What Does Proverbs 11:16 Mean?
A woman of favor finds weight, and the mighty grasp riches.
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
A gracious woman retaineth honour: and strong men retain riches.THE KEY
The verse uses the same verb twice: favor upholds honor, while terror-bearing power holds wealth.
THE MEANING
In your life, the verse sets two measures side by side: favor supports honor, while ruthless power holds riches. Wealth and honor are not the same measure, and possession alone does not prove a person’s worth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that money proves a person’s honor dissolves here: the verse places honor with favor and riches with ruthless power.
THE ROOT
תִּתְמֹךְ
titemokh
GROWS FROM
תמך
t-m-k
Support, hold firmly, uphold.
“finds” in this verse is titemokh. Both halves use forms of the same verb: the woman supports honor, and the men support wealth. “Retain” can hide this shared image of holding something up.
ALSO GROWS
titemokh: She supports or holds fast.
תִּתְמֹךְ
This form describes the woman holding honor up.
yitmekhu: They support or hold fast.
יִתְמְכוּ
The same root describes the men holding riches up.
עָרִיצִים
ʿārîṣîm
GROWS FROM
ערץ
ʿ-r-ṣ
Tremble, dread, or inspire terror.
“the mighty” in this verse is ʿārîṣîm. The word carries a sense of power that inspires dread, alongside the KJV’s “strong.” That shades the contrast: favor supports honor, while forceful, fear-inspiring power holds riches.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāraṣ: To dread or inspire terror.
עָרַץ
This verbal root gives the men’s power its fear-bearing edge.
ʿārîṣ: A violent or ruthless person.
עָרִיץ
This singular form names the kind of power described in the verse’s plural.
כָּבוֹד
kāvōd
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
Be heavy or weighty; carry weight.
Honor has the image of weight beneath it: substance, importance, something that matters. The verse places that weight beside riches, while keeping the two distinct.
ALSO GROWS
kāvēd: Heavy or weighty.
כָּבֵד
It shows the physical image that also underlies honor as weight.
kāvōd: Weight, honor, or importance.
כָּבוֹד
This is the word rendered “honour” in the verse, joining recognition to the idea of weight.
THE PATTERN
Scripture separates a person’s honor from the wealth they hold.
A good name is to be chosen over great gathered wealth, and loving favor over silver and gold.And he said to them, Watch, and guard yourselves against grasping, for a person's life does not lie in the overflow of what they hold.But let it be the hidden person of the heart, in what cannot decay, the arrangement of a gentle and quiet breath, which is very costly in the sight of God.THE THREAD
And as for me, in my wholeness you hold me fast, and you station me before your face for the ages.Proverbs uses תמך (tāmakh, support or uphold) for the woman holding honor and the men holding wealth; here the same root describes the reader being upheld in integrity. The shared verb opens a distinction between what people hold and what holds them.
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