What Does Proverbs 30:29 Mean in the King James?
There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going:
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 verse locates comeliness in a creature’s stride, in how it moves, not merely how it looks.
THE MEANING
What is comely here is movement: the way a being carries itself as it advances. The count leaves the four unnamed for now, making their manner of going the first thing you notice.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that comeliness belongs only to a still appearance gives way: here, it is measured in motion.
THE ROOT
צָעַד
ṣāʿad
GROWS FROM
צעד
ṣ-ʿ-d
To step or stride; to march.
English can make “going” sound like generic travel, but צעד (ṣ-ʿ-d) pictures a step or stride. The verse attaches its praise to that visible movement, while the same root can name individual footsteps elsewhere.
ALSO GROWS
ṣaʿad: Step, stride
צַעַד
It names movement as a distinct footfall, the very quality this verse calls stately.
miṣʿād: Step, footstep
מִצְעָד
This related form appears in Psalm 37:23, where a person’s steps are ordered.
ṣəʿādîm: Steps, strides
צְעָדִים
The plural keeps the image concrete: bearing is shown through one step after another.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes a being’s quality visible in the way it moves.
The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,THE THREAD
The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.The word “steps” translates מִצְעֲדֵי (miṣʿădê), from the same root צעד (ṣ-ʿ-d) as the stride in Proverbs 30:29. Here, that stride opens into a path whose steps are ordered and whose way is a delight.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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