What Does Proverbs 26:15 Mean?
The slack one buries his hand in the dish; it burns him to turn it back to his mouth.
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 slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth.THE KEY
The hand is already in the dish; the verse’s strange failure is that it cannot complete the return to the mouth.
THE MEANING
Provision can be within reach while the need remains unmet, because the movement from having food to receiving it is unfinished. The Hebrew image places the hand in a dish, yet the mouth is still unfed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that having access to what sustains you is the same as being nourished; nearness is not completion.
THE ROOT
לַהֲשִׁיבָהּ
lahashivah
GROWS FROM
שוב
sh-w-b
turn back, return
“turn back” in this verse is lahashivah. The word pictures the hand’s movement as a return: the food is already reached, but the return that completes the path to the mouth does not happen. English can make this sound like mere reluctance; the root keeps the unfinished movement in view.
ALSO GROWS
turn back: Return toward a place or point previously left.
The hand must turn back from the dish toward the mouth.
restore: Bring something back to its place or former state.
The return is the small act that restores the food to its intended use as nourishment.
טָמַן
tāman
GROWS FROM
טמן
t-m-n
conceal, hide, bury
“buries” in this verse is tāman. The Hebrew image is of a hand sunk into a dish, already among the food. Hiding and burying share the sense of placing something out of view, so the hand is present but buried in stillness where it cannot finish feeding the person.
ALSO GROWS
hide: Conceal something from view.
The hand disappears from the action even though it is already at the food.
bury: Place something beneath or within a covering.
The image makes the hand seem buried in the dish, emphasizing how little separates available food from an unfed mouth.
THE PATTERN
Provision becomes nourishment only when the movement from having it to receiving or using it is completed.
The slack man does not roast his catch, but the wealth of the keen is weighty.And one of you says to them, Go in wholeness, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them what the body needs. What is the profit?And he came near to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and lifted him onto his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and tended him.THE THREAD
The slack one buries his hand in the dish, and will not turn it back even to his mouth.This verse repeats the hidden-hand image and makes the failure even sharper: he will not so much as bring the hand to his mouth. The same return-root reveals the interrupted movement from food within reach to food received.
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