What Does Proverbs 30:29 Mean?
There are three that walk well, and four that are good in their walking.
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 be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going:THE KEY
The verse locates comeliness in a creature’s stride, in how it moves, not merely how it looks.
THE MEANING
What is comely here is movement: the way a being carries itself as it advances. The count leaves the four unnamed for now, making their manner of going the first thing you notice.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that comeliness belongs only to a still appearance gives way: here, it is measured in motion.
THE ROOT
צָעַד
ṣāʿad
GROWS FROM
צעד
ṣ-ʿ-d
To step or stride; to march.
English can make “going” sound like generic travel, but צעד (ṣ-ʿ-d) pictures a step or stride. The verse attaches its praise to that visible movement, while the same root can name individual footsteps elsewhere.
ALSO GROWS
ṣaʿad: Step, stride
צַעַד
It names movement as a distinct footfall, the very quality this verse calls stately.
miṣʿād: Step, footstep
מִצְעָד
This related form appears in Psalm 37:23, where a person’s steps are ordered.
ṣəʿādîm: Steps, strides
צְעָדִים
The plural keeps the image concrete: bearing is shown through one step after another.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes a being’s quality visible in the way it moves.
The steps of a strong one are set firm by the LORD, and he delights in his way.But those who wait upon the LORD exchange their strength; they rise on wings like eagles; they run and do not tire; they walk and do not faint.See then how exactly you walk, not as the unwise, but as the wise.THE THREAD
The steps of a strong one are set firm by the LORD, and he delights in his way.The word “steps” translates מִצְעֲדֵי (miṣʿădê), from the same root צעד (ṣ-ʿ-d) as the stride in Proverbs 30:29. Here, that stride opens into a path whose steps are ordered and whose way is a delight.
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