What Does Proverbs 31:15 Mean?
She rises while it is still night, and gives torn food to her house, and a portion to her maidens.
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
She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.THE KEY
The verse’s hidden center is the measured share: care appears as provision set in place and apportioned before the day opens.
THE MEANING
You are met by care already awake before the day begins: food is set before the household, and a defined share is assigned to the maidens. Attention becomes tangible as provision reaches actual people in particular portions.
THE ROOT
חֹק
ḥoq
GROWS FROM
חקק
ḥ-q-q
To cut or mark out; by extension, to prescribe or assign.
A portion is a defined allotment, a share set aside for specific people. The root’s sense of marking or prescribing lets the verse show care as measured distribution, not merely food in general.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāqaq: To inscribe, carve, or decree.
חָקַק
The sense of marking something out illuminates a portion as a share defined for someone.
ḥuqqāh: A statute or fixed ordinance.
חֻקָּה
This related word carries the sense of something prescribed, echoing the defined share given to the maidens.
וַתִּתֵּן
wattitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
“giveth” in this verse is wattitten. The verb holds more than transfer: natan can mean give, set, or place. She places nourishment within the household’s daily life, then assigns a share to her maidens.
ALSO GROWS
mattanāh: A gift.
מַתָּנָה
The shared root presents giving as something concrete that passes into another person’s hands.
nātūn: Given or assigned.
נָתוּן
This related form brings out the sense of something placed or allotted to a recipient.
וַתָּקָם
wattāqām
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
To rise or stand.
“riseth” in this verse is wattāqām. The word for rising belongs to the same root as standing and establishing. Her rising is more than waking: it places her in readiness to provide before the day unfolds.
ALSO GROWS
māqōm: A place or standing place.
מָקוֹם
This branch shows the root’s connection between standing and the place where one stands.
hēqīm: To raise up or establish.
הֵקִים
The causative form extends rising into establishing, adding a note of readiness to her rising before the household is served.
THE PATTERN
Care becomes tangible when provision is given to real dependents at the time it is needed.
All of them look to you, to give them their food in its time.And the Lord said, "Who then is the steady and wise steward whom his lord will set over his household, to give them their measure of grain in due season?"The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in its season.THE THREAD
All of them look to you, to give them their food in its time.Proverbs says she “giveth”; Psalm 104 uses the same Hebrew root, נתן (natan), meaning “give, set, place,” for giving food in its season. The shared root opens the household scene into a wider pattern: provision is placed into waiting hands at the right time.
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