What Does Proverbs 17:6 Mean?
Children's children are the crown of old men, and the adornment of children are their fathers.
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
Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.THE KEY
Honor moves both ways: descendants crown the elders, and fathers become their children’s adornment.
THE MEANING
The verse presents family honor as reciprocal: descendants become the crown of elders, while fathers become the glory their children carry. Each generation gives the other something worth honoring.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that honor flows only from parents to children: the generations that follow are themselves the elders’ crown.
THE ROOT
עֲטֶרֶת
ʿăṭeret
GROWS FROM
עטר
ʿ-ṭ-r
To surround, encircle, or crown.
“the crown of old men” in this verse is ʿăṭeret. The crown is pictured as something that encircles: the descendants themselves surround the elders as their living adornment. The verse makes the generations that follow the crown, rather than merely the heirs, of those who came before.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāṭar: To crown or encircle.
עָטַר
The verb makes the image active: the grandchildren crown the elders by surrounding their later years as living continuation.
ʿăṭārāh: A crown or diadem.
עֲטָרָה
This noun carries the same image of honor worn around the head, making the descendants a visible mark of honor to the elders.
תִּפְאֶרֶת
tiphʾeret
GROWS FROM
פאר
p-ʾ-r
To beautify, adorn, or glorify.
“the adornment of children” in this verse is tiphʾeret. The verse pairs crowning with adornment: the fathers are not only the children’s ancestors, but their beauty and honor. The root makes “glory” concrete as something that adorns.
ALSO GROWS
paʾar: To adorn, beautify, or glorify.
פָּאַר
This verb shows glory as an act of making beautiful; the fathers are named as the children’s adornment.
peʾer: Adornment, beauty, or a headdress.
פְּאֵר
This branch gives the image a tangible form: glory is like an ornament worn, and the verse places the fathers in that role for their children.
THE PATTERN
The fruit of one generation becomes the honor and joy of another.
And Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see your face. Look, God has shown me your seed as well.And you see your children's children, and wholeness upon Israel.I have no greater joy than this, to hear my children walking in truth.THE THREAD
A gray head is a crown of splendor, when it is found on the way of alignment.This verse joins the same Hebrew words for “crown” and “glory” found in Proverbs 17:6. Here, old age is a crown of glory; there, grandchildren crown the elders, while fathers are their children’s adornment.
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