What Does Proverbs 20:11 Mean?
Even a child is known by his deeds, whether his work is clean, and whether it runs straight.
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
Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.THE KEY
A child’s nature is not hidden behind youth; it becomes recognizable in the shape of each deed.
THE MEANING
You are discernible through what you do: even in someone still growing, actions reveal whether the work is clear and straight. Purity and rightness show up in practice, not only in what a person claims about themselves.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that character remains unreadable until someone is old enough to explain it: even a child’s actions already make their way discernible.
THE ROOT
יִתְנַכֶּר
yitnakkēr
GROWS FROM
נכר
n-k-r
Recognize, distinguish, make discernible.
“known” in this verse is yitnakkēr. The verb pictures the child becoming recognizable through his actions. The verse points to conduct as the means by which character comes into view.
ALSO GROWS
hikkir: Recognize, identify.
הִכִּיר
It echoes the verse’s idea that a person can be identified through what they do.
nokhrī: Stranger, foreigner.
נָכְרִי
The same root can mark someone as distinct; here, a child’s actions make their character distinctive and readable.
מַעֲלָלָיו
maʿalalav
GROWS FROM
עלל
ʿ-l-l
Act, do, deal.
“doings” in this verse is maʿalalav. The verse connects recognition to enacted life: the child is discerned through deeds, not merely through a label. This same word for deeds appears in Isaiah as something that bears fruit.
ALSO GROWS
maʿalal: Deed, action.
מַעֲלָל
It names the kind of act through which the child becomes recognizable.
maʿalalim: Deeds, actions.
מַעֲלָלִים
The plural form gathers a pattern of actions, showing character across what a person does.
יָשָׁר
yashar
GROWS FROM
ישר
y-sh-r
Be straight, level, upright.
“runs straight” in this verse is yashar. Rightness here carries the image of a straight course. Alongside purity, it describes a deed that is clear in quality and straight in direction.
ALSO GROWS
yosher: Uprightness, straightness.
יֹשֶׁר
It makes clear that rightness concerns the shape and direction of the act.
mishor: Level ground, plain.
מִישׁוֹר
The image of a level surface deepens the sense of a course without twists or crookedness.
THE PATTERN
What is within becomes discernible through what a life produces.
You will know them by their fruits. Do people gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?But someone will say, You have trust, and I have works. Show me your trust without your works, and I will show you my trust by my works.THE THREAD
Say to the aligned one that it shall be well with him, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.Isaiah’s מַעַלְלֵיהֶם (maʿalaleihem, their deeds) shares the root ע־ל־ל (ʿ-l-l, act or do) with Proverbs’ מַעֲלָלָיו (maʿalalav, his doings). Proverbs shows deeds making a child recognizable; Isaiah extends the image, showing those deeds bearing fruit.
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