What Does Proverbs 7:1 Mean in the King James?
My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
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 makes wisdom an inner reserve: its words are watched over and stored with you.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as someone who can carry instruction close. The verse joins watchfulness with storing, so these words remain available as life unfolds.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that wisdom is available only while another voice is speaking; guarded instruction becomes something you carry with you.
THE ROOT
תִּצְפֹּן
tiṣpōn
GROWS FROM
צפן
To hide, store up, or treasure.
“lay up” in this verse is tiṣpōn. The root holds hiding and treasuring together: what is laid up is kept close as a reserve. The verse presents instruction as something stored with you, ready to be drawn upon.
ALSO GROWS
ṣāfántî: I have hidden or stored.
צָפַנְתִּי
The same root appears in Psalm 119:11, where the speaker stores the word in the heart.
ṣāfūn: Hidden, concealed, or treasured.
צָפוּן
This form shows the root’s link between keeping something out of sight and holding it as a treasure.
שְׁמֹר
shĕmōr
GROWS FROM
שמר
To guard, watch over, or keep.
The root carries the sense of keeping watch, so these words are held under attention. Beside the root for storing, it gives the verse two linked images: watch over the words and keep them close.
ALSO GROWS
shōmēr: A watcher or keeper.
שֹׁמֵר
The keeper’s watchfulness illuminates the attention implied by keeping the words.
mishmeret: A watch, guard, or charge.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch shows keeping as an active guardianship, the posture this verse gives toward its words.
THE PATTERN
Instruction becomes a carried reserve when it is held close within.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.THE THREAD
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.“Lay up” in Proverbs and “hid” in this verse come from the same Hebrew root, צפן (ṣāfan), meaning to hide, store up, or treasure. The shared root reveals the same movement: the word is kept as an inner reserve.
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