Proverbs 20:2

The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
fear	אֵ֣ימַת 'Ei.mat	H367	fright · noun, common feminine singular construct
king	מֶ֑לֶךְ Me.lekh	H4428	a king · noun, common masculine singular absolute
roaring	נַ֣הַם Na.ham	H5099	a snarl · noun, common masculine singular absolute
lion	כַּ֭כְּפִיר Ka.ke.fir	H3715	a village (as covered in by walls) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
anger	מִ֝תְעַבְּר֗וֹ mit.'a.be.Ro	H5674	to cross over · verb, hithpael active participle, masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
sinneth	חוֹטֵ֥א cho.Te'	H2398	properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
soul	נַפְשֽׁוֹ naf.Sho	H5315	properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Proverbs 19:12 The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass.
Ecclesiastes 10:4 If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences.
1 Kings 2:23 Then king Solomon sware by the LORD, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah have not spoken this word against his own life.
Proverbs 8:36 But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
Proverbs 16:14-15 The wrath of a king is as messengers of death: but a wise man will pacify it.
Hosea 11:10 They shall walk after the LORD: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.
Amos 3:8 The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?
Habakkuk 2:10 Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 20:2

See here, 1. How formidable kings are, and what a terror they strike upon those they are angry with. Their fear, with which (especially when they are absolute and their will is a law) they keep their subjects in awe, is as the roaring of a lion, which is very dreadful to the creatures he preys upon, and makes them tremble so that they cannot escape from him. Those princes that rule by wisdom and love rule like God himself, and bear his image; but those that rule merely by terror, and with a high hand, do but rule like a lion in the forest, with a brutal power. Oderint, dum metuant - Let them hate, provided they fear. 2. How unwise therefore those are that quarrel with them, that are angry at…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 20:2

(Compare Pro 19:12). Men who resist authority injure themselves (Rom 13:2).

John Gill on Proverbs 20:2

The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion,.... The wrath and displeasure of a king, which causes fear; see Proverbs 19:12; kings should be terrors to evil works and workers, though not to good ones, Romans 13:3. This is true of the King of kings, who one day will be terrible to the drunkards, the mockers, and murderers of his people, before spoken of; whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul; he exposes his life to danger: the Targum supplies it as we do. It may be rendered, his "soul sinneth" (a); he is guilty of sin, as well as is in danger of punishment; see Proverbs 8:36. (a) .

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 20:2

2 A roaring as of a lion is the terror of the king; And he that provoketh him forfeiteth his life. Line first is a variation of Pro 19:12. The terror which a king spreads around (מלך, gen. subjecti., as, e.g., at Job 9:34 and generally) is like the growling of a lion which threatens danger. The thought here suggested is that it is dangerous to arouse a lion. Thus מתעבּרו does not mean: he who is angry at him (Venet.: χολούμενος αὐτῷ), but he who provokes him (lxx, Syr., Targ., Jerome, Luther). התעבּר signifies, as we saw at Pro 14:16, to be in a state of excessive displeasure, extreme anger. Here the meaning must be: he who puts him into a state of anger (lxx, ὁ παροξύνων αὐτόν, in o…

The Church Fathers

In this place it openly speaks of Christ as the king, for the one who irritates Christ with [his] sin, sins against his own soul.
— Origen of Alexandria, EXPOSITION ON PROVERBS, FRAGMENT 20:2

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Citizens · WICKED AND TREA — WICKED AND TREA
Kings · Folly of resisting — Folly of resisting
Lion · The roaring of — The roaring of
Lion, The · Illustrative: (Roaring of,) of a king’s wrath — Illustrative: (Roaring of,) of a king’s wrath

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Proverbs 20:2

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 20:2

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 20:2

John Gill on Proverbs 20:2

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 20:2

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Proverbs 20:2

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 20:2

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 20:2

John Gill on Proverbs 20:2

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 20:2

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Proverbs 20:2

Rashi on Proverbs 20:2