What Does Proverbs 5:23 Mean in the King James?

He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

Proverbs 5:23 · 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 word for instruction carries correction within it: without that shaping, folly leads a person toward death and wandering.

THE MEANING

When corrective instruction is absent, folly is not harmless confusion: it carries a person toward death and into wandering. The verse joins an inability to receive correction with a loss of direction.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that folly can remain harmless when left uncorrected; the verse says it leads to death and wandering.

THE ROOT

מוּסָר

musar

GROWS FROM

י־ס־ר

y-s-r

To discipline, correct, or instruct.

⁨מוּסָר⁩ (musar) holds instruction together with correction and discipline: guidance that shapes through correction. Without this shaping, the verse says, folly carries a person toward death and wandering.

ALSO GROWS

yāsar: To discipline, correct, or instruct.

יָסַר

This verb shows the active shaping held within the verse’s word for instruction.

yissurim: Discipline, corrections, or chastisements.

יִסּוּרִים

This related form keeps instruction connected to the experience of being corrected.

THE PATTERN

Correction interrupts the path by which folly becomes ruin.

Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.

Psalm 119:67 · KJVThe verse connects going astray with a need for correction and shows a return to the word afterward.

Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die.

Proverbs 15:10 · KJVIt echoes the warning that rejecting correction leads toward death.

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Hebrews 12:11 · KJVIt shows correction as a shaping process whose fruit comes after its painful work.

THE THREAD

Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish.

Proverbs 12:1 · KJV

“Instruction” in both verses is ⁨מוּסָר⁩ (musar), a word that gathers instruction, correction, and discipline. Proverbs 5:23 shows what follows when this shaping is absent; Proverbs 12:1 shows its connection to knowledge.

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