What Does Job 31:9 Mean in the King James?
If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door;
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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.
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.
“laid 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 thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.THE THREAD
O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh 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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