What Does Job 31:9 Mean?
If my heart has been enticed toward a woman, or I have lain in wait at my neighbor's door;
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door;THE KEY
The Hebrew places an enticed heart beside a neighbor’s doorway, bringing inward yielding and a deliberate approach into one movement toward betrayal.
THE MEANING
This verse puts the heart’s attraction to another woman beside the deliberate act of waiting at a neighbor’s door. It holds inward desire and outward approach together in the question of fidelity. The threshold makes the intention concrete.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that betrayal begins only at physical contact: the verse names the heart’s enticement before the body reaches the neighbor’s door.
THE ROOT
נִפְתָּה
niphtah
GROWS FROM
פתה
To entice or persuade; in some forms, to be simple or susceptible to persuasion.
“enticed” in this verse is niphtah. The verb carries the sense of being drawn or persuaded, as well as the sharper sense of being deceived. The nearby word for “door,” פֶּתַח (pethach), echoes its פ־ת opening sounds, placing an inward drawing beside a physical threshold; the words have different roots.
ALSO GROWS
pathah: To entice, persuade, or deceive.
פָּתָה
This verb shows the range behind the heart’s being enticed in Job’s line.
peti: A simple or naive person, open to persuasion.
פֶּתִי
This noun reveals susceptibility within the root’s family: the heart is drawn toward something, not merely given incorrect information.
אָרַבְתִּי
aravti
GROWS FROM
ארב
To lie in wait or set an ambush.
“lain in wait” in this verse is aravti. The verb describes deliberate positioning, not a passing glance or accidental arrival. Beside the heart’s enticement, it makes the imagined betrayal a planned approach to another person’s boundary.
ALSO GROWS
orev: One who lies in wait.
אֹרֵב
This form makes the intentional, watchful quality of Job’s wording plain.
ma’arav: An ambush or hiding place for an ambush.
מַאֲרָב
The related noun makes the root’s sense of concealed preparation visible.
פֶּתַח
pethach
GROWS FROM
פתח
To open.
The door is an opening, but here it is also a threshold at another person’s home. Its sound echo with נִפְתָּה (niphtah), “was enticed,” brings the heart’s inward pull alongside the place where a planned approach would take shape.
ALSO GROWS
patach: To open.
פָּתַח
The verb names the action contained in the doorway word.
maphteach: A key.
מַפְתֵּחַ
This related word also grows from the root for opening, reinforcing the doorway’s role as a point of entry.
THE PATTERN
Fidelity is tested in the movement from inward enticement to deliberate approach.
Let not your heart bend toward her ways; do not wander in her paths.But I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to crave her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.But each one is tested by his own craving, dragged out and lured.THE THREAD
O LORD, you have coaxed me, and I was coaxed. You are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become laughter all the day; everyone mocks me.The Hebrew root behind “deceived” in Job appears again in Jeremiah’s repeated “deceived.” Its range includes being enticed or persuaded, showing how Job’s wording can describe a heart being drawn toward something.
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