What Does Proverbs 4:15 Mean?
Let go of it, and leave it; do not cross over it. Turn aside from it, and pass on.
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
Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.THE KEY
The Hebrew repeats the same verb for “pass” twice: refuse to cross into this path, turn aside, then cross onward.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now in four movements: leave the harmful path, refuse to cross through it, turn away, and move on. Wisdom is not only refusal; it is a changed direction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that you can stay near a dangerous path and remain untouched by it; turning away and moving on belong to the same act of wisdom.
THE ROOT
עָבַר
ʿāḇar
GROWS FROM
ע־ב־ר
ʿ-b-r
To cross over or pass through.
“cross over” in this verse is ʿāḇar. The Hebrew uses this same root in both “pass not by it” and “pass away.” English can make those sound like separate instructions, but the repeated root keeps crossing itself in view: refuse this crossing, turn aside, and cross onward.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāḇar: To cross or pass through.
עָבַר
This root appears twice in the verse, first as a crossing to refuse and then as movement onward.
ʿēver: Beyond, across, or the region on the other side.
עֵבֶר
The root carries the sense of crossing into what lies beyond, making the verse’s final movement feel like passing beyond the path one turns from.
maʿāvar: A crossing, passage, or ford.
מַעֲבָר
This branch makes crossing a route or threshold, echoing the verse’s concern with which path the reader enters.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom protects a life by interrupting movement toward a destructive path and redirecting it elsewhere.
Do not enter the path of the restless, and do not walk the way of the harmful ones.Flourishing is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of those who miss the mark, nor sit in the seat of the scoffers.Flee the youthful cravings, but pursue alignment, trust, love, and wholeness, with those who call upon the Lord out of a clean heart.THE THREAD
When you cross through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not kindle upon you.The Hebrew behind “passest through” is עָבַר (ʿāḇar, to cross or pass through), the same root repeated in this proverb. Here the crossing is through waters and fire with God’s presence; in Proverbs, the reader is told not to cross through a destructive path, showing how the route changes what a crossing means.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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