What Does Proverbs 30:8 Mean in the King James?
Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:
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
At the center is “the bread of my portion”: the prayer seeks nourishment with a measure, with neither poverty nor riches setting the measure of life.
THE MEANING
You ask for emptiness and deceit to be moved far from you, and for a portion that sustains you. Poverty and riches stand on either side of that measure; neither is the good being sought. What matters is bread enough for you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse loosens the belief that security must come through riches, or that the only alternative is lack; it names a third measure: enough.
THE ROOT
חֻקִּי
ḥuqqî
GROWS FROM
חקק
To cut or engrave; by extension, to inscribe or prescribe.
The phrase behind “food convenient for me” is לֶחֶם חֻקִּי (leḥem ḥuqqî), “the bread of my portion”; חֻקִּי (ḥuqqî) means “my prescribed share,” from חקק (ḥaqaq), “to engrave or prescribe.” The same root grows into חֹק (ḥoq), “a fixed portion or decree,” so provision here carries a boundary: enough is a measured share, not an ever-expanding amount.
ALSO GROWS
ḥoq: A fixed portion, prescribed measure, or decree.
חֹק
This noun names the allotted share at the heart of “my portion,” framing bread as something measured.
ḥuqqah: A prescribed statute or ordinance.
חֻקָּה
The same root extends from a personal portion to a settled prescription, keeping the sense of a defined measure.
meḥoqeq: A lawgiver or one who decrees.
מְחוֹקֵק
This branch shows the root’s movement from marking a measure to establishing one.
THE PATTERN
Provision is measured by what sustains, so neither lack nor surplus has to define what is enough.
And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.Give us this day our daily bread.And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.THE THREAD
She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.The phrase “a portion” uses חֹק (ḥoq), “a fixed share,” from the same root family as “my portion” in Proverbs 30:8. The prayer for a measured share echoes a household scene where food is paired with an assigned portion.
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