What Does Proverbs 11:2 Mean?
When boiling comes, then shame comes, but wisdom is with the lowly.
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
When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.THE KEY
Pride boils upward toward disgrace, while wisdom keeps company with the person who does not need to enlarge themself.
THE MEANING
When pride rises, disgrace follows; wisdom is with the lowly. Here, lowliness carries a shade of modesty and discretion, a posture that leaves room to perceive clearly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that making yourself larger secures honor: pride brings disgrace, while wisdom is found with the modest.
THE ROOT
זָדוֹן
zādôn
GROWS FROM
זוד
To boil or seethe; to act presumptuously.
The verb behind זָדוֹן (zādôn, presumptuous pride) can describe boiling or presumptuous action, giving pride the shade of something surging up. The verse sets that rise against wisdom with the lowly: self-importance swells, but wisdom stays with modesty.
ALSO GROWS
zēd: Someone who acts arrogantly or defiantly.
זֵד
It carries the same root’s sense of presumption from an action into a person’s character.
yāzîd: A verb form for acting deliberately or presumptuously.
יָזִיד
It shows that pride is expressed as an action, not only as an inward feeling.
צְנוּעִים
tsenuʿim
GROWS FROM
צנע
To act modestly or discreetly.
The word translated “lowly” can carry the sense of being modest or discreet, not only having low status. The verse places wisdom alongside this uninflated posture, where self-importance does not crowd out perception.
ALSO GROWS
hatsnēaʿ: To conduct oneself with modesty.
הַצְנֵעַ
Micah 6:8 uses this related form for walking humbly, echoing the modest posture associated with wisdom here.
tsanuaʿ: A person or quality marked by modesty and reserve.
צָנוּעַ
This related form brings out the discretion contained in the verse’s description of the lowly.
חָכְמָה
ḥokhmāh
GROWS FROM
חכם
To be wise or act wisely.
Wisdom is not presented as a prize for the person who rises above others; it is found with the lowly. The related forms connect wisdom both to a wise person and to the act of becoming wise.
ALSO GROWS
ḥākām: Someone possessing or exercising wisdom.
חָכָם
It makes wisdom a quality embodied in a person, not merely an abstract idea.
ḥākam: To become wise or conduct oneself wisely.
חָכַם
It shows wisdom as a way of perceiving and acting, fitting the verse’s contrast with pride.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom appears where self-importance gives way to humble restraint.
The awe of the LORD is the straightening of wisdom, and before weight, bowing.He sets the bowed ones walking in judgment, and teaches the bowed his way.Who among you is wise and knowing? Let him show his works from a good walk, in the tamed gentleness of wisdom.THE THREAD
And he says to humankind, "Look, awe of the LORD is wisdom, and to turn aside from evil is understanding."Job 28:28 uses חָכְמָה (ḥokhmāh, wisdom), the same Hebrew word found here, and joins it to reverence for the LORD. Proverbs 11:2 locates that same wisdom with the lowly, linking wisdom with a posture that is not ruled by self-importance.
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