What Does Proverbs 16:19 Mean?
Better is it to be low in breath with the bowed ones than to divide the plunder with the lifted ones.
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 it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.THE KEY
Humility here is a place beside the lowly, while sharing spoil ties the proud to what has been seized.
THE MEANING
Being low in spirit among the lowly is better than sharing plunder with the proud. The verse locates worth in the place you stand, not in the gain offered there.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a share in the proud person’s gains makes you better off than standing with the lowly.
THE ROOT
שְׁפַל
shephal
GROWS FROM
שפל
To be low or to be brought low.
“low in breath” in this verse is shephal. The phrase is “low of ruach”, רוּחַ (ruach, breath), so humility is not only an abstract quality; it is a lowly posture. The שפל root also names being lowered, setting this place among the lowly against the proud who divide the spoil.
ALSO GROWS
shaphel: Low; humble.
שָׁפֵל
This adjective shares the root’s consonants and describes the low place the verse calls better.
hishpil: To lower or bring low.
הִשְׁפִּיל
This verb shows that the root can describe the act of lowering, a movement that Proverbs 29:23 connects with pride.
shiflut: Lowliness; a low state.
שִׁפְלוּת
This noun makes the shared root’s quality explicit: the lowly position is a state with value, not merely an insult.
THE PATTERN
The lowly are upheld and regarded, while pride’s apparent elevation gives way to lowering.
Swelling goes before breaking, and a breath lifted high goes before a stumbling.Though the LORD is lifted high, he sees the low ones, and the lofty he perceives from afar.But he gives greater favor. Therefore it says, God sets himself against those who lift themselves high, and gives favor to those made low.THE THREAD
A man's lifting up brings him low, but weight holds up the low in breath.The phrase “bring him low” shares the שפל (shaphal, be low or bring low) root with “humble” in Proverbs 16:19. The shared root reveals the turn: pride is brought low, while honor upholds the lowly in spirit.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us