What Does Proverbs 7:12 Mean in the King James?
Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)
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 verb for “lieth in wait” is the language of ambush: the street itself becomes a prepared place of interception.
THE MEANING
She is outside, she is in the streets, and she waits at every corner. The repeated “now” makes her presence mobile, while the ambush verb gives each turn the possibility of deliberate interception.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a trap requires entering a secluded place: she waits in the streets and at every corner.
THE ROOT
תֶאֱרֹב
teʾerov
GROWS FROM
ארב
to lie in wait; to ambush
“lieth in wait” in this verse is teʾerov. This verb shares its seed with מַאֲרָב, “an ambush,” making this more than being present at a corner: she is positioned to intercept. The related word אֹרֵב names one who lies in wait, so both the waiting agent and the trap live inside this root.
ALSO GROWS
maʾarav: Ambush; ambush place
מַאֲרָב
It names the prepared trap implicit in her position at every corner.
ʾorev: One who lies in wait; an ambusher
אֹרֵב
It names her as an active presence waiting to intercept.
רְחֹבוֹת
rechovot
GROWS FROM
רחב
to be broad; to become spacious
The word for streets comes from the root for breadth and spaciousness; its sibling מֶרְחָב means a broad, open place. Here, the wide public setting does not remove the ambush: she waits from the street to every corner.
ALSO GROWS
rachav: Broad; wide
רָחָב
It carries the root’s sense of openness into the setting where she waits.
merḥav: A broad place; open space
מֶרְחָב
It echoes the streets’ spaciousness, showing that openness alone does not make the route free of capture.
THE PATTERN
An ambush turns a city, a village, or even another person’s words into a prepared point of capture.
And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the city behind it.He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.THE THREAD
If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:The same Hebrew root, ארב, names the waiting that turns a path into interception. In Proverbs 1:11, the ambushers invite others to join their plan; here, the woman positions herself at every corner, and the shared root reveals the same deliberate readiness to capture.
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