What Does Proverbs 10:24 Mean?
The dread of the restless comes upon him; the longing of the aligned is given.
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
The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted.THE KEY
The verse makes dread and longing two kinds of arrival: what the wicked dread comes upon them, while what the righteous desire is given.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the reader now: what the wicked dread comes upon him; dread has movement and consequence. The righteous person’s desire is given, so longing is not portrayed as only a private thought but as something that receives an answer.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what you fear is the only thing moving toward you: it sets the righteous person’s desire alongside dread as something given.
THE ROOT
תְּבוֹאֶנּוּ
tevo'ennu
GROWS FROM
בוא
b-w-ʾ
to come, enter, arrive
“come upon” in this verse is tevo'ennu. The verb gives dread movement: what the wicked fear does not stay distant but comes into their experience. The same root appears in Job’s description of what comes upon him, giving this phrase an arrival quality English can make easy to overlook.
ALSO GROWS
boʾ: to come, enter
בּוֹא
This is the verb’s basic movement: dread crosses from expectation into experience.
mavo: entrance, place of entry
מָבוֹא
This related noun names an entry point, reinforcing the image of what was feared arriving within reach.
יִתֵּן
yitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
to give, set, place
The Hebrew verb is active, “he gives”, while the KJV renders it “shall be granted,” leaving the giver implicit. The righteous person’s desire is presented as something given, not merely as a wish forced into being.
ALSO GROWS
natan: to give, set, place
נָתַן
The verse’s verb belongs to this root of giving and placing.
mattanah: gift
מַתָּנָה
This related noun makes the root’s giving sense concrete: what is granted can be understood as a gift.
תַּאֲוַת
taʿavat
GROWS FROM
אוה
ʾ-w-h
to desire, long for
The word names an active longing rather than a passing preference. In the verse’s contrast, this longing has an outcome: it is given, just as dread arrives.
ALSO GROWS
avah: to desire, long for
אָוָה
The noun in the verse carries the active pull of this same verb.
hit'avvah: to crave, long for
הִתְאַוָּה
This related verbal form makes the force of desire clearer: it is a felt longing, not a detached idea.
THE PATTERN
The verse treats inward dread and longing as futures that meet a person: dread comes upon him, while desire is given.
For the dread that I trembled at has come upon me, and what I shuddered at has come to me.Soften yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the asking of your heart.For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do, for the sake of his good pleasure.THE THREAD
For the dread that I trembled at has come upon me, and what I shuddered at has come to me.The Hebrew verb בוא (boʾ, “to come, enter”) appears in both verses: what is feared comes upon the person. Job’s first-person line makes Proverbs’ arrival image unmistakably concrete.
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