What Does Proverbs 3:9 Mean in the King James?
Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:
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 first yield is where the verse makes the LORD’s weight visible in the whole increase.
THE MEANING
Here, honoring the LORD reaches into material life: the first part of what comes in carries the meaning of the whole increase. The verse presents provision as received under the LORD’s weight, not as something sealed off from its source.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that devotion concerns only inward feeling while wealth remains outside the relationship with God.
THE ROOT
כַּבֵּד
kabbed
GROWS FROM
כבד
To be heavy or weighty.
The verb translated “honour” carries the sense of giving weight. The verse links the LORD’s weight to substance and first yield, bringing material increase into the same field as what is held most significant.
ALSO GROWS
kavod: Weight; glory.
כָּבוֹד
It shows that honour and glory share the language of weight, illuminating what it means to treat the LORD as weighty.
kaved: Heavy; weighty.
כָּבֵד
This root sense makes the verse’s call to honour concrete: the LORD is given weight in the way increase is regarded.
רֵאשִׁית
reshit
GROWS FROM
ראשׁ
Head; that which is first or foremost.
The word rendered “firstfruits” is reshit, related to rosh, “head.” The first portion is therefore more than an early slice of the harvest: it carries the idea of what stands at the head of the whole.
ALSO GROWS
rosh: Head; chief or foremost part.
רֹאשׁ
Its sense of “head” reveals the link between the first portion and what leads or represents the rest.
reshit: Beginning; first portion.
רֵאשִׁית
It names the beginning of the yield that the verse places alongside honouring the LORD.
תְּבוּאָה
tevu’ah
GROWS FROM
בוא
To come, enter, or arrive.
The word for increase or produce, tevu’ah, is related to the root meaning “come” or “enter.” The verse speaks of what comes in, then names its first portion as the place where the LORD’s weight is made visible.
ALSO GROWS
bo’: To come or enter.
בּוֹא
This verb gives the image behind increase as what arrives or comes in.
mavo: Entrance; entry.
מָבוֹא
It extends the root’s sense of coming in, echoing the verse’s focus on incoming provision.
THE PATTERN
The first portion bears the meaning of the whole, revealing what is treated as its source.
The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God:For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.THE THREAD
Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts.The word translated “glory” is kavod, from the same כבד root behind “honour” here: weight. Psalm 96:8 joins that weight to an offering, making explicit the connection Proverbs 3:9 holds together.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us