What Does Proverbs 27:25 Mean?
The hay is uncovered, the sprouting grass is seen, and the herbs of the mountains are gathered.
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 hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself, and herbs of the mountains are gathered.THE KEY
What is ready to be gathered and what is only now appearing belong to the same living provision.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two stages together: some growth is showing itself, while mountain herbs are being gathered. Provision is present both in what is emerging and in what is ready to collect.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that only a finished harvest counts as provision: the grass just showing itself belongs to the same living yield as the herbs already gathered.
THE ROOT
גָּלָה
galah
GROWS FROM
גלה
גלה (galah) means to uncover, expose, or reveal.
“is uncovered” in this verse is galah. The verse’s first verb carries the sense of being uncovered or brought into view. What English calls appearance is also an unveiling: growth that was hidden becomes visible before the scene turns toward gathering.
ALSO GROWS
niglah: is revealed, appears
נִגְלָה
This related verb form makes explicit the uncovering already present in the verse’s description of growth appearing.
megalleh: reveals, uncovers
מְגַלֶּה
This form names the act of bringing something into view, echoing the verse’s movement from hidden growth to visible growth.
וְנֶאֶסְפוּ
ve-ne'esfu
GROWS FROM
אסף
אסף (asaph) means to gather, collect, or bring in.
“are gathered” in this verse is ve-ne'esfu. The herbs are drawn together into a gathered yield. The root also appears in the word for ingathering, linking collection with the season when growth has reached readiness.
ALSO GROWS
asif: ingathering; autumn harvest
אָסִיף
This seasonal word comes from the same root and shows gathering as part of the cycle of growth reaching its yield.
asuppah: collection, assembly
אֲסֻפָּה
This noun from the same root gives the sense of separate things being brought together, as the mountain herbs are gathered.
THE PATTERN
Provision unfolds in stages: what the earth brings forth becomes visible, then available to gather.
And God said, "Let the earth sprout green growth, the seed-bearing plant, and the fruit tree making fruit after its kind, whose seed is in it, upon the earth." And it was so.He makes the grass sprout for the cattle, and the herb for the service of humankind, to bring bread out from the earth.But when the fruit is handed over, straightway he sends out the sickle, because the harvest is standing here.THE THREAD
For the Lord GOD does nothing, unless he uncovers his secret to his servants the prophets.The Hebrew verb behind “appeareth” comes from גלה (galah), the same root behind “revealeth” in Amos. One verse shows growth uncovered into view; the other shows a secret brought into view.
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