What Does Proverbs 29:8 Mean?
Scornful men blow a city into a snare, but the wise turn back the burning of anger.
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
Scornful men bring a city into a snare: but wise men turn away wrath.THE KEY
Scorn blows a city’s conflict wide, while wisdom turns anger aside.
THE MEANING
Scorn does not stay private; it draws a whole city into a snare. The verb translated “bring ... into a snare” also carries the force of blowing or fanning outward, while wisdom turns anger aside before it takes hold.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that contempt is harmless when it sounds clever falls here: scorn can ensnare an entire city.
THE ROOT
יָפִיחוּ
yāphîḥû
GROWS FROM
פּוּחַ
puach
To blow or fan outward.
“blow a city into a snare” in this verse is yāphîḥû. The verb behind “bring ... into a snare” also means to blow or fan outward. In Proverbs 6:19, a related form describes a false witness who speaks lies, linking this root’s blowing with utterance that can fan a city’s conflict.
ALSO GROWS
yāphîaḥ: He blows; he utters.
יָפִיחַ
This form describes the false witness who speaks lies in Proverbs 6:19, showing how the root extends from blowing to speech.
yāphîḥû: They blow or fan outward.
יָפִיחוּ
Here the plural form makes scorn a force spreading through the city.
יָשִׁיבוּ
yāšîḇû
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
To turn back or return.
“turn back” in this verse is yāšîḇû. Wisdom does not overpower anger; it turns it aside. The root’s sense of turning or returning reveals a redirection of the heat before it ensnares the city.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: To turn or return.
שׁוּב
This is the root motion carried by the wise: anger is turned away from the city.
meshuvah: Turning away; backsliding.
מְשׁוּבָה
The same root can name a turning off course, making the wise person’s redirection of anger especially striking.
לָצוֹן
lātsōn
GROWS FROM
לוּץ
luts
To scoff or mock.
The verse links the scornful person with scoffing itself, tying the city’s danger to contempt expressed aloud. What begins as derision becomes a force that can draw a whole community into a snare.
ALSO GROWS
lēts: A scoffer or scorner.
לֵץ
This names the person whose contempt gives the passage its starting point.
lātsōn: Scoffing or derision.
לָצוֹן
This names the scornful expression itself, showing how a person’s posture becomes a shared current of speech.
THE PATTERN
Words can spread anger through a community, while a wise response turns its heat aside.
A soft answer turns away the burning, but words of pain stir up the nostrils.Without wood the fire goes out; without a whisperer the strife lies down.Even so the tongue is a small limb, and it lifts its neck over great things. Look how great a forest a little fire kindles!THE THREAD
A soft answer turns away the burning, but words of pain stir up the nostrils.The phrase “turneth away” shares the root שׁוּב (shuv), turn or return, with “turn away” in this verse. Both show anger’s course being redirected by the wise response.
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