What Does Proverbs 3:31 Mean?
Do not burn with envy at a man of violence, and do not choose any of his ways.
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
Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.THE KEY
Envy and zeal share one Hebrew root here, exposing how violence can recruit desire before it ever recruits action.
THE MEANING
The violence around you can seem to carry an advantage, and that sight can stir envy. This verse speaks to that pressure now: the conduct that catches your eye is not thereby a path you choose. It separates the pull to admire a person from the choice to follow his way.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that power gained through violence is evidence of a way worth wanting. An appearance of advantage does not make that path good.
THE ROOT
תְּקַנֵּא
teqanne
GROWS FROM
קנא
To be jealous or zealous; to feel intense concern or attachment.
“burn with envy” in this verse is teqanne. The Hebrew root for “envy” also gives words for zeal and jealousy. English separates these shades, while the Hebrew keeps their intensity together: what matters here is what that intensity attaches to.
ALSO GROWS
qinʾāh: Zeal or jealousy.
קִנְאָה
This noun shares the root behind “envy,” linking the verse’s warning to the force of desire itself.
qannāʾ: Jealous or zealous.
קַנָּא
The same root describes the LORD as “jealous” in Exodus 34:14, showing that the root’s intensity takes its meaning from what it is directed toward.
אִישׁ חָמָס
ish ḥāmās
GROWS FROM
חמס
To act violently or wrongfully; as a noun, violence or wrong.
The Hebrew phrase is literally “a man of violence,” giving the KJV’s “oppressor” a concrete image of a person marked by violent conduct. The warning is about envying that conduct and then choosing its way.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāmās: Violence or wrong.
חָמָס
This noun names the defining quality of the man in the verse.
ḥāmas: To act violently or do wrong.
חָמַס
The verb shows the conduct behind the noun: violence is something enacted, not merely a status someone holds.
דְּרָכָיו
derakhav
GROWS FROM
דרך
To tread or travel a path.
The word for “ways” is rooted in the image of treading a path. A way is not only an idea to admire; it is a course that can be followed through repeated steps.
ALSO GROWS
derekh: A road, path, or way.
דֶּרֶךְ
This is the noun behind “ways,” making the warning about a course of conduct that can be followed.
dāraḵ: To tread or step.
דָּרַךְ
The verb reveals the physical image beneath “way”: a path is something trodden.
THE PATTERN
What looks like advantage in another’s wrongdoing can tempt imitation, but the temptation does not make that path worth choosing.
A Psalm of David. Do not burn yourself because of the evildoers, and do not burn with envy at the makers of crookedness.Do not burn with envy against evil men, nor crave to be with them.Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.THE THREAD
For you shall not bow down to another god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.The word for “envy” in Proverbs and “jealous” in Exodus come from the same Hebrew root, קנא (q-n-ʾ). The shared root holds zeal and jealousy together; here, the verse asks what that intensity is drawn toward and whether it turns into choosing a violent path.
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