Proverbs 10:4 · Symbol · Diligence
The Words Charuts and Spoude
The Hebrew charuts and the Greek spoude stand behind the diligent of Proverbs and the diligence of the letters in the Berean text.
Mark uses spoude for the hurry of the girl who asked for the head of John the Baptist, and Peter uses it for the effort that adds virtue to faith.
Idle hands make one poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.
- The word
- חָרוּץ (charuts), H2742
- First appears
- Leviticus 22:22 “You are not to present to the LORD…”
Summary
Two words carry what Scripture means by diligence. In Hebrew the diligent of Proverbs are the charutsim, the people whose hands bring plenty. In Greek, Paul asks spoude of the givers at Corinth, and Hebrews asks it of every believer until the end. Read verse by verse, the two words show diligence as willing effort given to a task and kept up.
- Charuts means diligent only in Proverbs.
- Each verse takes one sense of charuts, so its other senses say nothing of the diligent man's character.
- Spoude is neutral in itself, and its worth comes from what it serves.
- The verb spoudazo, which the Berean text often renders make every effort, carries the same call into the life of faith.
Scripture's Words for Diligence
One proverb and one letter show the two words at work.
Scripture asks diligence of God's people, and the Hebrew and Greek words behind the English word show what kind of effort it is. This word study asks which words Scripture uses for diligence, where each stands, what each means, and what the range of each word allows a reader to say. The answer comes from the uses of charuts and spoude by sense, from the sayings of Proverbs and the letters of the apostles, from the verb spoudazo, and from two early readers of the words.
The plans of the diligent bring plenty, as surely as haste leads to poverty.The verse shows charuts in a saying about planning.
Do not let your zeal subside; keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.The verse shows spoude in Paul's list of the marks of love in the church.
Where the Words Stand
Charuts stands in nine books of the Hebrew Bible, and spoude in seven books of the New Testament.
Five of the nineteen uses of charuts mean diligent, and ten of the twelve uses of spoude mean earnestness or zeal.
| Sense | Uses | Books | A verse where it stands |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charuts, חָרוּץ, H2742 | |||
| diligent | 5 | Proverbs | “but a diligent man prizes his possession” (Proverbs 12:27) |
| gold | 6 | Psalms, Proverbs, Zechariah | “and her feathers with shimmering gold” (Psalm 68:13) |
| threshing sledge | 3 | Job, Isaiah, Amos | “spreading out the mud like a threshing sledge” (Job 41:30) |
| decision | 2 | Joel | “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!” (Joel 3:14) |
| sharp | 1 | Isaiah | “a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth” (Isaiah 41:15) |
| trench or moat | 1 | Daniel | “It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench” (Daniel 9:25) |
| mutilation | 1 | Leviticus | “any animal that is blind, injured, or maimed” (Leviticus 22:22) |
| Spoude, σπουδή, G4710 | |||
| haste | 2 | Mark, Luke | “Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah” (Luke 1:39) |
| earnest effort | 10 | Romans, 2 Corinthians, Hebrews, 2 Peter, Jude | “if it is leading, let him lead with diligence” (Romans 12:8) |
trench or moat, mutilation, Spoude, σπουδή, G4710, haste, earnest effort
Joel 3:14 holds charuts twice, in both of its lines.
Charuts in Proverbs
Proverbs sets the diligent against the slack hand and against the slacker.
The hand of the diligent will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor.The verse shows charuts in the plural, for the diligent as a class.
The same pair returns a few lines later in a saying about a hunter who does not roast his game (Proverbs 12:27).
The slacker craves yet has nothing, but the soul of the diligent is fully satisfied.Charuts stands in this saying beside atsel, the word for the slacker, and the two have opposite ends.
One word for the diligent, for gold and for a sledgeStrong's dictionary, H2742
Strong's dictionary (1890) defines charuts as “properly, incised or (active) incisive”. As a noun it names “a trench (as dug), gold (as mined)” and a threshing sledge, and its figurative sense is “determination”. The senses share a root, and each verse takes one of them. A reading that carries gold or sharpness into the diligent man of Proverbs reads the root into the verse, and the sayings themselves say nothing of either.
