But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.

PROVERBS 8:36KJV
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Proverbs 8:36 (KJV)

What does Proverbs 8:36 mean?

Proverbs 8:36 says that rejecting wisdom harms the person who rejects her. Wisdom describes such rejection in the strongest terms: those who hate her are choosing a path associated with death rather than life.

Wisdom is speaking as if she were a woman addressing an audience. After saying in verse 35 that finding her brings life, she ends with the opposite picture: turning against her brings harm to one’s own life.

The Hebrew behind Proverbs 8:36

  • “sinneth” — חָטָא (ḥaṭaʾ): This word can mean to sin or to miss a target. Here, the KJV presents the person’s action as an offense against Wisdom herself, not merely as a failure to find her.
  • “soul” — נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh): This word can refer to a person’s life or to the person as a whole. In this verse, “his own soul” points to the person who suffers the harm.

Why Proverbs 8:36 matters

  • Wisdom’s warning concerns the person making the choice. The phrase “wrongeth his own soul” makes the harm personal.
  • The closing contrast is deliberately sharp. After the promise of “life” in verse 35, the phrase “love death” gives rejection of Wisdom its most serious outcome.

Where else these words appear

“wrongeth” Hebrew H2554 · used in 8 verses

  • Job 15:33 He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.
  • Jeremiah 13:22 And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare.
  • Lamentations 2:6 And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

“hate” Hebrew H8130 · used in 139 verses

  • Genesis 24:60 And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.
  • Esther 9:1 Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them,(though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them;)
  • Proverbs 1:22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?