What Does Proverbs 30:8 Mean?

Remove far from me emptiness and the way of lying. Give me neither need nor plenty. Feed me the bread measured out for me.

Proverbs 30:8 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:

THE KEY

At the center is “the bread of my portion”: the prayer seeks nourishment with a measure, with neither poverty nor riches setting the measure of life.

THE MEANING

You ask for emptiness and deceit to be moved far from you, and for a portion that sustains you. Poverty and riches stand on either side of that measure; neither is the good being sought. What matters is bread enough for you.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse loosens the belief that security must come through riches, or that the only alternative is lack; it names a third measure: enough.

THE ROOT

חֻקִּי

ḥuqqî

GROWS FROM

חקק

To cut or engrave; by extension, to inscribe or prescribe.

“the bread measured out for me” in this verse is ḥuqqî. The phrase behind “food convenient for me” is ⁨לֶחֶם חֻקִּי⁩ (leḥem ḥuqqî), “the bread of my portion”; ⁨חֻקִּי⁩ (ḥuqqî) means “my prescribed share,” from ⁨חקק⁩ (ḥaqaq), “to engrave or prescribe.” The same root grows into ⁨חֹק⁩ (ḥoq), “a fixed portion or decree,” so provision here carries a boundary: enough is a measured share, not an ever-expanding amount.

ALSO GROWS

ḥoq: A fixed portion, prescribed measure, or decree.

חֹק

This noun names the allotted share at the heart of “my portion,” framing bread as something measured.

ḥuqqah: A prescribed statute or ordinance.

חֻקָּה

The same root extends from a personal portion to a settled prescription, keeping the sense of a defined measure.

meḥoqeq: A lawgiver or one who decrees.

מְחוֹקֵק

This branch shows the root’s movement from marking a measure to establishing one.

THE PATTERN

Provision is measured by what sustains, so neither lack nor surplus has to define what is enough.

And when they measured it with an omer, the one who gathered much had nothing over, and the one who gathered little had no lack. Each one gathered according to his eating.

Exodus 16:18 · SDVThe gathered food meets each person’s need without surplus or shortage defining the portion.

Give us today our bread for the coming day.

Matthew 6:11 · SDVThe prayer asks for bread as today’s provision, a portion received one day at a time.

And having food and covering, let these be enough for us.

1 Timothy 6:8 · SDVThe verse places sufficiency in the provision that sustains, rather than in accumulation.

THE THREAD

She rises while it is still night, and gives torn food to her house, and a portion to her maidens.

Proverbs 31:15 · SDV

The phrase “a portion” uses ⁨חֹק⁩ (ḥoq), “a fixed share,” from the same root family as “my portion” in Proverbs 30:8. The prayer for a measured share echoes a household scene where food is paired with an assigned portion.

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