What Does Proverbs 5:5 Mean in the King James?

Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.

Proverbs 5:5 · KJV

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 same Hebrew root describes steps holding fast to Sheol here and people holding fast to Wisdom, the tree of life, in Proverbs 3:18.

THE MEANING

The verse makes danger visible as movement: her feet descend toward death, and her steps fasten onto Sheol, the realm of the dead. The path does not merely pass near ruin; its own footing holds to where it leads.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that ruin begins only at the destination: here the steps themselves already take hold of Sheol.

THE ROOT

יִתְמְכוּ

yitmekhu

GROWS FROM

תמך

t-m-kh

to support, uphold, or hold fast

“take hold” in this verse is yitmekhu. The verb pictures the steps as holding fast to Sheol, not simply approaching it. The same root describes those who support or retain Wisdom, called a tree of life in Proverbs 3:18; what is held fast shapes the path’s direction.

ALSO GROWS

tomekh: one who supports or holds

תֹּמֵךְ

The supporting sense makes the steps’ grip on Sheol more vivid.

tomkheha: those who support her; rendered “retaineth her” in Proverbs 3:18

תֹּמְכֶיהָ

This form uses the same root for holding to Wisdom, the tree of life, revealing the striking contrast with the steps here.

יֹרְדוֹת

yordot

GROWS FROM

ירד

y-r-d

to descend or go down

“go down” in this verse is yordot. The Hebrew describes the feet as going down, keeping the image in motion rather than presenting death only as a distant endpoint. The descent and the grip work together: the feet move downward while the steps hold fast to Sheol.

ALSO GROWS

yarad: to descend or go down

יָרַד

This is the root verb behind the feet’s downward movement.

horid: to bring down or cause to descend

הוֹרִיד

This causative form shows the root can describe descent as an ongoing force, deepening the verse’s image of a deathward path.

THE PATTERN

A path’s end is already implicit in the direction its steps take.

For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Psalm 1:6 · KJVThe verse links a way with its end, as Proverbs 5:5 pictures feet descending toward death.

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Proverbs 14:12 · KJVA way can appear sound while its destination is death, as the steps in Proverbs 5:5 already hold to Sheol.

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

Matthew 7:13 · KJVThe way itself leads toward destruction, making direction part of the danger.

THE THREAD

She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.

Proverbs 3:18 · KJV

“Retaineth” translates the same Hebrew root ⁨תמך⁩ (t-m-kh), meaning to support or hold fast, as “take hold” in Proverbs 5:5. One passage pictures steps holding fast to Sheol; the other describes people holding fast to Wisdom, the tree of life.

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