What Does Proverbs 29:13 Mean?
The poor and the deceitful man meet together, and the LORD lights the eyes of both.
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 poor and the deceitful man meet together: the LORD lighteneth both their eyes.THE KEY
The poor person and the deceitful man share one dependence: the LORD is the one who lights both their eyes.
THE MEANING
The poor person and the deceitful man meet under the same dependence: the LORD gives light to both their eyes. Their circumstances and character differ, yet their sight and life come from one giver.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that God’s sustaining gift belongs only to people with status or moral worth gives way before the image of the LORD lighting both sets of eyes.
THE ROOT
מֵאִיר
mēʾîr
GROWS FROM
אוֹר
ʾôr
to be light, shine, or give light
“lights the eyes of both” in this verse is mēʾîr. English “lighteneth” can sound like merely improving visibility, but מֵאִיר (mēʾîr, gives light) comes from the same root as אוֹר (ʾôr, light) itself. The verse presents one life-giving light reaching both sets of eyes; neither man’s circumstances nor character is its source.
ALSO GROWS
ʾôr: Light
אוֹר
The noun names what the LORD gives to both men’s eyes.
māʾôr: A body that bears or gives light
מָאוֹר
The same root can name a bearer of light, while this verse shows the LORD as the source lighting both eyes.
עֵינֵי
ʿênê
GROWS FROM
עַיִן
ʿayin
eye; also a spring or well
עֵינֵי (ʿênê, eyes of) rests on עַיִן (ʿayin, eye), a word also used for a spring or well. That shared word-picture makes the eyes openings that receive light, while the LORD remains the one who gives their seeing.
ALSO GROWS
ʿayin: The organ of sight
עַיִן
The verse locates the LORD’s gift in the eyes of both men.
ʿayin: A source or opening where water emerges
עַיִן
The same Hebrew word links the eye with an opening that receives or releases life-giving flow.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s sustaining light reaches across differences in status and moral standing.
Is there any number to his raiding bands? And upon whom does his light not rise?So that you may become children of your Father in the heavens, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the aligned and on the crooked.THE THREAD
Gaze and answer me, O LORD my God. Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.Psalm 13:3 uses the same Hebrew אוֹר (ʾôr, light) root in “lighten mine eyes,” then sets that light against death. The proverb’s light carries the sense of life preserved as well as sight restored, and both men receive it.
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