What Does Proverbs 10:27 Mean?
The awe of the LORD adds days; but the years of the restless are cut short.
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 LORD prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.THE KEY
The Hebrew sets days being added under awe against the wicked’s years being cut short, making them opposite movements through time.
THE MEANING
Awe of the LORD adds to the span of your life; wickedness cuts its years short. The verse holds out two trajectories: one opens into more days, while the other contracts.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Awe of the LORD does not shrink life by restricting it; this verse presents it as the way days are added.
THE ROOT
יִרְאַת
yir’at
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
“awe of the LORD” in this verse is yir’at. The Hebrew noun carries a range from fear to reverent awe, so the verse’s “fear of the LORD” holds both seriousness and reverence. The English word can leave that fuller range hidden.
ALSO GROWS
yare: To fear or revere.
יָרֵא
This related form shows the stance toward the LORD as more than a passing feeling.
mora: Fear or dread.
מוֹרָא
This branch preserves the gravity within awe; reverence here is not casual regard.
תּוֹסִיף
tosif
GROWS FROM
יסף
To add or increase.
The Hebrew verb says that awe of the LORD “adds days,” making extended life sound like an increase rather than a vague duration. This is the language of addition, set directly against the cutting short in the second half.
ALSO GROWS
yasaf: To add or increase.
יָסַף
This is the verb at the root of the verse’s claim that days are added.
yosef: He adds; also the name Joseph.
יוֹסֵף
The same root carries the idea of addition into a familiar biblical name.
תִּקְצֹרְנָה
tiqtsornah
GROWS FROM
קצר
To cut short or reap.
The Hebrew verb can mean to reap as well as to be short or cut short, so the wicked’s years are pictured as cut down, not merely counted as fewer. Against the days added in the first half, this is a sharp image of life cut back.
ALSO GROWS
qatsar: To reap or cut short.
קָצַר
This verb preserves the physical force behind the line’s “shortened.”
qatsir: Harvest or reaping.
קָצִיר
This related noun makes the image of years being cut down more visible.
THE PATTERN
In wisdom’s grammar, reverence and wise conduct accompany an enlarged life, while destructive conduct cuts it short.
You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live, and so that it may go well with you, and so that you may lengthen your days in the land you shall take hold of.For by me your days multiply, and years of life are added to you.For the one who wills to love life and see good days, let him stop his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking bait.THE THREAD
For by me your days multiply, and years of life are added to you.The Hebrew root יסף (y-s-f; yasaf, “to add or increase”) appears in both verses: it underlies “prolongeth” here and “shall be increased” there. Proverbs 9:11 gives wisdom the voice of one through whom days are added, opening this verse as part of a recurring wisdom pattern.
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