What Does Proverbs 3:29 Mean?
Do not plow evil against your neighbor, while he sits safely beside you.
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
Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee.THE KEY
The word translated “devise” means “plow,” picturing harm worked deliberately into the ground of a neighbor’s security.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as the one who can conceive harm while another person rests securely beside you. The verse exposes the betrayal already present in the split between your neighbor’s trust and your hidden intent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that a concealed plan is harmless until the neighbor finds out or is hurt.
THE ROOT
תַּחֲרֹשׁ
tacharosh
GROWS FROM
חָרַשׁ
charash
To plow or cultivate; the verb also means to plot or devise.
“plow” in this verse is tacharosh. The verb behind “devise” is literally a plowing verb, so the image is of intent worked into a field until it takes shape. Here, the neighbor’s security is the ground being secretly disturbed.
ALSO GROWS
choresh: A person who plows.
חֹרֵשׁ
The literal plowman keeps the field-work audible inside the word for devising.
choreshei: Those who plow; Job 4:8 uses this form for people who plow wrongdoing.
חֹרְשֵׁי
Job makes the cultivation image explicit: harmful intent is worked like a field before its harvest appears.
לָבֶטַח
la-vetach
GROWS FROM
בָּטַח
batach
To trust, feel secure, or be confident.
“sits safely” in this verse is la-vetach. The word translated “securely” comes from the root used for trusting. The verse places your neighbor’s settled trust beside you, making concealed harm a breach of shared security before it becomes visible.
ALSO GROWS
batach: To trust or feel secure.
בָּטַח
The neighbor’s secure dwelling is bound to the language of trust.
mivtach: A place or source of confidence; Proverbs 14:26 uses it for “strong confidence.”
מִבְטָח
This branch shows security as something placed in another’s care, which sharpens the betrayal in plotting against someone who rests beside you.
THE PATTERN
Hidden intent against a neighbor breaks the trust that love is meant to preserve.
He does not walk upon his tongue, does no harm to his neighbor, nor lifts up a taunt against his neighbor.You shall not avenge, nor hold a grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.Love does not work evil on the neighbor. So love is the fullness of the instruction.THE THREAD
Twistings are in his heart; he plows evil at all times; he sends out strife.The same Hebrew root חָרַשׁ (charash, to plow or plot) appears in “deviseth,” and this verse pairs it with mischief. The plowing image makes hidden intent visible as something continually cultivated until it spreads discord.
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