What Does Proverbs 14:27 Mean?
The awe of the LORD is a spring of life, to turn aside from the snares of death.
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
The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.THE KEY
Awe of the LORD is not another snare; it is the living source that opens a way away from death’s traps.
THE MEANING
Awe of the LORD is a living source for you now, drawing you away from what ensnares and leads toward death. The verse presents turning aside as something that flows from this source of life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that awe of God is itself a trap: here it is a fountain of life that leads away from death’s snares.
THE ROOT
יִרְאַת
yir'at
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
“awe of the LORD” in this verse is yir'at. This root holds fear and awe together; with the LORD as its object, the verse speaks of awe rather than a threat that traps you. That awe is named as a fountain of life.
ALSO GROWS
yir'ah: Fear, reverence, or awe.
יִרְאָה
This noun shares the verse’s root and shows that its “fear” carries the sense of reverent awe.
nora: Awe-inspiring or fearsome.
נוֹרָא
This related form shows how the root can describe what inspires awe, illuminating the verse’s focus on the LORD.
חַיִּים
chayyim
GROWS FROM
חיה
To live, be alive, or revive.
The root is active: it means living, not merely possessing an abstract “life.” Its branches name living beings and the act of living, so the fountain here sustains what is alive.
ALSO GROWS
chai: Living or alive.
חַי
This branch makes the verse’s “life” concrete: what flows from the source is living.
chayyah: A living creature.
חַיָּה
This branch extends the root from the state of being alive to the living being itself.
chayah: To live or remain alive.
חָיָה
The verb shows life as ongoing activity, fitting the image of a fountain that keeps flowing.
THE PATTERN
Life flows from connection with God and turns the reader away from what leads to death.
For with you is the spring of life; in your light we see light.The awe of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the set-apart ones is discernment.But whoever drinks of the water I give never thirsts into the ages; the water I give becomes in him a spring of water leaping up into the life of the ages.THE THREAD
For with you is the spring of life; in your light we see light.Proverbs’ “fountain of life” and the psalm’s “fountain of life” share the Hebrew phrase מְקוֹר חַיִּים (meqor chayyim). The psalm locates that source with God, opening the proverb’s image of awe as a path that turns you from death’s snares.
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