What Does Proverbs 28:10 Mean?
Whoever causes the straight ones to wander on an evil way, he himself shall fall into his own pit, but the whole ones shall possess good.
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
Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit: but the upright shall have good things in possession.THE KEY
The path someone bends toward another’s harm becomes the direction of that person’s own fall.
THE MEANING
When someone leads the upright onto a harmful path, that person falls into the pit of their own making. Those who remain upright inherit good; it comes to them as something received.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the belief that you can direct someone toward harm and remain untouched by the consequences: the trap becomes your own.
THE ROOT
מַשְׁגֶּה
mashgeh
GROWS FROM
שגה
To wander off, err, or go astray.
“wander” in this verse is mashgeh. The verb here is causative: someone makes the upright stray from their course. The same root also describes the act of straying itself, linking the one who misdirects another with the wandering that ends in a fall.
ALSO GROWS
shagah: To err, wander, or go astray.
שָׁגָה
This basic verb supplies the action that מַשְׁגֶּה (mashgeh) makes another person undergo.
yishgeh: He goes astray.
יִשְׁגֶּה
This form appears in Proverbs 5:23, showing the same root as a person’s own wandering.
יְשָׁרִים
yesharim
GROWS FROM
ישר
Straight, level, or right.
“straight ones” in this verse is yesharim. The word for the upright carries the sense of straightness. The verse sets that straight course against the harmful path another person tries to lead them onto.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: Straight, level, or upright.
יָשָׁר
This form makes the image beneath “upright” explicit: a course that runs straight.
yosher: Uprightness or rectitude.
יֹשֶׁר
This noun carries the same straightness into a quality of character, illuminating the verse’s contrast between upright people and an evil way.
יִנְחֲלוּ
yinchalu
GROWS FROM
נחל
To inherit or receive as an inheritance.
“possess good” in this verse is yinchalu. The upright do not grasp or build their good through the harm of others; they inherit it. This root makes the outcome a possession received rather than a trap laid.
ALSO GROWS
nachalah: An inheritance or allotted possession.
נַחֲלָה
This noun shows the kind of good the upright receive: something that becomes theirs as an inheritance.
hinchil: To cause someone to inherit or to allot.
הִנְחִיל
This causative form emphasizes the act of giving an inheritance, deepening the contrast between received good and self-made harm.
THE PATTERN
A path of harm laid for another folds back onto its maker.
He digs a pit and hollows it out, and falls into the pit he works.Whoever digs a pit falls into it; whoever rolls a stone, it turns back upon him.Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.THE THREAD
He dies without straightening, and in the abundance of his folly he reels.The Hebrew יִשְׁגֶּה (yishgeh), meaning “he goes astray,” comes from the same root שגה as מַשְׁגֶּה (mashgeh), the one who causes others to stray here. Proverbs 5:23 shows the wandering itself; this verse reveals the turn in which someone who imposes that wandering on others falls into their own pit.
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