What Does Proverbs 31:7 Mean?
Let him drink and forget his lack, and remember his toil no more.
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
Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.THE KEY
The Hebrew shifts from the drinker forgetting poverty to his toil no longer being remembered, without saying the poverty itself disappears.
THE MEANING
The verse names a moment when poverty remains, while its burden loosens its hold on awareness. The drink brings relief from carrying that need in mind; it does not change the material lack. Relief and unresolved hardship coexist in the same present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that hardship must be fully removed before its weight can lift from awareness; relief can touch a person’s experience while the underlying lack remains.
THE ROOT
יִזָּכֵר
yizzākhēr
GROWS FROM
זכר
z-k-r
Remember, recall, or bring to mind; in this verse, be remembered.
“remember” in this verse is yizzākhēr. The Hebrew verb is passive: the toil will no longer be remembered. The same root appears in זִכָּרוֹן (zikkārôn, “memorial or remembrance”), linking the verse’s fading burden to what is held in memory.
ALSO GROWS
zikkārôn: Memorial, remembrance
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial keeps something present; the verse describes toil losing that place in memory.
zēkher: Remembrance, mention
זֵכֶר
This branch also ties remembering to what is brought to mind or spoken of.
עֲמָלוֹ
ʿămālô
GROWS FROM
עמל
ʿ-m-l
Toil, labor, trouble, or hardship.
The word translated “misery” is from a family that also names toil and labor. Paired with רֵישׁ (rēsh, “poverty”), it joins material lack to the wearing trouble carried through daily life.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāmāl: Toil, labor, trouble
עָמָל
This word shows that the misery in the verse includes the weight of ongoing toil.
ʿāmēl: Laboring, toiling
עָמֵל
The same root can describe the state of one who is caught in labor, not only the hardship itself.
יִשְׁתֶּה
yishteh
GROWS FROM
שתה
sh-t-h
Drink, imbibe.
“drink” in this verse is yishteh. This root also gives מִשְׁתֶּה (mishteh, “drinking feast or banquet”), placing the verse’s act of drinking in a word family associated with a shared occasion. Here, drinking is followed by a shift in how hardship occupies the mind.
ALSO GROWS
mishteh: Drinking feast, banquet
מִשְׁתֶּה
This branch connects the verb to a drinking occasion rather than an abstract idea of forgetting.
shetiyyah: Drinking, beverage
שְׁתִיָּה
This branch names drinking itself, the bodily act that precedes the change in awareness.
THE PATTERN
Scripture sometimes presents drink as bodily relief that changes how hardship is experienced.
And wine that gladdens the heart of a frail one, and oil to make his face shine, and bread that holds up the heart of a frail one.No longer drink water, but take a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent weakness.THE THREAD
Do not remember the former things, nor fix your gaze on the things that went before.Both verses use זכר (z-k-r, “remember”) to name what is kept present in the mind. Proverbs centers the burden of poverty and toil; Isaiah applies the same root to former things, showing how the focus of remembrance can shift.
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