What Does Proverbs 7:10 Mean in the King James?
And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.
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 word behind “subtil” carries the language of guarding, so the verse sets visible attire beside a heart held out of view.
THE MEANING
The encounter puts appearance and inward guardedness side by side. You see the attire, while the heart remains less open to view. The tension lies in the space between what is displayed and what is held within.
THE ROOT
נְצֻרַת
neṣūrat from nāṣar
GROWS FROM
נצר
To guard, keep, watch over, or preserve.
“Subtil” can sound like a free-floating trait, but the Hebrew form belongs to the language of guarding and keeping. That lets the phrase carry a sense of an inward heart held under guard, alongside the attire that can be seen.
ALSO GROWS
nāṣar: To guard, keep, or preserve.
נָצַר
This verb supplies the seed of “subtil”: the heart is described with the language of something guarded.
nōṣēr: One who keeps or guards.
נֹצֵר
This keeper form makes the shared image concrete: the root can describe active watchfulness, giving “subtil of heart” a shade of guardedness.
THE PATTERN
The heart remains an inward reality that outward appearance alone cannot disclose.
But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.THE THREAD
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.The Hebrew root נצר (nāṣar), “to guard,” marks the heart as guarded in Proverbs 7:10 and appears again in “Keep thy heart.” Here the same root turns the focus from the visible encounter to the inward place from which life’s courses flow.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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