What Does Proverbs 6:31 Mean?
But if he is found, he restores it whole, sevenfold; he gives all the wealth of his house.
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
But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.THE KEY
The verse measures theft by the cost of repair: repayment reaches sevenfold and the whole wealth of the thief’s house.
THE MEANING
When a thief is found, the debt is not treated as the stolen object alone: the verse names sevenfold repayment and the surrender of all the wealth of his house. The cost of repair falls on the one who took, reaching beyond the thing taken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that returning the stolen item alone erases the harm is undone here: the verse names repayment beyond the original value, even reaching the thief’s whole household wealth.
THE ROOT
יְשַׁלֵּם
yeshallēm
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete; in this form, to repay or make good.
“restores it whole” in this verse is yeshallēm. The verb carries the sense of repayment, while its wider word family also names wholeness. Here, repair is concrete and costly: the taker answers the loss with more than the thing taken.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: wholeness, peace
שָׁלוֹם
This branch shows the root’s connection to a state of wholeness; restitution is the act of answering a breach.
shillem: he repaid, made compensation
שִׁלֵּם
This is the repayment sense heard directly in the verse: the thief must answer for what he took.
THE PATTERN
Restitution answers taking with an accountable return that can exceed the original loss.
If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and slaughter it, or sell it; he shall make whole five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.Or anything about which he has sworn falsely, he shall turn it back with its head, and shall add its fifth upon it, and give it to the one to whom it belongs, on the day of his guilt offering.And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of what I have to the emptied, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I give back fourfold."THE THREAD
Or anything about which he has sworn falsely, he shall turn it back with its head, and shall add its fifth upon it, and give it to the one to whom it belongs, on the day of his guilt offering.Both “restore” verbs come from שׁלם (shalam, repay or make whole). Leviticus names the principal plus a fifth, while Proverbs names sevenfold repayment; the shared root holds restitution as an answer to a breach.
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