What Does Proverbs 16:10 Mean?
An oracle rests on the lips of the king, and his mouth does not trespass in judgment.
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 divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment.THE KEY
The king’s verdict is presented as an oracle carried on his lips, while his mouth must not betray the judgment it speaks.
THE MEANING
A verdict spoken from authority carries more than personal preference; it bears the weight of an oracle. Yet the ruler’s mouth remains answerable to the judgment it speaks and can betray it. The verse holds both realities together: power speaks with weight, and its speech is measured.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A ruler’s position makes his verdict self-validating.
THE ROOT
יִמְעַל
yimʿal from maʿal
GROWS FROM
מעל
m-ʿ-l
To act unfaithfully, betray, or violate a trust.
“trespass” in this verse is yimʿal from maʿal. The verb translated “transgresseth” can name betrayal of trust, not merely stepping past a boundary. The line pictures the ruler’s mouth as one that must not betray the judgment carried on its lips.
ALSO GROWS
maʿal: To act unfaithfully or commit a breach of trust.
מָעַל
This verb gives “transgresseth not” the force of not betraying what the judgment requires.
maʿal: Trespass or treachery.
מַעַל
The noun shows the breach as a violation of trust, sharpening what is at stake when the king speaks.
קֶסֶם
qesem
GROWS FROM
קסם
q-s-m
To practice divination or give an oracle.
The word rendered “divine sentence” is qesem, the language of an oracle or divinatory verdict. It gives the king’s utterance the weight of something beyond ordinary opinion, even as the next clause measures whether his mouth betrays judgment.
ALSO GROWS
qāsam: To practice divination or seek an oracle.
קָסַם
The verb reveals the source-word’s association with receiving a verdict through an oracle.
qōsēm: A diviner, one who gives or seeks an oracle.
קֹסֵם
The person formed from this root echoes the oracle-language placed on the king’s lips.
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
sh-p-t
To judge, govern, or decide a case.
Mishpat can name the act of judging, the verdict, and the order judgment establishes. The verse links the king’s speech to judgment, then names betrayal of that judgment as the mouth’s failure.
ALSO GROWS
shāphaṭ: To judge or govern.
שָׁפַט
The verb shows judgment as an act carried out through authority.
shōphēṭ: A judge or ruler.
שֹׁפֵט
This branch connects the king’s role to the responsibility carried by his judgments.
mishpat: Judgment, verdict, or justice.
מִשְׁפָּט
This is the standard the king’s mouth must not betray.
THE PATTERN
Speech that bears divine authority remains accountable to a measure beyond the speaker.
A Psalm for Solomon. Give the king your judgments, O God, and your alignment to the king's son.Open your mouth, judge in alignment, and plead the cause of the bowed and the craving.If anyone speaks, let them speak as the words of God. If anyone serves, let them serve by the strength God supplies, so that in all things God may be given weight through Jesus, the Anointed One, to whom belong the weight and the might for the ages of the ages. Amen.THE THREAD
A Psalm for Solomon. Give the king your judgments, O God, and your alignment to the king's son.Psalm 72 uses the same Hebrew word, מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, judgment), for what God gives the king. The king’s mouth carries an oracle, but the measure of its speech is received rather than self-authored.
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