What Does Proverbs 22:16 Mean?
The one who presses the emptied to multiply for himself, and the one who gives to the rich, surely comes to lack.
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 oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.THE KEY
Two ways of moving wealth upward, taking from the poor and giving to the rich, meet at the same destination: lack.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now: when wealth is pursued by pressing down the poor or flowing toward the already rich, its end is lack. Apparent increase does not guarantee actual sufficiency.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that extracting from the poor or directing resources to the wealthy is a dependable route to more; the verse names lack as the outcome.
THE ROOT
לְהַרְבּוֹת
leharbot
GROWS FROM
רבה
rabah
To become many, increase, or multiply.
The phrase is literally “to multiply for himself,” making the aim self-directed. The sentence sets that multiplication against lack, showing that quantity gained and sufficiency are not the same thing.
ALSO GROWS
ravah: To become many or increase.
רָבָה
This is the multiplying action the verse places on the path toward lack.
rav: Many or great.
רַב
The branch carries the sense of becoming numerous or abundant that sits behind “increase.”
עֹשֵׁק
osheq
GROWS FROM
עשק
ashaq
To exploit, defraud, or withhold from someone.
“presses” in this verse is osheq. The root carries the force of extraction: the poor person is not merely overlooked but pressed as a source of someone else’s increase. The verse places this taking alongside giving to the rich, and assigns both the same end.
ALSO GROWS
ashaq: To exploit, oppress, or defraud.
עָשַׁק
This verb names the action that turns another person’s poverty into an opportunity for gain.
osheq: Oppression or exploitation.
עֹשֶׁק
The noun makes visible the taking itself, not just the hardship left behind.
לְמַחְסוֹר
le-machsor
GROWS FROM
חסר
chaser
To lack or be deficient.
The outcome is a state of lack, directly countering the attempt to multiply. The verse’s final word makes the reversal plain: more gathered for oneself does not ensure that enough remains.
ALSO GROWS
chaser: To lack or be in need.
חָסֵר
This verb carries the condition named at the end of the verse.
machsor: Lack, want, or need.
מַחְסוֹר
This noun names the destination of both wealth-seeking paths.
THE PATTERN
Gain built by withholding, unjust taking, or self-protective hoarding cannot secure lasting abundance.
Wealth from breath shrinks; the one who gathers by hand grows.There is a sickening harm I have seen under the sun, wealth guarded for its owners to their harm.Look, the wages of the workers who mowed your fields, stripped away by your fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have gone into the ears of the LORD of hosts.THE THREAD
Do not tear away from the emptied, for he is emptied; and do not crush the bowed one in the gate.The Hebrew word translated “oppress” here comes from the same root as “oppresseth” in Proverbs 22:16. The nearby verse names the taking from the poor directly, revealing the shared root beneath both the attempted increase and its moral weight.
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