What Does Proverbs 3:14 Mean?
For its trade is better than the trade of silver, and its yield than fine gold.
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
For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.THE KEY
Wisdom is pictured as a trade that keeps yielding more than silver or fine gold can return.
THE MEANING
Wisdom’s worth is present in what it yields, exceeding even the treasures you can weigh. Silver and fine gold set the measure; the verse says wisdom’s return goes further.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that what can be priced or accumulated is the highest form of wealth.
THE ROOT
סְחָרָה
seḥārāh
GROWS FROM
סחר
s-ḥ-r
To go about; to trade or traffic in goods.
The word translated “merchandise” belongs to a root associated with going about and conducting trade. Wisdom is pictured as value in active circulation, while silver and gold serve as the familiar measure against which its worth is compared.
ALSO GROWS
soḥēr: Merchant or trader.
סֹחֵר
The merchant is one who practices the trade named by the same root, giving “merchandise” the sense of an active exchange.
saḥrāh: Her merchandise or trade.
סַחְרָהּ
The same word appears in Proverbs 31:18, linking wisdom’s worth here with the value of productive work there.
תְּבוּאָתָהּ
tevu’ātāh
GROWS FROM
בוא
b-w-ʾ
To come or enter.
The word for “gain” is a form of תְּבוּאָה, yield or produce, from the root meaning “come.” The verse’s image is not only a price comparison: wisdom has a yield, something that comes in from her.
ALSO GROWS
tevu’āh: Yield, produce, or harvest.
תְּבוּאָה
This is the noun behind “gain,” naming what comes in as a result or product.
bōʾ: To come or enter.
בּוֹא
The root verb makes the “gain” feel like an arrival: wisdom’s worth is measured by what comes from her.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom’s value exceeds material measures and is itself a treasure with a yield.
For Wisdom is better than rubies, and all that you delight in cannot be set level with her.More longed for are they than gold, than much refined gold; sweeter than honey, and the dripping of the comb.In whom are hidden all the storehouses of wisdom and knowledge.THE THREAD
She tastes that her trade is good; her lamp does not go out in the night.“Merchandise” here and in Proverbs 3:14 translates forms of the same Hebrew root, סחר (s-ḥ-r), trade or traffic. The shared word places wisdom’s worth alongside the fruit of a woman’s work, giving both the image of value realized through what they yield.
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