What Does Proverbs 10:10 Mean?
He who winks with the eye gives pain, but the fool of lips is thrown down.
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
He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall fall.THE KEY
A wink gives grief before a word is spoken, while the fool’s lips carry him toward a fall.
THE MEANING
A concealed gesture can give grief before any words are spoken. Foolish, unrestrained speech, meanwhile, leaves the speaker exposed to a fall.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that harm begins only with plain speech: a wink can inflict grief, and words can bring their speaker down.
THE ROOT
יִתֵּן
yitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
nathan
Give, set, or place.
“causeth” in this verse is yitten. The Hebrew says the wink “gives” sorrow. The root’s sense of giving and placing makes the gesture an action that deposits grief, not merely a sign that accompanies it.
ALSO GROWS
mattan: Gift or grant.
מַתָּן
The same root can name what is given; here, the wink gives grief.
netinah: Giving or granting.
נְתִינָה
This branch keeps the focus on the act of giving that links the wink to its painful result.
קֹרֵץ
qorets
GROWS FROM
קרץ
qarats
Pinch, nip, or make a wink.
“winks” in this verse is qorets. The wink comes from a root that can mean pinching or compressing. The eye’s small closure is a deliberate signal with pressure behind it, even before speech appears.
ALSO GROWS
qarats: To pinch, nip, or wink.
קָרַץ
This verb shows the physical compression inside the gesture named in the verse.
qorets: One who winks.
קֹרֵץ
This participle makes the gesture the defining action of the person who gives grief.
עַצָּבֶת
atsavet
GROWS FROM
עצב
atsav
Hurt, grieve, or cause pain.
“gives pain” in this verse is atsavet. The sorrow here belongs to a family of words for pain and painful toil. The wink’s result is not an abstract mood; it is hurt delivered into someone’s experience.
ALSO GROWS
etsev: Pain, sorrow, or toil.
עֶצֶב
This branch shows the painful force contained in the grief the wink gives.
itsavon: Painful toil or sorrow.
עִצָּבוֹן
This related form extends the root’s sense of hurt into an endured burden.
THE PATTERN
A small gesture or a careless word can carry consequences far beyond its size.
He narrows his eyes, he points with his feet, he goads with his fingers.The mouth of the thick-headed one is his shattering, and his lips are the snare of his living soul.Even so the tongue is a small limb, and it lifts its neck over great things. Look how great a forest a little fire kindles!THE THREAD
He narrows his eyes, he points with his feet, he goads with his fingers.The same Hebrew wink-root appears in both verses. Here the wink is one signal among several bodily signs; Proverbs 10:10 names the grief that this signal can give.
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