What Does Proverbs 3:35 Mean in the King James?
The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.
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
What English calls the wise person’s “glory” is weight: the wise inherit it, while fools raise disgrace.
THE MEANING
Where wisdom shapes you, honor settles as weight rather than needing display. Where folly takes the high place, disgrace is what rises with it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being elevated does not always mean becoming honorable; folly can raise shame instead.
THE ROOT
כָּבוֹד
kavod
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy or weighty.
“glory” in this verse is kavod. Kavod carries the sense of weight: honor is not mere display but something substantial. The wise inherit that weight; it is received as an outcome of wisdom.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: Heavy, weighty.
כָּבֵד
It makes the physical sense of weight audible beneath “glory.”
kibbed: To honor, give weight to.
כִּבֵּד
The same root links being weighty with treating someone as weighty.
קָלוֹן
qalon
GROWS FROM
קלל
q-l-l
To be light or slight, and by extension to hold in contempt.
“shame” in this verse is qalon. Qalon names disgrace, while its root carries the sense of lightness or being held as slight. Beside kavod, the verse contrasts weight inherited with disgrace lifted up.
ALSO GROWS
qalal: To be light or slight; to hold in contempt.
קָלַל
Its sense of being slight echoes the contrast with kavod’s weight.
qelalah: Curse, contempt.
קְלָלָה
This related form shows how the root’s sense of being slight can extend toward disgrace.
מֵרִים
merim
GROWS FROM
רום
r-w-m
To rise, be high, or raise up.
“promotion” in this verse is merim. The fools’ outcome is described as an act of raising: shame is what they lift. The verse separates elevation from honor; what goes up can still be disgrace.
ALSO GROWS
rum: To be high or exalted.
רוּם
It supplies the basic movement of rising beneath “promotion.”
ram: High, lifted up.
רָם
This related form shows that height alone does not establish the worth of what is raised.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom’s honor is received as weight, while folly’s elevation carries disgrace.
When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.THE THREAD
Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness.Wisdom speaks here, saying that honor, כָּבוֹד (kavod), weight, is with her. Proverbs 3:35 shows the wise inheriting that weight, while fools raise shame.
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