Ridiculous KJV Bible Corrections:
Proverbs 22:23, Hiding

by John Hinton, Ph.D.
jhinton@post.harvard.edu

Proverbs 22:3 KJV "A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished."

The modern commentator, Dahood, seems to be unaware of the long history of persecution that the men and women of God have undergone for thousands of years. The following Proverb has great meaning to both Christians and Jews, both of which have been hunted down and murdered by the millions. This may account for Dahood's shallow understanding of this verse: "The prudent man sees danger and turns aside, But the simple pass on and get hurt." Dahood explains, with typical shallowness and conceit, "the usual derivation of ystr from str "to hide" can hardly be correct; this is simply not the mot juste. From the traditional versions one gains the impression that the prudent man is a sneak."1 Why hiding implies sneakiness is not explained by Dahood. Was Anne Frank a sneak for hiding from the Nazis? Was Corrie Ten Boom a sneak for hiding people from the Nazis? Was Luther a sneak when he hid from the Pope's goons? Was Tyndale a sneak for not allowing the Pope's henchmen to murder him before he could complete his work? Did any of the would be victims of Dahood's fellow Jesuits do something sneaky when they hid from their would be murderers? Are the Chinese home church Christians too sneaky for having services secretly in homes, wooded locations, and sewers without informing the communist authorities? Dahood seems to believe that his confusion justifies changing the verse. The justification that he uses from Ugaritic texts only highlights his confusion, since the verb in question, as well as the text, are not related to the Proverb in any way. He posits that this verb is an example of a reflexive infixed -t based on its alleged existence in Ugaritic. In other words, it might be a Hebrew form because it might be an Ugaritic form? Talk about building a case on vapor. The burden of proof is not on the text, but on Dahood, and he has offered only speculation of the most wild kind.

As usual the pseudo-scholarship of men like Dahood amounts to nothing more than confused blather. If the man had ever humbled himself before God and gotten saved, and asked the Holy Spirit to guide his understanding, he would have understood what this verse has to say.

1 Dahood, Proverbs, p. 45.

The preceeding is part of a series of examples of KJV verses that arrogant would-be scholars have tried to correct and showed themselves to be fools. These examples are for the benefit of those who would like more ammunition to defend God's Word against the attacks of the arrogant Bible "correcting" modernists. I hope that some of you find them useful.

Your servant in Christ,
John Hinton, Ph.D.
Bible Restoration Ministry
A ministry seeking the translating and reprinting of KJV equivalent Bibles in all the languages of the world.