What Does Proverbs 1:19 Mean?
So are the paths of every one who cuts for gain; it takes the living soul of its owners.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.THE KEY
The Hebrew repeats the root of profit-taking, then turns the taking back on the taker: the gain’s path takes its owner’s living soul.
THE MEANING
The verse names a path where what is taken in comes back as loss to the one holding it. Profit is no sealed-off possession: the living self that owns it is also exposed to its cost.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that gain can be taken without costing the one who holds it: what the taker gathers becomes what takes the taker’s life.
THE ROOT
בֹּצֵעַ בָּצַע
bōṣēaʿ bāṣaʿ
GROWS FROM
בצע
To cut off or take a portion; in this word family, to take gain or profit, often wrongful gain.
“cuts for gain” in this verse is bōṣēaʿ bāṣaʿ. The Hebrew joins the taker with the act of gaining, bōṣēaʿ bāṣaʿ, so the path is shaped by acquisition itself. Then the verse reverses the direction of taking: the taker’s own living soul is taken.
ALSO GROWS
beṣaʿ: Gain or profit, often ill-gotten.
בֶּצַע
The noun and verb share one root: the profit is bound to the act of taking it, not separate from it.
bōṣēaʿ: One who takes gain or profit.
בֹּצֵעַ
This form names the gain-taker; here the cost is not an outside misfortune but something that reaches the taker’s own life.
נֶפֶשׁ
nephesh
GROWS FROM
נפש
Living self, person, or life.
The KJV’s “life” can sound like a span of time, but nephesh names the living soul, the person whose life is at stake. The gain’s path reaches the whole self that holds it.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: Living soul, person, or life.
נֶפֶשׁ
This is what the verse says the gain takes: not merely property, but the living person who possesses it.
nāphaš: To refresh oneself or rest.
נָפַשׁ
The same word family can speak of a person being refreshed; here it names the living self exposed to the cost of the gain.
THE PATTERN
Gain pursued as an end turns inward, consuming the life and household meant to benefit from it.
The one who cuts for gain troubles his own house, but the one who hates gifts lives.Woe to the one who cuts out evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be snatched from the palm of evil!For the love of silver is a root of all evil, which some, reaching out for it, have wandered away from trust, and pierced themselves through with many pains.THE THREAD
The one who cuts for gain troubles his own house, but the one who hates gifts lives.Both verses use the בָּצַע word family for taking gain. Proverbs 1:19 names the taker’s living soul as the cost; Proverbs 15:27 shows that cost extending into the household.
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