What Does Proverbs 6:2 Mean in the King James?

Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
Proverbs 6:2 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

The same words become both the snare that catches you and the force that holds you.

Your speech can become a boundary around your own next steps: what leaves your mouth may catch you and hold you to its consequences. The verse repeats “the words of thy mouth” to show that both the first snare and the final capture rise from the same source.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that words disappear without binding their speaker: what you say can become the very terms that hold you.

נוֹקַשְׁתָּ

noqashta

GROWS FROM

יקש

y-q-sh

To set a snare; to ensnare.

“snared” in this verse is noqashta. This root gives ⁨מוֹקֵשׁ⁩ (moqesh), a snare, and ⁨יָקוּשׁ⁩ (yaqush), a fowler: the image is a trap-setter’s mechanism, not a vague feeling of regret. What the mouth says becomes the catching device.

ALSO GROWS

moqesh: A snare, trap, or stumbling block.

מוֹקֵשׁ

It makes the verse’s image concrete: the spoken words are the means of capture.

yaqush: A fowler, one who catches birds with snares.

יָקוּשׁ

It reveals the active catching force behind the word “snared.”

נִלְכַּדְתָּ

nilkadta

GROWS FROM

לכד

l-k-d

To catch, seize, or capture.

“taken” in this verse is nilkadta. This second root names being caught or captured, so the parallel line moves from a trap’s catch to captivity. Paired with ⁨יקש⁩, the utterance catches first and then holds.

ALSO GROWS

lakad: To catch, seize, or capture.

לָכַד

This verb names the force of the second line: the speaker is no longer merely near a trap, but caught.

miklōdet: A trap or snare.

מִלְכֹּדֶת

This noun from the same root shows how capture takes shape as a trap.

אִמְרֵי פִיךָ

imrei fikha

GROWS FROM

אמר

ʾ-m-r

To say or utter.

The repeated phrase ⁨אִמְרֵי פִיךָ⁩ (imrei fikha, “the words of your mouth”) anchors both actions to one source. The root’s branch ⁨אִמְרָה⁩ names an utterance or saying, so “words” carries a spoken act whose effects remain attached to the speaker.

ALSO GROWS

amar: To say or speak.

אָמַר

It names the spoken act that supplies the material for the snare.

imrah: An utterance or saying.

אִמְרָה

It shows that the “words” are specific acts of speech, repeated as the source of both capture images.

Speech can become a net whose consequences return to enclose the speaker.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
Proverbs 18:21 · KJVThe tongue’s fruit returns to the one speaking, making speech’s consequences something the speaker eventually takes in.
For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Matthew 12:37 · KJVThe same words can testify for or against their speaker.
And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
James 3:6 · KJVSpeech is pictured as a force whose damage spreads through the speaker’s whole life.
For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Matthew 12:37 · KJV

Matthew names the same two-sided consequence: the speaker’s own words become the basis for a verdict. Proverbs pictures those words as a trap closing around the speaker; Matthew shows their force as testimony for or against them.

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