Proverbs 26:19

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, "Am I not joking?"

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

Septuagint runs longer here — compare

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רִמָּ֣ה

râmâh

H7411

“to throw”

Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 13× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 29:25

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 2168 , 2169

to cast, shoot, hurl - (Qal) - to throw - bow-shooters, bowmen (participle) - (Piel) to throw down - to beguile, deceive, mislead, deal treacherously - (Piel) - to beguile, deceive, mislead, trick - to deal treacherously with, betray

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
9: distinct lemmas
Wisdom: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is רִמָּ֣ה to throw H7411 — appearing just 13 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

רִמָּ֣ה to throw H7411 occurs in 13 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
2 nouns
1 pronoun
3 particles

Verb forms

רִמָּ֣ה Piel · Perfect
וְ֝אָמַ֗ר Qal · Perfect
מְשַׂחֵ֥ק Piel · Participle Active

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 13 words from the Hebrew and 21 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the Septuagint runs noticeably longer here. See the side-by-side →

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 9 Hebrew tokens and 14 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Proverbs 26:19 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Ephesians 5:4 nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not appropriate; but rather giving of thanks.
Proverbs 10:23 It is a fool's pleasure to do wickedness, But wisdom is a man of understanding's pleasure.
Proverbs 14:9 Fools mock at making atonement for sins, But among the upright there is good will.
Proverbs 15:21 Folly is joy to one who is void of wisdom, But a man of understanding keeps his way straight.
2 Peter 2:13 receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the day-time, spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you;

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

Here the Septuagint runs noticeably longer than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 21 words vs World English Bible 13. A rough length comparison of the two English translations, not a word-level alignment — read both below.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Proverbs 26:19 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

כֵּֽן אִ֭ישׁ רִמָּ֣ה אֶת רֵעֵ֑הוּ וְ֝אָמַ֗ר הֲֽלֹא מְשַׂחֵ֥ק אָֽנִי

Is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, "Am I not joking?"

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Proverbs 26:19 Septuagint · lemma form

οὕτως πᾶς ὁ ἐνεδρεύω ὁ ἑαυτοῦ φίλος ὅταν δέ φωράομαι λέγω ὅτι παίζω πράσσω

so are all that lay wait for their own friends, and when they are revealed, say, I did it in jest.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Proverbs 26:19 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Pro 26:19 So [is] the man [that] deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not I in sport?

Ver. 19. Am not I in jest?] The wicked man’s mirth is usually mixed with mischief. It is no sport, unless he may have the devil his play fellow - no good fellowship without horse play. Salt jests, and dry flouts, to the just grief or disgrace of another, is counted facetious and fine. But St Paul calls it foolish {a} {Eph 5:4} and further saith, that "for such things’ sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience." Quid mihi cum fabulis, cum iocis? saith Bernard, - What hath a Christian to do with jesting and jeering? We allow a horse to prance and skip in a pasture, which if he doth when backed by the rider, we count him an unruly and unbroken jade. So, howsoever in heathens and atheists God may wink at jocularity aud dicacity, yet he looks for better things from his own people. Credo mihi, res severa est verum gaudium, saith Seneca; True mirth is a severe business. But what a madman was Robert de Beliasme, Earl of Shrewsbury, 1111 AD, delighting to do mischief and exercise his cruelty, and then to say, Are not I in jest? An example hereof he showed upon his own son, who, being but a child, and playing with him, the father, for a pastime, put his thumb in the boy’s eyes, and thrust out the balls thereof. {b}

{a} ευτραπελια.

{b} Speed’s Chron., 473.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Which dissembleth himself to be that he is not.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 19. Am not I in sport?] How many hearts have been made sad, and how many reputations have been slain, by this kind of sport! "I designed no harm by what I said;" "It was only in jest," &c. Sportive as such persons may think their conduct to be, it is as ruinous as that of the madman who shoots arrows, throws firebrands, and projects in all directions instruments of death, so that some are wounded, some burnt, and some slain.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

19. in sport] Fatal mischief may come of thoughtlessness apart from malice.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

So is the man that deceiveth his neighbour,.... By telling him a lie; or by reporting false things concerning him; or by cheating him in trade and commerce; or by taking his goods privately from him; and, when caught in either of these,

and saith, Am not I in sport? do not be angry, I designed no hurt; it is all in jest, a mere joke: but, had he not been apprehended, it would have been in earnest, as he was. This is only an excuse, and as absurd an one as if a man should set fire to his neighbour's house and barns, or throw arrows at him, or strike him with any instrument of death, as the sword, &c. and then say he was only in jest, or pretend madness.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Jest. He will not escape, no more than the person who had committed murder involuntarily, if he were not in a city of refuge, Numbers xxxv. 22.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

That wrongs him under a false pretence of kindness and familiarity.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

so is a man who deceives He wins over and entices his friend from ways of life to ways of death, and when his friend realizes that he is misleading him, he says, “I am joking.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Proverbs, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 9 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is râmâh (“to throw”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to throw” (râmâh) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Genesis 29:25, which shares the word «to throw», read alongside this verse?
The Septuagint runs longer here than the Hebrew. What might account for the difference?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
«רִמָּ֣ה» is a Piel Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 14 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.