What Does Proverbs 29:21 Mean in the King James?
He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child shall have him become his son at the length.
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 verb behind “delicately bringeth up” carries the shade of pampering, and the verse says that treatment can end with a servant belonging as a son.
THE MEANING
The care someone receives from youth can reshape their place in a household. Here, service gives way to sonship as the KJV renders the ending. The Hebrew word מָנוֹן (manon, an obscure term rendered “son”) appears only here, leaving some uncertainty around that final status.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A household role is not fixed by the title “servant”; this verse imagines the relationship crossing that boundary over time.
THE ROOT
מְפַנֵּק
mefanneq
GROWS FROM
פנק
p-n-q
To pamper or indulge.
The verb carries the shade of pampering or indulgence within the KJV’s “delicately bringeth up.” It marks a sustained way of treating the servant from youth, with an effect on where he belongs at the end.
ALSO GROWS
mefanneq: One who pampers or indulges.
מְפַנֵּק
This is the verse’s form of the root: the servant is shaped by ongoing indulgent treatment.
pinnuq: Pampering or indulgence.
פִּנּוּק
This related noun names the treatment itself, bringing out the force behind the KJV’s “delicately.”
עַבְדּוֹ
avdo
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
To work or serve.
The Hebrew family connects the servant with the work and service they perform. In a verse where that person’s end is rendered as sonship, the root places changing household standing inside an ongoing relationship of service.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvad: To work or serve.
עָבַד
The verb names the activity at the heart of the servant’s role.
ʿavodah: Work or service.
עֲבֹדָה
This related noun keeps the root’s sense of lived service visible beneath the status word “servant.”
THE PATTERN
A household’s service relationship can open into belonging that carries the standing of a son or brother.
A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren.Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord?THE THREAD
A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren.The same Hebrew root עבד (ʿ-b-d, work or serve) underlies “servant” in both proverbs. In Proverbs 17:2 the servant shares inheritance among the brothers, opening this verse’s movement toward sonship as part of a wider household pattern.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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