What Does Proverbs 28:8 Mean?
He who multiplies his wealth by bite and by growth shall gather it for the one who favors the emptied.
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
He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.THE KEY
Wealth grown by a “bite” is gathered in the end for the one who shows favor to the poor.
THE MEANING
Wealth swollen through interest and unjust increase does not remain securely with the one who accumulates it. It is gathered for someone who extends favor to the poor, placing the poor at the far end of wealth built through extraction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that wealth gained by taking from others gives its holder a lasting claim over it; this verse says it is gathered for the one who shows favor to the poor.
THE ROOT
נֶשֶׁךְ
neshekh
GROWS FROM
נשך
n-sh-k
To bite.
The English word “usury” hides a concrete image: the Hebrew term belongs to the same root as “to bite.” The verse pictures gain taken through lending as an extraction with teeth, then says the wealth is gathered for someone who favors the poor.
ALSO GROWS
nashakh: To bite or nip.
נָשַׁךְ
This verb shares the root behind the word for usury, giving the financial term its biting image.
neshekh: Interest or usury.
נֶשֶׁךְ
This is the economic term in the verse; its shared root with “to bite” makes the image part of the Hebrew word itself.
חוֹנֵן
chonen
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥ-n-n
To show favor or be gracious.
“favors” in this verse is chonen. The word rendered “pity” comes from the root for showing favor and being gracious. The destination of the gathered wealth is therefore not merely someone who feels for the poor, but someone who extends favor to them.
ALSO GROWS
chanan: To show favor or be gracious.
חָנַן
This verb names the active generosity carried by the person who receives the gathered wealth.
chen: Favor.
חֵן
The shared root links the receiver’s treatment of the poor with the favor that the word itself names.
מַרְבֶּה
marbeh
GROWS FROM
רבה
r-b-h
To increase or become many.
“growth” in this verse is marbeh. The Hebrew pairs a verb meaning “increases” with a noun meaning “increase,” both from the same root. English separates them into “increaseth” and “unjust gain,” while the repeated root makes the accumulation sound like increase piled onto increase.
ALSO GROWS
marbeh: Increasing or making much.
מַרְבֶּה
This is the verb describing how the person grows his substance.
tarbit: Increase; interest or gain added to a loan.
תַּרְבִּית
This noun names the added increase that accompanies the verb, echoing the same root within the verse.
THE PATTERN
Wealth accumulated without regard for the needy is unstable and answerable: it can pass beyond its accumulator while the neglected cry out.
The good one leaves an inheritance to his children's children; the strength of those who miss the mark is stored away for the aligned.Look, the wages of the workers who mowed your fields, stripped away by your fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have gone into the ears of the LORD of hosts.But God said to him, Mindless one, this night your living soul will be demanded back from you. Then whose will those things be that you have made ready?THE THREAD
If you lend silver to any of my people who is bent low beside you, you shall not be to him as one who bites, nor lay the bite upon him.The word rendered “usury” is the same Hebrew word rooted in “bite” that appears in Proverbs 28:8. Here it is set directly beside a poor borrower, opening the bite image in the current verse as wealth taken from the vulnerable and gathered for one who shows them favor.
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