The Meaning of Proverbs 30:6 Explained

Proverbs 30:6

KJV: Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

YLT: Add not to His words, lest He reason with thee, And thou hast been found false.

Darby: Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

ASV: Add thou not unto his words, Lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Add  thou not unto his words,  lest he reprove  thee, and thou be found a liar. 

What does Proverbs 30:6 Mean?

Context Summary

Proverbs 30:1-17 - The Advice Of A Shrewd Observer
This chapter contains a collection of sayings of one person, Agur, of whom we know nothing further. It is supposed that he lived after the return from the Exile. The opening verses of the chapter may be thus rendered: "The utterance of the man who has questioned and thought." I have wearied after God, I have wearied after God, and am faint; for I am too stupid for a man, and am without reason, and I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the All-Holy."
Agur answers his complaint in Proverbs 30:5-9. You cannot know God by your own discovery, but He will make Himself known to you through the written Word, to which no addition may be made, Proverbs 30:6. See also John 1:18, which shows our clearest revelation of Him. But there are two conditions: We must put away vanity and lies; and we must be satisfied with God's arrangement of our daily food. Notice the following quatrain, Proverbs 30:11-14, which is descriptive of four kinds of evil men: the unfilial, the self-righteous, the haughty, and the rapacious. The next quatrain, Proverbs 30:15-16, treats of "the insatiable;" and this is followed by a further description of the doom of the disobedient: strong, wise, shrewd, and sanctified sense. [source]

Chapter Summary: Proverbs 30

1  Agur's confession of his faith
7  The two points of his prayer
10  The meanest are not to be wronged
11  Four wicked generations
15  Four things insatiable
24  four things exceeding wise
29  Four things stately
32  Wrath is to be prevented

What do the individual words in Proverbs 30:6 mean?

Not do add to His words lest He rebuke you and you be found a liar -
אַל־ תּ֥וֹסְףְּ עַל־ דְּבָרָ֑יו פֶּן־ יוֹכִ֖יחַ בְּךָ֣ וְנִכְזָֽבְתָּ פ

תּ֥וֹסְףְּ  do  add 
Parse: Verb, Hifil, Imperfect Jussive, second person masculine singular
Root: יָסַף 
Sense: to add, increase, do again.
דְּבָרָ֑יו  His  words 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural construct, third person masculine singular
Root: דָּבָר  
Sense: speech, word, speaking, thing.
פֶּן־  lest 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: פֶּן  
Sense: lest, not, beware lest adv.
יוֹכִ֖יחַ  He  rebuke 
Parse: Verb, Hifil, Imperfect, third person masculine singular
Root: יָכַח  
Sense: to prove, decide, judge, rebuke, reprove, correct, be right.
וְנִכְזָֽבְתָּ  and  you  be  found  a  liar 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Nifal, Conjunctive perfect, second person masculine singular
Root: כָּזַב  
Sense: to lie, tell a lie, be a liar, be found a liar, be in vain, fail.
פ  - 
Parse: Punctuation