What Does Proverbs 23:8 Mean?
The morsel you have eaten, you vomit out, and you spoil your sweet words.
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
The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.THE KEY
When the welcome is hollow, the morsel comes back out and even pleasant words are spoiled.
THE MEANING
A portion received from a heart that is not truly with you cannot settle; what you have swallowed rises back out. Your pleasant words are spoiled too, as the exchange turns from agreeable speech into rejection.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A pleasant invitation proves that the giver’s heart is with you.
THE ROOT
תְקִיאֶנָּה
teqi'ennah
GROWS FROM
קיא
qiy
to vomit, eject
“vomit out” in this verse is teqi'ennah. The verb describes forceful expulsion: what cannot remain inside comes back out. The same root describes the land vomiting out its inhabitants and a fish vomiting Jonah onto dry land.
ALSO GROWS
vattaqe: and it vomited out
וַתָּקֵא
The land uses this same verb to expel its inhabitants, widening the image beyond one person’s stomach.
vayyaqe: and it vomited out
וַיָּקֵא
The fish uses this same verb when Jonah is expelled onto dry land.
וְשִׁחַתָּ
weshichatta
GROWS FROM
שחת
shachat
to ruin, spoil, destroy
“spoil” in this verse is weshichatta. The verb carries the force of ruining or corrupting, so the pleasant words do not merely disappear; they are damaged by the encounter. The verse places spoiled speech beside the rejected morsel, showing both the meal and its agreeable language failing together.
ALSO GROWS
hishchit: he destroyed, corrupted
הִשְׁחִית
This form shows the root’s active force: something is made ruined, as the pleasant words are here.
nishchatah: it was corrupted, ruined
נִשְׁחָתָה
This form names a state of corruption, giving “lose” the added shade of words spoiled by what has happened.
הַנְּעִמִים
hanne'imim
GROWS FROM
נעם
na'am
to be pleasant, delightful
“sweet” in this verse is hanne'imim. The Hebrew describes the words as pleasant or agreeable, placing verbal charm beside the morsel that seems good to eat. Both seem welcome at first, yet the encounter reveals that their pleasantness cannot hold.
ALSO GROWS
no'am: pleasantness, delight
נֹעַם
This noun shows the root’s quality of delight, the quality carried by the speaker’s words.
na'im: pleasant, agreeable
נָעִים
This form describes what feels pleasant, echoing the welcome that the verse’s outcome overturns.
THE PATTERN
What cannot remain within is eventually expelled.
He swallows down strength, and vomits it up; God drives it out of his belly.And the LORD said to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out onto the dry ground.So then, because you are tepid, neither cold nor boiling, I am about to vomit you out of my mouth.THE THREAD
And the LORD said to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out onto the dry ground.The same Hebrew root describes both the morsel coming back out and the fish expelling Jonah onto dry land. The verse’s image of vomiting belongs to a wider scriptural pattern of forceful expulsion.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us