What Does Proverbs 26:7 Mean?
The legs of the lame hang limp, and a proverb hangs limp in the mouth of the thick-headed.
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 legs of the lame are not equal: so is a parable in the mouth of fools.THE KEY
A true proverb in a fool’s mouth is wisdom with no steady legs to carry it.
THE MEANING
A saying can be true as it leaves your mouth and still fail to hold together in your life. The verse sets words in the mouth beside legs that cannot bear a steady step: speaking wisdom and being carried by it are not the same.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Repeating a wise saying is the same as possessing its wisdom.
THE ROOT
פִּסֵּחַ
pissēaḥ
GROWS FROM
פסח
פסח (p-s-ḥ): to limp, hop, or halt rather than move with a steady gait.
“lame” in this verse is pissēaḥ. The image is not simply unevenness: the Hebrew names an impaired gait, and the same root can describe halting between two choices. A fool can carry a proverb’s sound in the mouth while lacking the steadiness to bear its meaning.
ALSO GROWS
pissēaḥ: Lame; one with an impaired or limping gait.
פִּסֵּחַ
This is the word for the person whose legs cannot provide a steady step in the verse’s image.
pōsəḥîm: Limping or halting; rendered “halt” in 1 Kings 18:21.
פֹּסְחִים
The same root describes wavering between two opinions, linking an unsteady gait with an unsteady course.
מָשָׁל
māšāl
GROWS FROM
משל
משל (m-sh-l): to compare or liken; to express something through a likeness.
A māšāl (parable or proverb) is a comparison: its image carries meaning beyond its words. Here the saying can remain true, yet the mouth speaking it does not make that meaning part of the speaker’s life.
ALSO GROWS
māšal: To compare, liken, or speak by analogy.
מָשַׁל
This verbal form shows how a proverb works: it places one image beside another so the listener can perceive their relation.
māšāl: A proverb, parable, or illustrative saying.
מָשָׁל
This is the form in the verse; its comparison cannot make the fool who speaks it steady.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom’s words become life-bearing when the person carrying them can stand and move by them.
And Elijah came to all the people, and said, How long will you limp on two branches? If the LORD is God, walk after him, but if Baal, then walk after him. And the people answered him not a word.And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not respond will be likened to a foolish man who built his house on the sand.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
And Elijah came to all the people, and said, How long will you limp on two branches? If the LORD is God, walk after him, but if Baal, then walk after him. And the people answered him not a word.The Hebrew word for “lame” is פִּסֵּחַ (pissēaḥ, limping or lame), from פסח (p-s-ḥ, to limp or halt); 1 Kings uses this same root in “halt ye between two opinions.” The shared root makes the proverb’s failed legs more than an image of unevenness: the speech lacks the steadiness to carry what it says.
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