What Does Proverbs 30:30 Mean in the King James?
A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any;
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 measures strength by its direction: the lion remains, refusing to turn back before anything.
THE MEANING
You meet strength here as a presence that does not turn aside when confronted. The lion remains; the verse makes refusal to retreat the visible shape of might.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that being confronted automatically means you are weaker or must yield is undone here: the lion’s might is marked by not turning aside.
THE ROOT
יָשׁוּב
yashuv
GROWS FROM
שׁ־ו־ב
To turn back or return.
“turneth not away” in this verse is yashuv. The verse’s turning carries more than the idea of retreat: the same root can describe turning back toward something or turning away. Here the lion’s strength appears in its refusal to let confrontation redirect it.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: Return; turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
The same root can describe a return, showing that the meaning of turning depends on its direction.
meshubah: Backsliding; turning away.
מְשׁוּבָה
This branch names retreat or wandering, revealing the opposite direction from the lion’s refusal to turn back.
גִּבּוֹר
gibbor
GROWS FROM
ג־ב־ר
To be strong or prevail.
“strongest” in this verse is gibbor. Here gibbor carries more than a ranking: it evokes might that prevails. Its shared seed reaches into words for a person and for strength itself, linking the lion’s force to a wider language of prevailing capacity.
ALSO GROWS
gever: A man; a person.
גֶּבֶר
The shared root links the lion’s might to a word used for a human being.
gevurah: Strength; might.
גְּבוּרָה
This branch names the strength that gibbor embodies as the lion stands its ground.
THE PATTERN
Strength shows itself as steadfastness under confrontation, a refusal to retreat when opposition appears.
For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.THE THREAD
I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.The lion’s turneth not away and Hosea’s backsliding and turned away grow from שׁוּב (shuv), meaning to turn back or return. Hosea shows the same root holding both the turning that wanders and the turning that is healed, making the lion’s refusal one face of a root whose direction matters.
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