What Does Proverbs 5:11 Mean in the King James?

And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

Proverbs 5:11 · KJV

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 Hebrew for “consumed” also means “brought to completion,” so grief arrives when the body itself has reached its end.

THE MEANING

The grief arrives at the end, when the cost has reached flesh and body; regret here is bodily depletion, not only a thought. This warning speaks now of pleasure whose damage outlasts its moment and becomes visible only after strength is spent.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that a choice’s cost ends when its pleasure ends is undone: the body can carry the consequence forward until the loss is felt too late.

THE ROOT

בִּכְלוֹת

bikhlōṯ

GROWS FROM

כ־ל־ה

To be finished or brought to completion; by extension, to be spent or consumed.

The verse places your “last” beside flesh and body being brought to their end. The root makes “consumed” carry both completion and depletion: the cost has reached the body itself.

ALSO GROWS

wayekhullu: Were finished, completed

וַיְכֻלּוּ

In Genesis 2:1, this root describes creation reaching completion; here it describes flesh spent to its end.

yikhlu: They are consumed, come to an end

יִכְלוּ

Job 4:9 uses this form for people being consumed, confirming the stark finality carried by the root.

וְנָהַמְתָּ

wənāhamtā

GROWS FROM

נ־ה־ם

To roar, growl, or groan.

The English “mourn” can sound like silent sorrow, while this verb carries the sound of a roar or groan. The grief becomes audible at the point of bodily depletion.

ALSO GROWS

nōhēm: Roaring

נֹהֵם

Proverbs 28:15 uses this form for a roaring lion, giving the verse’s “mourn” a rough, voiced sound.

nāham: To roar or groan

נָהַם

This verbal form names the action behind “mourn”: the end is met with an audible groan, not only inward sadness.

THE PATTERN

A desire can conceal its cost while it is being pursued, but its consequences mature and overtake the one pursuing it.

His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.

Proverbs 5:22 · KJVThe pursuing person is eventually seized by the consequences bound up in his own choices.

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

Galatians 6:8 · KJVWhat is sown into the flesh produces a later outcome that the body bears.

Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

James 1:15 · KJVDesire develops over time into an outcome that becomes visible only when it reaches its end.

THE THREAD

By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.

Job 4:9 · KJV

Both passages use ⁨כָּלָה⁩ (kalah, to be finished or consumed) for an ending that exhausts the person. Job speaks of people being consumed; Proverbs makes that same finality specific to flesh and body.

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