What Does Proverbs 26:19 Mean?
So is the man who deceives his neighbor, and says, "Am I not laughing?"
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
So is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not I in sport?THE KEY
The verse names the act as deception before the speaker tries to rename it as sport.
THE MEANING
You see the act and the story told about it side by side: a person deceives a neighbor, then calls it play. The excuse may explain how the deceiver frames it, but it does not erase the deceit the verse names. That gap remains recognizable whenever harm is presented as harmless fun.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that calling a harmful act a joke makes it harmless. The excuse describes the speaker’s framing; it does not change the act named by the verse.
THE ROOT
רִמָּה
rimmāh
GROWS FROM
רמה
To deceive, beguile, or deal treacherously
“deceiveth” in this verse is rimmāh. The verse gives the deed first: רִמָּה (rimmāh, deceived), then the man’s explanation that he is playing. The related noun מִרְמָה (mirmah, deceit) names the breach itself, so the playful framing cannot replace what has already happened.
ALSO GROWS
mirmah: Deceit, treachery
מִרְמָה
The noun names the wrong that the speaker’s claim of play leaves in place.
remiyyah: Deceit; also slackness
רְמִיָּה
This related word carries the root into the idea of dealing falsely, echoing the gap between the act and its excuse.
מְשַׂחֵק
mesacheq
GROWS FROM
שחק
To laugh, play, or mock
The Hebrew has מְשַׂחֵק (mesacheq, playing or joking), from שחק, whose range includes laughing, playing, and mocking. The root keeps mockery in view while the verse sets that play directly beside deceit.
ALSO GROWS
sechoq: Laughter, sport
שְׂחוֹק
The same noun appears in Proverbs 10:23, where doing mischief is called sport.
yischaq: He laughs
יִשְׂחַק
The verb shows the root’s ordinary sense of laughter, still present beneath the speaker’s claim that the deception is only play.
THE PATTERN
A claim of play cannot erase harm already named as deceit.
As laughter to a fool is doing a scheme, but the discerning one has wisdom.The words of his mouth are smoother than butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are opened swords.Love does not rejoice over misalignment, but rejoices with truth.THE THREAD
As laughter to a fool is doing a scheme, but the discerning one has wisdom.The same שחק (ś-ḥ-q, laugh or play) root sits behind “sport” here and in Proverbs 10:23. There, the word directly joins sport with mischief; here, it follows the word for deception, making the speaker’s joke part of the scene rather than an erasure of it.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us