What Does Proverbs 15:16 Mean?
Better is little with awe of the LORD than great treasure and tumult in it.
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
Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith.THE KEY
The verse weighs not the size of the storehouse but whether awe or tumult lives alongside what it holds.
THE MEANING
A small portion held alongside awe of the LORD is better than abundant treasure filled with turmoil. The worth of what you have includes the conditions that come with it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
More treasure always means a better life.
THE ROOT
מְהוּמָה
mĕhûmāh
GROWS FROM
הָמַם
hāmam
to confuse, discomfit, or throw into tumult
“tumult in it” in this verse is mĕhûmāh. Mehumah evokes confusion and tumult, from hamam, to throw into disarray. The verse pictures disturbance within the abundance, asking what accompanies the treasure as well as how much is stored.
ALSO GROWS
hāmam: to confuse or discomfit
הָמַם
This verb shows the disruptive force carried in the root behind the trouble that accompanies the treasure.
mĕhûmāh: confusion, tumult, or disarray
מְהוּמָה
This noun is the verse’s word for the turmoil present alongside great treasure.
יִרְאַת
yir'at
GROWS FROM
יָרֵא
to fear or stand in awe
Yir’at belongs to yare, the language of standing in awe. Here awe of the LORD is the inward posture beside possessions that makes little better than much.
ALSO GROWS
yārēʾ: to fear, revere, or stand in awe
יָרֵא
The verb behind yir’at shows that the phrase describes a lived posture toward the LORD.
môrāʾ: awe, reverence, or dread
מוֹרָא
This related noun carries the same root’s sense of awe, reinforcing the quality that accompanies the little in the verse.
THE PATTERN
A smaller portion joined to what is right can be better than abundance carrying its own harm.
Better is a little with alignment than a great harvest without judgment.Better is the little of the aligned one than the abundance of many wicked.But godliness with enough within is great gain.THE THREAD
O be in awe of the LORD, you his set-apart ones; for there is no lack for those in awe of him.The word “fear” here comes from the same Hebrew root, ירא (y-r-ʾ), meaning to fear or stand in awe. Psalm 34:9 joins that awe with the experience of having no want, opening the possibility that sufficiency is found in the posture named here, not in the size of the treasure.
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