What Does Proverbs 18:13 Mean?
The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.
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 answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls an answer a returned word, so a reply can arrive before the matter has actually been heard.
THE MEANING
When you answer before you have heard, a returned word outruns what has actually reached you. The verse calls that gap folly and shame, exposing a response that has not yet received what it claims to answer.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a quick, confident reply proves you understand what was said.
THE ROOT
מֵשִׁיב
meshiv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
Turn back, return.
“returns a word” in this verse is meshiv. The verb translated answer is formed from the root for returning: the one who answers is returning something. Here the return happens before reception, so the folly lies in the order itself.
ALSO GROWS
shav: Returned; turned back.
שָׁב
It makes the answer a return, not merely a statement; this return comes before listening has completed the exchange.
teshuvah: Return; answer or response.
תְּשׁוּבָה
The same root can name both returning and responding, revealing the movement inside an answer.
יִשְׁמָע
yishmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שׁמע
shamaʿ
Hear, listen, attend.
“heareth” in this verse is yishmaʿ. This is hearing as attentive reception, already oriented toward response; English can make it sound as if an ear merely registers sound. The answer that comes before this kind of hearing has not yet met the matter it claims to answer.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This familiar form carries hearing toward response, the sequence the proverb says has been skipped.
shemuʿah: Report; heard message.
שְׁמוּעָה
The root also names what is received by hearing, bringing the absent message into view before a reply is formed.
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
Speak; speech or word.
“returns a word” in this verse is davar. The KJV’s matter is דָּבָר (davar), a word that can mean both an affair and a word. The warning is sharply recursive: a word is returned about a matter, also called a word, before that matter has been heard.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: Spoke.
דִּבֵּר
The verb from the same root makes the link between a matter and speech explicit.
devarim: Words; matters or things.
דְּבָרִים
The plural retains both senses, showing how English separates what Hebrew can hold together.
THE PATTERN
A sound response grows from receiving the matter before returning words.
A wise one hears and responds, and adds to what is taken in; a discerning one grasps the cords that steer.And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for your servant hears and responds.Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to swell.THE THREAD
A wise one hears and responds, and adds to what is taken in; a discerning one grasps the cords that steer.Proverbs 1:5 uses שׁמע (shamaʿ, hear and respond), the same root as the hearing in this verse. There, hearing increases learning; here, answering before hearing is folly and shame. The shared root shows that wisdom grows from reception before reply.
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