What Does Proverbs 19:27 Mean?
Stop, my son, responding to straightening that makes you wander away from the words of knowledge.
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
Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.THE KEY
Some instruction does not deepen your knowing; it trains your hearing to wander away from it.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as a son: some instruction pulls your hearing away from words of knowing. The danger is directional; a voice can sound like guidance while moving you away from what you perceive as true.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that anything called instruction necessarily leads toward wisdom is undone: teaching can train the ear away from knowledge.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁגוֹת
lishgot
GROWS FROM
שגה
to wander, stray, or go astray
“makes you wander away from” in this verse is lishgot. The verse frames error as a path taken, not merely an incorrect idea. Instruction can move your hearing away from the words of knowledge and set you wandering.
ALSO GROWS
shagah: to wander or go astray
שָׁגָה
This is the verb’s basic movement: the instruction described here redirects the listener.
shegagah: an inadvertent error
שְׁגָגָה
The same root also names a deviation that can happen without intent, showing that being led astray need not begin with a deliberate choice.
לִשְׁמֹעַ
lishmoa
GROWS FROM
שמע
to hear, listen, and respond
“responding to” in this verse is lishmoa. Hearing carries the sense of receiving and responding, not merely taking in sound. The verse is concerned with what your listening trains you to follow.
ALSO GROWS
shama: to hear, listen, or respond
שָׁמַע
This root makes hearing an active reception that can shape a person’s direction.
shemuah: a report or message heard
שְׁמוּעָה
The branch names what reaches the ear as a message, linking the act of listening with the teaching that can redirect it.
דַּעַת
da'at
GROWS FROM
ידע
to know, recognize, or perceive
“knowledge” in this verse is da'at. Da’at grows from yada: knowing and perceiving by encounter, not merely collecting information. The verse warns that instruction can draw your hearing away from that living recognition.
ALSO GROWS
yada: to know or perceive
יָדַע
This verb supplies the root beneath da’at, tying knowledge to the act of knowing.
moda: an acquaintance or known relation
מוֹדָע
This branch carries knowing into relationship, underscoring that knowledge can be personal and encountered.
THE PATTERN
Listening is directional: instruction is discerned by whether it keeps a person near knowledge or leads them away from it.
Go from before the fool, when you do not perceive the lips of knowledge in him.To the instruction and to the witness. If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no dawn in them.Beloved, do not lean your weight on every breath, but test the breaths, whether they come out of God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.THE THREAD
Bring your heart to the straightening, and your ears to the words of knowledge.Both verses use the Hebrew words for instruction and for “words of knowledge.” Here, instruction can draw the ear away; there, the heart and ears are turned toward knowledge, revealing that the direction of the teaching matters.
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