What Does Proverbs 25:1 Mean?
These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah carried over.
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
These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.THE KEY
The sayings reach you because someone moved them forward; preservation is part of wisdom’s life.
THE MEANING
These sayings are present to you now through deliberate preservation: wisdom remains available because it is carried forward and made readable. The verse places that human act of carrying inside the life of the wisdom itself.
THE ROOT
הֶעְתִּיקוּ
heʿtiqū
GROWS FROM
עָתַק
ʿataq
To move, remove, or transfer.
“carried over” in this verse is heʿtiqū. The same root can describe moving something from its place and transferring words into a record. The verse makes preservation an act of movement: these sayings remain available because they are carried forward.
ALSO GROWS
heʿtiqū: They copied or transferred.
הֶעְתִּיקוּ
This is the form used in the verse: the sayings are moved into a new record so they can remain present.
hammaʿtiqām: The one moving or removing them.
הַמַּעְתִּיקָם
Job uses this root for mountains being moved from their place, showing the force of movement held in the verb that here carries wisdom forward.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom remains available through deliberate acts of preservation and transmission.
And the LORD said to Moses, Write this as a memorial in a scroll, and set it into the ears of Joshua. For I will surely wipe out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens.And you shall sharpen them to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk along the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.And these things you heard from me among many witnesses, place beside steady people who will be able to teach others also.THE THREAD
Who removes the mountains, and they do not perceive; who overturns them in the burning of his anger.The same Hebrew root appears here for moving mountains out of place. In Proverbs it carries sayings forward into a record, so a root of movement also describes how wisdom travels across time.
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