What Does Proverbs 3:27 Mean in the King James?
Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.
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 calls those owed the good “its owners,” framing the act as good reaching where it already belongs.
THE MEANING
The good is something within your hand’s power and connected to a rightful recipient. A capable hand can let it arrive or become the point where it is stopped. The verse makes visible that what you can do is already connected to the one who is owed the good.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that keeping back a good you can provide is neutral because it remains yours to decide: the verse describes the good as belonging to its recipient.
THE ROOT
מִבְּעָלָיו
mibbe'alav
GROWS FROM
בעל
b-ʿ-l
To own or possess; as a noun, an owner or master.
“them to whom it is due” in this verse is mibbe'alav. The Hebrew phrase is literally “from its owner or owners.” The recipient is not described only as someone who might benefit; the good is named in relation to the one it belongs to.
ALSO GROWS
baʿal: Owner, possessor, master; also husband.
בַּעַל
The root makes ownership and relationship part of the verse’s wording: the good is connected to someone who has a claim to it.
beʿalim: Owners or possessors.
בְּעָלִים
This plural form echoes the verse’s picture of good having people to whom it belongs.
תִּמְנַע
timnaʿ
GROWS FROM
מנע
m-n-ʿ
To hold back, restrain, or prevent.
“withhold” in this verse is timnaʿ. The root names an active stopping: something that could move is held back. Here that stoppage occurs in a hand able to act, linking the withholding directly to the good and its recipient.
ALSO GROWS
yimnaʿ: He withholds.
יִמְנַע
Psalm 84:11 uses this form with “good,” repeating the same word pairing and showing how closely the act of withholding is tied to the good itself.
manaʿta: You withheld.
מָנַעְתָּ
Psalm 21:2 uses this form for a request not withheld, showing the root at work where something sought is allowed to reach its recipient.
THE PATTERN
When good is within reach, keeping it back becomes a barrier between what can be given and the person to whom it belongs.
If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?THE THREAD
For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.This psalm repeats the same Hebrew verb מָנַע (manaʿ, withhold) beside טוֹב (tov, good), the exact pairing at the center of Proverbs 3:27. Proverbs names the people owed the good as its owners; the psalm uses the same pairing to show good as something that is not held back.
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