What Does Proverbs 3:28 Mean in the King James?
Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.
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
When the needed thing is already with you, “tomorrow” sends your neighbor away from what you could set in their hands now.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks when you already have what your neighbor needs: delaying until tomorrow leaves them carrying the wait while the resource remains beside you. “When thou hast it by thee” marks the difference between not being able to give and postponing a gift that is already present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A promise to give later is not the same as giving when the means are already at hand.
THE ROOT
אֶתֵּן
ʾettēn
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, grant, put, or set.
The word translated “I will give” comes from a root that also means to put or set something in place. Its branches make the gift something placed within another’s reach; here, the thing is already with the giver, while the promise leaves it there.
ALSO GROWS
mattānāh: Gift, present
מַתָּנָה
A gift is the thing given from this same root; the verse sets the promised gift against the fact that it is already at hand.
nātûn: Given, set in place
נָתוּן
This form carries the root’s sense of something placed or assigned, illuminating the difference between a future promise and a gift actually put within the neighbor’s reach.
THE PATTERN
When needed good is already within reach, postponing its transfer leaves the need unmet.
Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the LORD, and it be sin unto thee.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
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?James shows the same separation between words of care and the needed thing itself: the needy are sent away while what could help them remains ungiven. Proverbs names that distance as “to morrow”; James exposes how an expression of goodwill leaves the need untouched.
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