What Does Proverbs 27:11 Mean?
Be wise, my son, and gladden my heart, so that I may return a word to the one who reproaches me.
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
My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him that reproacheth me.THE KEY
The wisdom in your life becomes both joy to another heart and an answer to the person who reproaches them.
THE MEANING
The one who calls you “my son” is glad when your wisdom takes shape; that same wisdom gives them an answer when someone reproaches them. Your life can become part of the reply, giving the speaker something real to say.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your choices affect only you: the wisdom in your life can steady another person’s heart and answer reproach aimed at them.
THE ROOT
חֲכַם
chakam
GROWS FROM
חכם
To be wise or skillful; to act with discernment.
English “wise” can sound like possessing correct ideas, while חכם also carries the sense of skill. Here wisdom takes shape in a life, where it gladdens another heart and gives the speaker grounds to answer reproach.
ALSO GROWS
chokhmah: Wisdom or skill
חָכְמָה
This branch joins wisdom with the ability to act skillfully, showing that the verse’s wisdom is lived discernment.
chakam-lev: Wise or skillful in heart
חֲכַם־לֵב
This phrase places skill in the heart, fitting the verse’s link between the son’s wisdom and the speaker’s glad heart.
וְאָשִׁיבָה
ve’ashivah
GROWS FROM
שוב
To turn or return; in the causative form, to bring back or respond.
“return a word” in this verse is ve’ashivah. The verb translated “answer” comes from שוב, “turn, return,” in a causative form. The response is pictured as a word returned to the reproacher, so wisdom equips the speaker to respond.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: To turn or return
שׁוּב
This basic branch reveals the motion beneath the reply: a response comes back to the one who reproaches.
heshiv: To cause to return; to restore or answer
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form shows how the root’s sense of return develops into responding with a word.
meshuvah: A turning away
מְשׁוּבָה
The same root can describe a turn away; here, the answer is a turn back toward the reproacher.
וְשַׂמַּח
vesammach
GROWS FROM
שמח
To rejoice or be glad; in this form, to cause gladness.
“gladden my heart” in this verse is vesammach. The verb is causative: the son’s wisdom makes another heart glad. The root links wisdom not only to the speaker’s reply but to its effect on someone else’s heart.
ALSO GROWS
sameach: Glad or rejoicing
שָׂמֵחַ
This adjective names the state the son’s wisdom brings about in the speaker.
simchah: Joy or gladness
שִׂמְחָה
This noun shows the gladness as a real effect of the son’s wisdom, not merely the speaker’s opinion of it.
THE PATTERN
A wise life supplies an answer to reproach through words and visible conduct.
So I have an answer for the one who taunts me, for I lean my weight on your word.For so is the will of God, that by doing good you may muzzle the ignorance of the mindless.A word of wholeness that cannot be held against, so that the one from the opposite side may be turned inward, having no evil thing to say about us.THE THREAD
The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes his father glad; but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.Proverbs 10:1 pairs the same Hebrew root for wisdom (חכם, chakam, wise or skillful) with the root for making glad (שמח, samach, rejoice) that appears here. It shows the same connection between a son’s wisdom and another person’s gladness; Proverbs 27:11 adds that this wisdom also gives an answer to reproach.
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