What Does Proverbs 14:21 Mean?
The one who makes light of the one beside him misses the mark, but flourishing is the one who favors the bowed down.
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
He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth: but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he.THE KEY
The word translated “hath mercy” means to show favor: flourishing becomes visible when favor reaches the poor.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to you now: contempt for the person beside you is a real wrong, while showing favor to the poor is a mark of flourishing. The word translated “hath mercy” carries the sense of active graciousness, so compassion appears here as favor that reaches someone in need.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that contempt is harmless when aimed at someone nearby, or that care for the poor is incidental to a flourishing life.
THE ROOT
מְחוֹנֵן
meḥōnēn
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥ-n-n: show favor, act graciously toward
“favors” in this verse is meḥōnēn. The root presents mercy as favor actively reaching the poor. Its force is relational and visible: the other person’s need becomes the place where favor takes form.
ALSO GROWS
ḥānan: show favor; act graciously
חָנַן
This base form names the act expressed by the verse’s participle: someone enacting favor toward the poor.
ḥannūn: gracious; showing favor
חַנּוּן
The same consonants describe God as gracious in Exodus 34:6, linking care for the poor with the character of graciousness.
THE PATTERN
Regard for people in need reveals whether flourishing is expressed through care.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. Flourishing is the one who attends to the bowed low, and in the day of harm the LORD delivers him.Whoever lends to the LORD shows favor to the emptied one, and what his hands have done, he makes whole for him.Flourishing are the givers of faithful love, for they are shown faithful love.THE THREAD
And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before your face, and I will call out the name of the LORD before you. I will favor whom I favor, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.The same root חנן (ḥ-n-n, to show favor) appears in “be gracious.” Proverbs shows that favor taking human form as care for the poor; Exodus names graciousness as part of the LORD’s nature.
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