Proverbs 16:18:1Prov.16.18.W1TAB
לִפְנֵי־שֶׁ֥בֶר
lifneshever
“before destruction or breaking”
- Transliteration
- lif-NE-she-VER
- Extended
- lihf-NEE-sheh-VEHR
- IPA
- /lifˈneː.ʃɛˈvɛr/
Meaning by language
- English
- before destruction or breaking
Hebrew · tap a syllable to hear it
Alphabet Analysis
| Lamed | l as in law | |
| Hireq | 'ee' as in machine | |
| Pe | p with dagesh; f without | |
| Sheva | silent sheva — no sound; closes the syllable | |
| Nun | n as in new | |
| Tsere | long 'ey' as in they | |
| Yod | y as in yes; marks long ī | |
| Shin | shin with right dot; sin with left dot | |
| Seghol | short 'eh' as in met | |
| Bet | b with dagesh; v without dagesh | |
| Seghol | short 'eh' as in met | |
| Resh | r guttural, like the French r |
Tap any letter to hear its name and sound
Now you try — trace the word:
The word
Word in context
- word
lif-NE-she-VER
- clause
lif-NE-she-VER ga-ON
- sentence
lif-NE-she-VER ga-ON ve-lif-NE khish-SHA-lon GO-va RU-akh
Exegesis
The verse employs synonymous parallelism by repeating lifnei {לִפְנֵי | lĭp̂nê} ‘before’ to join two coordinate clauses.
In the first clause, gaon {גָּאוֹן | gā·ʾōn} ‘pride’ precedes shever {שֶׁבֶר | šĕber} ‘destruction’; in the second clause, govah ruach {גֹּבַהּ רוּחַ | gō·bāh rū·aḥ} ‘haughty spirit’ precedes kishalon {כִּשָּׁלוֹן | kiššālôn} ‘fall’. This parallel structure underscores the causal relationship between arrogance and its undoing. The formal rendering preserves the Hebrew ordering with “comes before,” while the dynamic uses “leads to” to convey inevitable consequence in contemporary English.
Root and etymology
Rootshin–bet–resh
“to break, shatter”
In context — Proverbs 16:18
Pride comes before destruction, and a haughty spirit comes before a fall.
About this coordinate
Proverbs 16:18:1 is a BCV:P reference — Book · Chapter · Verse · Word Position. It addresses word 1 of Proverbs 16:18, so the Hebrew word לִפְנֵי־שֶׁ֥בֶר (lifneshever) can be cited, linked and studied at exactly this position rather than somewhere in the verse. In the Biblical Knowledge Coordinate System the same position is written Prov.16.18.W1, which extends further down to each syllable (Prov.16.18.W1.S1) and character.