What Does Proverbs 31:25 Mean?
Strength and splendor are her clothing, and she laughs toward the latter day.
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
Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.THE KEY
Her future does not furnish her with strength; strength and splendor already clothe her, and she laughs at what is still coming.
THE MEANING
Strength and splendor surround her now as the garment in which she meets life. The Hebrew says she laughs at the day still ahead: what comes next is met from within a present already clothed in dignity.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse loosens the assumption that an unknown future can only be met with dread: she laughs at the day ahead while already clothed in strength and splendor.
THE ROOT
לְבוּשָׁהּ
levushah
GROWS FROM
לבשׁ
l-b-sh
To clothe or put on a garment.
“clothing” in this verse is levushah. The root spans the act of putting on and the garment itself. Strength and splendor are pictured as what envelops and presents her; they are not merely qualities listed beside her.
ALSO GROWS
lavash: To clothe oneself; to put on
לָבַשׁ
The verb behind “clothing” makes the image active: these qualities are what she wears.
levush: Garment; clothing
לְבוּשׁ
The noun names the covering itself, the same word family used for her garment in this verse.
וַתִּשְׂחַק
vatiskhak
GROWS FROM
שׂחק
ś-ḥ-q
To laugh or play.
“laughs” in this verse is vatiskhak. The verb means “laugh”; the KJV’s “rejoice” carries the gladness but softens the image of laughter directed toward the coming day. The root also holds the sense of play, giving her response a lightness in the face of what is ahead.
ALSO GROWS
sachaq: To laugh; to play
שָׂחַק
This verb names the action at the heart of her response to the future.
sechoq: Laughter
שְׂחוֹק
The related noun makes explicit the laughter that the English rendering expresses as rejoicing.
הָדָר
hadar
GROWS FROM
הדר
h-d-r
Splendor, majesty; to honor or adorn.
The word carries the shade of splendor as well as honor, bringing visible dignity into the garment around her. Her clothing is not only strength but also radiance.
ALSO GROWS
hadar: Splendor; majesty
הָדָר
This noun gives “honour” the sense of visible dignity that belongs in the clothing image.
hadar: To honor; to show dignity toward
הָדַר
The related verb connects honor with the act of recognizing someone’s dignity.
THE PATTERN
What a person is clothed in shapes how they meet what comes.
I put on alignment, and it clothed me; my judgment was like a robe and a turban.I will exult greatly in the LORD; my living soul shall leap in my God; for he has clothed me in garments of deliverance, he has wrapped me in the robe of alignment, as a bridegroom dons a headdress, and as a bride binds on her jewels.For as many of you as have been immersed into the Anointed One have put on the Anointed One.THE THREAD
I will exult greatly in the LORD; my living soul shall leap in my God; for he has clothed me in garments of deliverance, he has wrapped me in the robe of alignment, as a bridegroom dons a headdress, and as a bride binds on her jewels.Proverbs names her clothing with לְבוּשָׁהּ (levushah); Isaiah uses the same root, לבשׁ (l-b-sh), when the speaker says God “hath clothed me.” Both verses place joy beside the garment, linking what envelops a person with how they meet what lies ahead.
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