What Does Proverbs 30:10 Mean?
Do not hand over a servant before his master, lest he curse you, and you be found guilty.
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
Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty.THE KEY
The accusation you carry upward can return as guilt upon the accuser.
THE MEANING
When you carry a charge against a servant to the person with power over them, your words place you within the matter. The servant’s curse can turn the accusation back on you, leaving you answerable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that accusing someone with less power is harmless if you report it to someone above them. The verse warns that the speaker, too, can be found liable.
THE ROOT
תַלְשֵׁן
talshen
GROWS FROM
לשן
To wag the tongue against; to slander.
“hand over” in this verse is talshen. The verb belongs to the same word family as לָשׁוֹן (lashon), meaning “tongue.” In Psalm 101:5, the same root appears in “slandereth,” making the accusation here an act of the tongue rather than a neutral transfer of information.
ALSO GROWS
lashon: Tongue; language.
לָשׁוֹן
The shared word family links the accusation to the tongue that carries it.
melashni: One who slanders; the form used for “slandereth” in Psalm 101:5.
מְלָשְׁנִי
It reveals the same tongue-root beneath two acts of accusation: secret slander and a charge carried to a master.
יְקַלֶּלְךָ
yeqallelkha
GROWS FROM
קלל
To be light, make light of, or treat as insignificant; by extension, to curse.
The word translated “curse” also carries the sense of making light of or treating as insignificant. That shade sharpens the exchange: the accusation is not weightless speech, and the servant’s response can bring consequence back upon its speaker.
ALSO GROWS
qal: Light; slight in weight or importance.
קַל
This basic sense lies beneath the curse-word and gives it the shade of treating someone as insignificant.
qelalah: A curse or imprecation.
קְלָלָה
This noun names the kind of response the verse says may return to the accuser.
וְאָשָׁמְתָּ
ve’ashamta
GROWS FROM
אשם
To incur guilt or liability; to be answerable.
“Found guilty” in this verse is ve’ashamta. The closing word places liability on the speaker; it does not leave the accuser outside the consequences of the charge. The verse pairs the servant’s curse with the speaker’s own answerability.
ALSO GROWS
ashem: Guilty; liable.
אָשֵׁם
It expresses the state the speaker may enter through the accusation.
asham: Guilt; also a guilt offering.
אָשָׁם
The noun preserves the root’s connection to incurred liability, not merely an accusation made by someone else.
THE PATTERN
Speech used to accuse or diminish another carries consequences back into the speaker’s own life.
You shall not lift up a false report; do not set your hand with the wicked to be a witness of violence.Death and life are in the hand of the tongue, and those who love it eat its fruit.And the tongue is fire, a world of crookedness. It is set among our limbs, staining the whole body and setting the wheel of becoming ablaze, and it is lit by Gehenna.THE THREAD
Whoever tongue-lashes his neighbor in hiding, him I will cut off; the one with lifted eyes and a broad heart, him I cannot bear.The verb translated “slandereth” comes from the same לשן root as “accuse” in Proverbs. The psalm’s private slander and the proverb’s accusation carried to a master share the same tongue-root: speech that charges another cannot be treated as harmless.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us