What Does Proverbs 13:13 Mean?
The one who spurns the word is ruined; the one who fears the command is repaid.
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
Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb יְשֻׁלָּם (yeshullam, “be repaid”) comes from the same root as שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “wholeness”), so the command’s return is pictured as recompense that brings life toward completeness.
THE MEANING
This verse names a present consequence: treating a word as contemptible leaves you exposed to loss, while the one who holds a command in awe receives recompense. The verb rendered “rewarded” belongs to the root family of wholeness, so that return carries the shape of life being made complete.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that dismissing instruction leaves you untouched: contempt carries loss, while reverence is met with recompense.
THE ROOT
יְשֻׁלָּם
yeshullam
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ם
sh-l-m
To be complete or whole; in related verb forms, to make good or repay.
“is repaid” in this verse is yeshullam. The verb translated “rewarded” means being repaid or recompensed. Its root also gives שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness or well-being), so the return described here carries more than the sense of receiving a prize.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being, peace
שָׁלוֹם
This branch shows the root’s sense of completeness behind the recompense promised to the one who reveres the command.
shillem: Repaid, recompensed, made good
שִׁלֵּם
This verb form makes the payment sense explicit and illuminates the return contained in yeshullam.
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak or declare; the related noun can mean a word, matter, or thing.
English “word” can sound like a unit of speech, but davar also names a matter or thing. The verse links contempt for what is spoken with real consequences in the reader’s life.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: Spoke, declared
דִּבֵּר
This verb branch connects the “word” to active speech, something communicated rather than an abstract idea.
davar: Word, matter, thing
דָּבָר
This noun branch shows that what is spoken can also be a matter with consequences.
THE PATTERN
Receiving instruction with reverence is repaid in wholeness, while contempt exposes a person to loss.
Great wholeness is theirs who love your instruction, and no stumbling-block is theirs.Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon the rock.THE THREAD
Great wholeness is theirs who love your instruction, and no stumbling-block is theirs.Proverbs’ יְשֻׁלָּם (yeshullam, “be repaid”) comes from ש־ל־ם (sh-l-m), the root behind שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “wholeness”). Psalm 119:165 pairs love for instruction with great shalom, making the root connection visible: the promised return carries the shape of wholeness.
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