What Does Proverbs 18:23 Mean?
The poor speaks entreaties, but the rich answers with strength.
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
The poor useth intreaties; but the rich answereth roughly.THE KEY
The poor ask for favor, while the rich answer with the force of strength.
THE MEANING
Poverty speaks in appeals; wealth can answer bluntly. The verse names how unequal standing shapes the tone and power of an encounter.
THE ROOT
תַּחֲנוּנִים
taḥanunim
GROWS FROM
חנן
to show favor
“intreaties” in this verse is taḥanunim. The word for entreaties grows from the same root as favor: the poor person’s speech is an appeal for favor. English keeps the pleading but hides that shared seed.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: favor
חֵן
This branch makes the appeal in “intreaties” an explicit request for favor.
ḥānan: to show favor
חָנַן
The verb names the favor that the entreaty seeks.
teḥinnah: supplication
תְּחִנָּה
This related noun shows the same root forming another word for a plea.
עַזּוֹת
ʿazzôt
GROWS FROM
עזז
to be strong or fierce
“with strength” in this verse is ʿazzôt. The word translated “roughly” belongs to a family of strength and fierceness. The reply carries force in its very wording, adding a sharper edge to the contrast with the poor person’s appeal.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaz: strong, fierce, or bold
עַז
This adjective shares the forceful quality heard in the rich person’s answer.
ʿoz: strength or might
עֹז
This noun reveals the strength beneath the harshness of the reply.
THE PATTERN
Material power changes whose speech can plead and whose speech can command.
The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is a servant to the lender.And I say, wisdom is better than might, yet the poor man's wisdom is scorned, and his words are not heard.But you have dishonored the emptied ones. Do not the rich press down on you, and drag you before the platform of judgment?THE THREAD
Bend toward us, O LORD, bend toward us, for we are filled beyond measure with contempt.The word translated “intreaties” shares the root חנן (ḥānan), “to show favor,” with the repeated plea translated “Have mercy.” The poor person’s speech is thus voiced as an appeal for favor, linking this proverb’s encounter to a direct cry for it.
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