaze turns acquisitive and begrudging: it fixes on what can be gathered and misses the lack coming toward you. The promise of security and the threat of deprivation occupy the same line, exposing how accumulation can fail to protect the one chasing it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that getting more quickly guarantees you safety from need.
THE ROOT
נִבְהָל
nivhal
GROWS FROM
בהל
b-h-l
To be alarmed, dismayed, or hurried under pressure.
English “hasteth” can suggest speed alone; בָּהַל (bahal, to be alarmed or hurried) carries disturbance as well. The verse begins with a person propelled by agitation toward wealth, setting up the ungenerous gaze and coming lack that follow.
ALSO GROWS
behalah: Alarm, sudden panic.
בֶּהָלָה
This branch makes the haste sound pressured and unsettled, rather than calm or deliberate.
mevuhal: Alarmed, flustered, or hurried.
מְבֻהָל
The shared root connects the rush for wealth with a state of agitation.
רַע עָיִן
raʿ ayin
GROWS FROM
עין
ʿ-y-n
The noun means eye and is also used for a spring or fountain.
The phrase “evil eye” can describe a grudging, ungenerous gaze: Deuteronomy 15:9 pairs it with withholding from a poor brother. The same Hebrew noun also names a spring, placing this grasping orientation at the source of what the person sees and gives.
ALSO GROWS
ʿayin: Eye.
עַיִן
This is the word in the verse’s image of a gaze shaped by greed.
maʿyan: Spring or fountain.
מַעְיָן
This related word carries the sense of a source, echoing how the gaze shapes what flows from the person.
חֶסֶר
ḥeser
GROWS FROM
חסר
ḥ-s-r
To lack, be short, or be diminished.
“poverty” in this verse is ḥeser. The Hebrew word names lack itself, not only a low level of wealth. The verse says that lack comes to the one hurrying toward riches, joining the pursuit of more with the condition of being without.
ALSO GROWS
ḥaser: To be lacking or deficient.
חָסֵר
The verb behind the noun connects poverty with the state of lacking.
maḥsor: Want, scarcity, or need.
מַחְסוֹר
This related noun appears in Proverbs 11:24 for the lack toward which withholding leads.
THE PATTERN
Grasping at accumulation cannot secure a life from lack; insatiable desire and withholding turn possession into want.
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.THE THREAD
There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.Proverbs 28:22 says חֶסֶר (ḥeser, lack) comes to the one rushing after wealth; Proverbs 11:24 uses the related מַחְסוֹר (maḥsor, want) for the poverty toward which withholding leads. The shared root traces lack through the grasping hand, while the companion verse sets scattering against that movement.
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