What Does Proverbs 15:27 Mean?
The one who cuts for gain troubles his own house, but the one who hates gifts lives.
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 is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live.THE KEY
The same Hebrew root echoes in “greedy” and “gain”: what is grasped as profit brings trouble into the house meant to benefit from it.
THE MEANING
When profit is acquired through grasping, the disturbance does not stay outside the self; it reaches into one’s own household. The person who refuses an inducement that would compromise them remains on the side of life. “Gifts” here points to bribes or inducements, not ordinary generosity.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a profitable taking stays safely outside your private life: this verse says the trouble comes home.
THE ROOT
בֹּצֵעַ בָּצַע
bōṣēaʿ beṣaʿ
GROWS FROM
ב־צ־ע
b-ts-ʿ
To cut off or seize; by extension, to acquire gain, often unjustly.
“cuts for gain” in this verse is bōṣēaʿ beṣaʿ. The same consonants echo in bōṣēaʿ, the one who takes gain, and beṣaʿ, the gain itself. Hebrew makes the grasping and its reward sound like one act, then shows its disturbance reaching the very house meant to benefit.
ALSO GROWS
bāṣaʿ: To cut off, seize, or acquire gain.
בָּצַע
The root holds the motion of taking inside the word for gain, exposing how grasping profit can carry harm with it.
beṣaʿ: Gain or profit, often ill-gotten.
בֶּצַע
This is the gain named in the verse: the profit and the grasping that obtains it share the same root.
מַתָּנוֹת
mattanōt
GROWS FROM
נ־ת־ן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
“gifts” in this verse is mattanōt. Mattanōt are things given, from the root natan: to give, set, or place. In this verse they are inducements that can be placed before someone to bend judgment; refusing them is not contempt for generosity.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The verb behind “gifts” keeps the image concrete: something is given or placed before the person.
mattanāh: A gift, something given.
מַתָּנָה
The singular form makes the link visible: the “gifts” in the verse are things offered, whose purpose and effect matter.
THE PATTERN
Gain secured by grasping destabilizes the life and household of the one who gathers it, while refusing corrupt inducements protects life.
So are the paths of every one who cuts for gain; it takes the living soul of its owners.Moreover, you shall look out from all the people for men of strength, who stand in awe of God, men of truth, who hate plunder; and set such over them as rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.And he said to them, Watch, and guard yourselves against grasping, for a person's life does not lie in the overflow of what they hold.THE THREAD
So are the paths of every one who cuts for gain; it takes the living soul of its owners.Both verses use the same Hebrew root in “greedy of gain.” Proverbs 1:19 opens the image further: what enters the house as profit can consume the life of the person who holds it.
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