What Does Proverbs 14:16 Mean?
A wise one fears and turns aside from evil, but the fool boils over and leans his full weight.
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 wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.THE KEY
The fool’s rage grows from a word for crossing over, while the wise person turns aside: one oversteps and feels secure, the other recognizes danger and withdraws.
THE MEANING
The wise person senses the weight of what is harmful and turns away from it; folly heats into overstepping and then settles into a sense of safety. The verse shows how danger and confidence can occupy the same person at once.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Feeling certain does not prove you are safe; the fool is confident while raging.
THE ROOT
מִתְעַבֵּר
mitʿabbēr
GROWS FROM
עבר
to pass over or cross beyond
“boils over” in this verse is mitʿabbēr. The verb rendered “rageth” comes from עָבַר, “to pass over” or “cross.” It gives the fool’s rage the force of overstepping, set against the wise person’s turn away.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvar: to pass over or cross
עָבַר
This is the verb root beneath “rageth”; its sense of crossing sharpens the contrast with turning aside.
ʿēver: the other side; beyond
עֵבֶר
This related form carries the same across-and-beyond sense that makes the fool’s anger sound like it has gone too far.
סָר
sār
GROWS FROM
סור
to turn aside or depart
“turns aside” in this verse is sār. “Departeth” is not simply being elsewhere; the root pictures a turning away. Beside the fool who crosses over, the wise person’s defining movement is to turn aside from evil.
ALSO GROWS
sûr: to turn aside or depart
סוּר
This verb preserves the verse’s image of a deliberate change of direction away from evil.
hāsîr: to remove or cause to turn aside
הָסִיר
This form shows the root’s related sense of making something turn away or be removed.
בֹּטֵחַ
bōṭēaḥ
GROWS FROM
בטח
to trust or feel secure
“leans his full weight” in this verse is bōṭēaḥ. The word for “confident” carries the sense of relying on something and feeling secure. Paired with rage, it shows that a person can overstep while still feeling safe.
ALSO GROWS
mivṭāḥ: a refuge or place of security
מִבְטָח
This noun makes the root’s sense of felt safety concrete.
biṭṭāḥôn: security or trust
בִּטָּחוֹן
This related word names the reliance carried by the fool’s confidence.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom recognizes danger and turns aside, while folly carries a person toward it under a feeling of security.
Do not be wise in your own eyes. Be in awe of the LORD, and turn aside from harm.The shrewd one sees evil and hides himself; the open ones cross over and are punished.So let the one who thinks he stands watch, lest he fall.THE THREAD
Do not be wise in your own eyes. Be in awe of the LORD, and turn aside from harm.It shares the roots יָרֵא (yārēʾ, “fear”) and סוּר (sûr, “turn aside”) with Proverbs 14:16. Together they show fear as perception that becomes movement away from evil, in contrast with confidence that can keep a person crossing into it.
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