What Does Proverbs 23:17 Mean?
Do not let your heart envy those who miss the mark; be in the awe of the LORD all the day long.
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
Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.THE KEY
Envy and awe are rival directions for the heart’s zeal: the verse turns attention from the sinner’s apparent gain to the LORD, all day long.
THE MEANING
The reader’s heart feels the pull of what people who miss the mark appear to gain, yet that appearance does not have to set the day’s measure. Awe of the LORD is a steadier orientation, present through the whole day. The verse names the contest as one of attention: whose way gets to define what is worth wanting.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that another person’s visible success makes their way worth wanting.
THE ROOT
יִקְנָא
yiqna
GROWS FROM
קנא
q-n-ʾ
To be zealous, jealous, or envious.
“envy” in this verse is yiqna. The word carries the force of zeal, not merely wanting what someone else has. The verse shows that this intensity can fix on the apparent gains of people who miss the mark, or turn toward awe of the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
qin’ah: Zeal, jealousy, envy.
קִנְאָה
This noun shows the same root’s range: the heart’s intensity can be called zeal or envy depending on where it is directed.
qanna’: Jealous, zealous.
קַנָּא
This adjective makes the intensity plain: envy is a charged attachment, not a passing preference.
יִרְאָה
yir’ah
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
When directed toward the LORD, yir’ah carries awe and reverence as well as fear. “All the day long” presents it as a lasting orientation of the heart, set against the pull of envy.
ALSO GROWS
yare’: To fear, revere, stand in awe.
יָרֵא
The verb behind “fear” shows that the verse describes an ongoing stance toward the LORD.
mora’: Fear, reverence, awe.
מוֹרָא
This related noun keeps reverence within the root’s range, opening “fear of the LORD” beyond alarm alone.
חַטָּאִים
chatta’im
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss, err, or miss the mark.
“those who miss the mark” in this verse is chatta’im. The root holds error and missing within the word rendered “sinners.” Their apparent gains do not change what the word names, and so cannot become the measure for the reader’s heart.
ALSO GROWS
chet: Missing, error, missing the mark.
חֵטְא
This noun makes the root’s idea of missing visible in the label used here.
chatta’: One who misses; a sinner.
חַטָּא
The person-word grows from the same seed as “missing,” linking the verse’s warning to the root’s sense of error.
THE PATTERN
The heart follows what it treats as enviable, so Scripture turns its attention from visible wrongdoers toward steady reverence for God.
A Psalm of David. Do not burn yourself because of the evildoers, and do not burn with envy at the makers of crookedness.For I burn with envy at the boasting ones when I see the wholeness of the wicked.Therefore, receiving an unshakable governance, let us hold favor, through which we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe.THE THREAD
And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you, but to stand in awe of the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your living soul,The same root, ירא (y-r-ʾ), names the awe Proverbs places against envy. Here it is joined with walking, loving, serving, and the whole heart and soul, showing it as the shape of an entire life rather than a passing fear.
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