What Does Proverbs 30:9 Mean in the King James?
Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.
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’s sharp symmetry is that fullness can erase God from awareness, while poverty can make God’s name something to grasp.
THE MEANING
When your life is full, the giver can slip from view until the question becomes, “Who is the LORD?” When you are in need, the urge to take can reach into how you carry God’s name. The verse holds both risks in one prayer: that neither fullness nor lack severs the relationship between provision, God, and the life you live.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that having enough means you no longer need the giver, and that need makes taking, and invoking God’s name around it, innocent.
THE ROOT
אֶשְׂבַּע
ʾeśbaʿ
GROWS FROM
שׂבע
ś-b-ʿ
Be sated, be satisfied.
“full” in this verse is ʾeśbaʿ. The word means being sated, feeling no lack. Deuteronomy 8:10 uses this same root when fullness becomes the moment to bless the giver, locating the danger in what fullness can hide, not in nourishment itself.
ALSO GROWS
śāvēaʿ: Sated, satisfied.
שָׂבֵעַ
It shows that the verse’s “full” is a felt condition of having enough.
hiśbîaʿ: Satisfy, give enough.
הִשְׂבִּיעַ
The root can describe provision that fills someone, keeping fullness connected to what is received.
וְכִחַשְׁתִּי
wəḵiḥaštî
GROWS FROM
כחש
k-ḥ-š
Deny, deceive, or treat as false.
The verb means to deny or disown, a refusal of relation rather than a question asked from ignorance. Here, fullness can make the source seem absent until denial takes the form of asking, “Who is the LORD?”
ALSO GROWS
kiḥēš: Denied, disowned, or lied.
כִּחֵשׁ
This verbal form makes clear that the danger is a chosen denial of the relationship.
kaḥaš: Deceit or falsehood.
כַּחַשׁ
The related noun connects denial with a distorted account of what is true.
וְתָפַשְׂתִּי
wəṯāfaśtî
GROWS FROM
תפשׂ
t-p-ś
Grasp, seize, take hold.
“take” in this verse is wəṯāfaśtî. The Hebrew verb is tactile: תָּפַשׂ (tāphaś, grasp or seize) is applied to שֵׁם (shem, name and nature) of God. The verse places stealing and grasping God’s name in one breath, joining what the hand takes to the divine nature the person carries.
ALSO GROWS
tāphaś: Grasp, seize, take hold.
תָּפַשׂ
This is the action-word in the verse, making the taking of God’s name sound like a grasp.
tōphēs: One who grasps or handles.
תֹּפֵשׂ
The related form keeps the root’s physical sense visible: taking hold is an embodied act.
THE PATTERN
Abundance and need each reveal whether a person remains oriented toward the giver or treats circumstance as self-sufficient.
When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.THE THREAD
When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.The Hebrew root שׂבע (ś-b-ʿ, be sated) appears in both verses. Here, fullness leads to blessing the LORD as giver, revealing the other path fullness can take: recognition rather than denial.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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