What Does Proverbs 24:1 Mean?

Do not burn with envy against evil men, nor crave to be with them.

Proverbs 24:1 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them.

THE KEY

Envy is not shown as a private feeling; it bends desire toward the company of the envied.

THE MEANING

The verse exposes how envy toward people doing evil can become a desire for their company. The pull reaches beyond what they do to the wish to stand among them.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie is that envy of evil people can remain detached from the desire to join their company.

THE ROOT

תְּקַנֵּא

teqanneʾ

GROWS FROM

קנא

To be jealous or zealous.

“burn with envy” in this verse is teqanneʾ. The verb ⁨תְּקַנֵּא⁩ (teqanneʾ, be jealous or zealous) comes from ⁨קנא⁩ (qana), a root that also gives the noun ⁨קִנְאָה⁩ (qinʾāh, jealousy or zeal). Beside the desire to be with these people, envy appears as a charged regard that can draw you toward their company.

ALSO GROWS

qinʾāh: Jealousy or zeal.

קִנְאָה

This noun shares the root ⁨קנא⁩ and shows that the verse’s “envious” belongs to a wider family of charged regard.

qannāʾ: Jealous or zealous.

קַנָּא

This adjective shares the same root and shows that ⁨קנא⁩ describes a quality as well as an action.

THE PATTERN

Envy can turn regard for the wicked into a desire for their company and a share in the disorder around them.

A Psalm of David. Do not burn yourself because of the evildoers, and do not burn with envy at the makers of crookedness.

Psalm 37:1 · SDVThe same Hebrew root ⁨קנא⁩ (qana, be jealous or zealous) names envy toward evildoers.

Do not let your heart envy those who miss the mark; be in the awe of the LORD all the day long.

Proverbs 23:17 · SDVEnvy is located in the heart, showing where the pull toward another’s way begins.

For where boiling and strife are, there is no standing still and every base deed.

James 3:16 · SDVEnvy appears alongside strife and the disorder that accompanies evil work.

THE THREAD

Do not let your heart envy those who miss the mark; be in the awe of the LORD all the day long.

Proverbs 23:17 · SDV

The same root ⁨קנא⁩ (qana, be jealous or zealous) names the heart’s envy here. Proverbs 24:1 carries that inward regard outward into a desire for company.

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