What Does Proverbs 30:11 Mean?
There is a generation that curses their father, and does not bless their mother.
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
There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.THE KEY
The Hebrew makes the curse a making-light of the father, while the unspoken blessing leaves the mother without honor.
THE MEANING
This verse names a generation by its posture: it treats its father as insignificant and withholds blessing from its mother. Contempt is audible in the curse and present in the blessing that never comes. The verse holds both attack and refusal to honor in view now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that silence toward a mother is neutral as long as no insult is spoken; here, withheld blessing is part of the rupture.
THE ROOT
יְקַלֵּל
yeqallel
GROWS FROM
קלל
Q-L-L
To be light or slight; in this form, to make light of someone, curse, or treat as insignificant.
“curses” in this verse is yeqallel. The verb carries the motion of making someone count for little. Deuteronomy 27:16 uses the same root in the phrase “setteth light by,” making explicit the contempt that the English word “curseth” can conceal.
ALSO GROWS
qal: Light in weight or importance.
קַל
It reveals the image inside the curse: the father is treated as someone of little weight.
qillel: To curse or treat as insignificant.
קִלֵּל
This branch names the spoken act as a form of making light of someone.
יְבָרֵךְ
yevarekh
GROWS FROM
ברך
B-R-K
To bless; associated with the knee and kneeling.
“bless” in this verse is yevarekh. The blessing verb belongs to a root also associated with the knee. Its bodily image gives blessing a posture of honor, so the mother is left not only without kind words but without this gesture of regard.
ALSO GROWS
berekh: The knee.
בֶּרֶךְ
The shared root brings a posture of bending into the word for blessing.
berakhah: A blessing or spoken good.
בְּרָכָה
This is what the verse says the mother does not receive.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats how a person speaks of and honors parents as a visible measure of whether their place is recognized.
Give weight to your father and your mother, that your days may lengthen upon the ground which the LORD your God gives you.For God commanded, saying, Honor your father and mother, and, Whoever speaks evil of father or mother, let him end in death.Give weight to your father and your mother, which is the first commandment with promise.THE THREAD
Cursed be he who makes light of his father and his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.“Setteth light by” translates a form from קלל (Q-L-L), the same root behind “curseth” in this verse. The parallel makes the hidden motion plain: cursing a parent is treating that parent as light, as though their presence counted for little.
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