What Does Proverbs 19:20 Mean?
Hear and respond to counsel, and take in the straightening, so that you may be wise in your latter end.
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
Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.THE KEY
The wisdom you have in the future grows from the counsel you hear and the correction you receive now.
THE MEANING
Your wisdom is not fixed: as you hear counsel and receive instruction, you grow wiser for what lies ahead. The verse makes your future wisdom a fruit of what you are willing to take in today.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that correction means rejection dissolves here: instruction is one of the ways wisdom grows.
THE ROOT
שְׁמַע
shema
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, heed, and respond.
“Hear and respond” in this verse is shema. The Hebrew word carries more than receiving sound; it includes listening that answers. The verse links taking in counsel with a response that shapes you, before naming the wisdom that appears later.
ALSO GROWS
shama: To hear or listen with attention.
שָׁמַע
This verbal form shows that counsel begins with attention that can become a response.
shemu'ah: A report or message that is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The same root can name what reaches your ears, while the verse points toward what you do with what you hear.
מוּסָר
musar
GROWS FROM
יסר
Discipline, correction, and instruction that shape conduct.
“straightening” in this verse is musar. The instruction here carries the sense of correction that forms a person, not information alone. Receiving it lets what is out of line be corrected as wisdom takes shape.
ALSO GROWS
yasar: To discipline, correct, or instruct.
יָסַר
The verb shows the formative action beneath the instruction the verse says to receive.
yissurim: Forms of discipline or correction.
יִסּוּרִים
This related noun makes the corrective edge of instruction visible; the verse presents receiving it as part of growing wise.
תֶּחְכַּם
techkam
GROWS FROM
חכם
Be wise or skillful in judgment and action.
“wise” in this verse is techkam. The result is not merely knowing more; it is becoming skillful in how you meet what lies ahead. Wisdom is shown as something that grows through received counsel and correction.
ALSO GROWS
chakam: A wise or skillful person.
חָכָם
This describes the person the verse says you may become through receiving counsel and instruction.
chokhmah: Wisdom or practical skill.
חָכְמָה
The related noun connects wisdom with lived capability, not simply stored knowledge.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom grows when instruction is received in a way that shapes a response.
Set before the wise one, and he grows yet wiser; make known to the aligned one, and he adds to what is taken in.Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon the rock.THE THREAD
A wise one hears and responds, and adds to what is taken in; a discerning one grasps the cords that steer.The Hebrew root שמע (shama, hear and respond) appears in both verses. Proverbs 1:5 makes the same link explicit: hearing is how wisdom continues to grow and how a person becomes ready for wise counsel.
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