What Does Job 5:13 Mean?
He catches the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the shrewd is hurried headlong.
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
He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.THE KEY
The craft that seems to secure the wise becomes the very trap that catches them.
THE MEANING
Cleverness that looks like control can become the trap that catches it. Twisted counsel races toward its own undoing, while its design remains visible to God. The verse speaks now: intelligence that relies on concealment can be exposed by the shape of its own plan.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this verse undoes is that a clever plan makes its maker untouchable; here, its craftiness is the point of capture.
THE ROOT
בְּעָרְמָם
beʿormām
GROWS FROM
ע־ר־ם
ʿ-r-m
To act craftily or shrewdly; the verse’s form means “in their craftiness.”
“craftiness” in this verse is beʿormām. Genesis places “naked” (עֲרוּמִּים, ʿărummîm) beside “crafty” (עָרוּם, ʿārûm) in a striking sound echo. Job’s word carries that resonance: what seems artfully covered can be laid bare.
ALSO GROWS
ʿārûm: Shrewd, crafty
עָרוּם
This adjective names the cleverness that becomes the trap in Job’s line.
ʿormāh: Craftiness, shrewdness
עָרְמָה
This noun names the quality the verse says catches its own possessor.
לֹכֵד
lōkhēd
GROWS FROM
ל־כ־ד
l-k-d
To catch, seize, or capture; here, “catches.”
“catches” in this verse is lōkhēd. The verse pictures more than cleverness being exposed: it is caught. The same verb can describe capture, so the wise person’s own craft becomes the territory where they are taken.
ALSO GROWS
lākhad: To seize or capture
לָכַד
This basic verb makes the image an actual taking, not merely a loss of reputation.
nilkhad: Was caught or captured
נִלְכַּד
This form shows the captured one on the receiving end of the very action Job assigns to the craftiness.
נִפְתָּלִים
niftālîm
GROWS FROM
פ־ת־ל
p-t-l
To twist or wrestle; the word describes people as twisted or contorted.
“shrewd” in this verse is niftālîm. “Froward” carries the image of something twisted, not merely a disagreement. The counsel of the twisted is swept headlong, so its tangled design cannot hold its course.
ALSO GROWS
naftûlîm: Wrestlings
נַפְתּוּלִים
In Genesis 30:8, the related word names a struggle, bringing the root’s twisting force into view.
petaltōl: Twisted, crooked
פְּתַלְתֹּל
Deuteronomy 32:5 uses this form for what is crooked, echoing the quality of counsel Job describes.
THE PATTERN
A scheme can return upon its maker and become the very outcome they meet.
He digs a pit and hollows it out, and falls into the pit he works. His toil turns back upon his head, and his violence comes down upon his skull.Whoever digs a pit falls into it; whoever rolls a stone, it turns back upon him.Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.THE THREAD
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, He catches the wise in their own craftiness.First Corinthians quotes Job’s image directly, carrying its reversal into a line about worldly wisdom. The intelligence that trusts itself to stand above the trap is caught by its own design.
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