Remiyyah, the slack handH7423
The word set against charuts in Proverbs 10:4, Proverbs 12:24 and Proverbs 12:27 is remiyyah (H7423), glossed “remissness, treachery”. In the Psalms and Job the same word means deceit. Here it names the loose hand at work, and the sayings never brand the lazy man a liar.
Spoude, from Haste to Earnestness
Abbott-Smith gives spoude two senses, and the letters use the second.
Abbott-Smith's Greek lexicon (1922) gives spoude two senses, “haste, speed” and “zeal, diligence, earnestness”.
But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in the love we inspired in you—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.The verse shows spoude in Paul's appeal for the collection.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge;The verse shows spoude at the start of Peter's list of graces.
Jude uses the noun of his own care in writing: “although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share” (Jude 1:3).
The Verb Spoudazo and Its Kin
The verb spoudazo, an adjective and an adverb carry the same root of earnest effort.
The verb spoudazo (G4704) means “to use speed, i.e. to make effort, be prompt or earnest”, and it stands eleven times. The adjective spoudaios (G4705, “prompt, energetic, earnest”) and the adverb (G4709, “earnestly, promptly”) stand three times each.
Make every effort to present yourself approved to God, an unashamed workman who accurately handles the word of truth.The verse shows the verb in a charge to a teacher.
Therefore, brothers, strive to make your calling and election sure. For if you practice these things you will never stumble,The verse shows the verb in Peter's call to make a believer's calling sure.
Hebrews sets the verb beside the Sabbath rest: “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest” (Hebrews 4:11).
Voices on the Words
Two early readers drew a lesson from the words, each under the line he teaches.
died 407 · John Chrysostom
Homily 17 on 2 Corinthians
The quotation1 quotation
“See again his exhortation accompanied with commendations, greater commendations. And he said not, 'that ye give,' but ‘that ye abound; in faith,’ namely, of the gifts, and ‘in utterance,’ the word of wisdom, and ‘knowledge,’ namely, of the doctrines, and ‘in all earnestness,’ to the attaining of all other virtue. ‘And in your love,’ that, namely of which I have before spoken, of which I have also made proof. ‘That ye may abound in this grace also.’ Seest thou that for this reason it was that he began by those praises, that advancing forward he might draw them on to the same diligence in these things also.”
John Chrysostom · Homily 17 on 2 Corinthians · on 2 Corinthians 8:7Patristic
died 735 · Bede
Commentary on the Catholic Epistles
The quotation1 quotation
“But you, giving all diligence, supply virtue in your faith. Virtue in this place is placed not for strength and miracles, but for good conduct; which is rightly to be joined to faith, lest it be idle and dead without works: in which he rightly …”
Bede · Commentary on the Catholic Epistles · on 2 Peter 1:5Patristic
Books to Read Next
Two works on the words, each free to read in full.
The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
James Strong · 1890
Its Hebrew and Greek dictionaries give a short definition of every word it numbers, charuts and spoude among them.
Read on archive.orgA Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament
G. Abbott-Smith · 1922
Its entries give each Greek word its senses with the New Testament verses for each sense.
Read on archive.orgDiligence to the End
Hebrews asks spoude of every believer and names the sluggishness it guards against.
We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. Then you will not be sluggish, but will imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.The verse shows spoude held to the end of a believer's life.
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain, because you are dull of hearing.The word rendered sluggish in Hebrews 6:12 is nothros (G3576), and its only other use is here, where the Berean text renders it dull.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible, Translators Brief lexicon of Extended Strongs for Hebrew and for Greek (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, with the Greek brief lexicon based on Abbott-Smith (1922) and the Strong's definitions (1890) the rows carry.
- The word-by-word tagging of the Hebrew and Greek text (STEP Bible tagging, CC BY 4.0)
- James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, with brief dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek words of the original (1890)
- G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1922)
- John Chrysostom, Homilies on 2 Corinthians, homily 17, on 2 Corinthians 8:7.
- Bede, Commentary on the Catholic Epistles, on 2 Peter 1:5, in a modern English translation.
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