What Does Proverbs 6:34 Mean?
For jealousy is the heat of a man, and he does not spare in the day of vengeance.
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
For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.THE KEY
Jealousy here is heat that can carry a man into vengeance without sparing.
THE MEANING
Jealousy can take the shape of a man’s rage, and that rage can harden into vengeance that spares no one. The verse leaves the force unsmoothed: when vengeance comes, compassion is absent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that jealousy is only a private feeling or that vengeance will remain controlled: here jealousy becomes rage, and vengeance refuses to spare.
THE ROOT
קִנְאָה
qin'ah
GROWS FROM
קנא
qana
Zeal or jealous ardor, an intensity that burns toward what it regards as its own.
The same root holds jealousy and zeal together, revealing the force beneath the feeling. Here that force meets rage and vengeance, showing how jealousy can become more than inward unease.
ALSO GROWS
qānāʾ: To be jealous or zealous.
קָנָא
The verb shows jealousy as an active force, not merely a passing feeling.
qannāʾ: Jealous or zealous.
קַנָּא
This related form keeps the root’s joined sense of jealous intensity and zeal in view.
נָקָם
nāqām
GROWS FROM
נקם
naqam
To take vengeance or exact retribution.
The verse places vengeance at a particular point in time: its day arrives, and the jealous man will not spare. The root makes the movement from heated feeling to repayment explicit.
ALSO GROWS
nāqam: To avenge or take vengeance.
נָקַם
The verb names the act that the verse says will leave no room for sparing.
nāqām: Vengeance or retribution.
נָקָם
The noun names the force that jealousy has become in this line.
יְחָמֹל
yeḥāmōl
GROWS FROM
חמל
ḥamal
To spare, pity, or show compassion.
The verse sets חֵמָה (ḥēmāh, rage) beside יְחָמֹל (yeḥāmōl, he will spare): their ח־מ sound echoes across distinct roots, while the sparing verb itself carries the sense of compassion. The line pictures rage silencing the act of mercy.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāmal: To spare or have compassion.
חָמַל
The verb names the mercy that the jealous man withholds.
ḥemlāh: Compassion or pity.
חֶמְלָה
This noun makes clear that sparing is an expression of compassion, not simply a pause in vengeance.
THE PATTERN
Jealousy concentrates heat until it overwhelms restraint and breeds destructive action.
Heat is cruel, and anger overflows; but who can stand before envy?Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death; jealousy is hard as Sheol; its sparks are sparks of fire, a flame of the LORD.For where boiling and strife are, there is no standing still and every base deed.THE THREAD
Heat is cruel, and anger overflows; but who can stand before envy?The Hebrew word קִנְאָה (qin’ah, jealousy or envy) appears in both verses. Proverbs 27:4 shows how difficult this force is to withstand; Proverbs 6:34 shows what it can become when vengeance arrives.
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