What Does Proverbs 7:26 Mean in the King James?
For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
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 rendered “wounded” can name the pierced slain, so the verse counts casualties before it names the strong among them.
THE MEANING
The woman in this warning brings many down, and men described as strong are among the slain. The verse speaks now of a danger whose reach is measured by its casualties, not by whether its victims look weak.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that strength makes someone immune to destructive desire is undone here: the verse explicitly names strong men among the slain.
THE ROOT
חֲלָלִים
ḥălālîm
GROWS FROM
חלל
ḥ-l-l
To pierce or wound; the related noun can mean one who has been pierced or slain.
The word translated “wounded” can carry the sense of pierced or slain, so the first image is already severe. The verse then names the strong among those casualties, leaving no room to read the danger as affecting only the visibly weak.
ALSO GROWS
meḥōlāl: Pierced, wounded
מְחֹלָל
Isaiah 53:5 uses this form for a wounded figure, showing the same root’s language of piercing and injury.
ḥālāl: One pierced; a slain person
חָלָל
This noun names a casualty, clarifying the force of the plural word rendered “wounded” here.
עֲצוּמִים
ʿaṣûmîm
GROWS FROM
עצם
ʿ-ṣ-m
To be strong or mighty; to increase in force or number.
“strong men” in this verse is ʿaṣûmîm. The verse marks the victims’ strength plainly, then places them among those brought down. A related word for bone ties this root to bodily substance, but solidity is no shield here.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāṣam: To be strong; to become mighty
עָצַם
This verb is the root behind the verse’s description of the men as strong.
ʿeṣem: Bone; substance or self
עֶצֶם
This related noun links the root with bodily solidity, sharpening the contrast between strength and vulnerability.
הִפִּילָה
hiphîlāh
GROWS FROM
נפל
n-p-l
To fall; in this causative form, to make someone fall or bring someone down.
“cast down” in this verse is hiphîlāh. The Hebrew verb presents her as causing the fall, not merely witnessing it. Paired with the pierced and slain, the image holds both the force that brings them down and the casualties left behind.
ALSO GROWS
nāphal: To fall
נָפַל
The verse’s causative verb grows from this ordinary verb for falling.
mappālāh: Downfall; ruin
מַפָּלָה
This noun from the same root names collapse as an outcome, extending the verse’s image beyond a single fall.
THE PATTERN
Apparent strength does not prevent a person from being brought down.
Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.THE THREAD
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.The same Hebrew root חלל (ḥ-l-l, to pierce or wound) stands behind “wounded” here and “he was wounded” there. Proverbs names the pierced as casualties; Isaiah places a wounded figure at the center, revealing the root’s range without making either wound abstract.
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