What Does Proverbs 6:24 Mean?
To keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of a stranger woman.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.THE KEY
The Hebrew pictures flattery as a smooth tongue and protection as a watch, so danger is met as words begin to steer you.
THE MEANING
This verse names a live pressure: polished speech can make a harmful invitation feel harmless. Its protection is watchful discernment that sees the smooth surface before words take hold. Charm alone cannot prove that an invitation is safe.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it undoes is that persuasive words make an invitation safe; smoothness can be the very way harm approaches.
THE ROOT
חֶלְקַת לָשׁוֹן
cheleqat lashon
GROWS FROM
חלק
חָלַק (chalaq): to be smooth; related forms also express dividing or apportioning.
English “flattery” names the effect; the Hebrew first gives its texture: a tongue made smooth. The same root also forms words for a portion or share, adding the image of pleasing words handed out in portions.
ALSO GROWS
cheleq: A portion, share, or allotment.
חֵלֶק
This branch gives the root a concrete sense of something parceled out, echoing how smooth speech can offer attractive words bit by bit.
chalāqōt: Smooth things; by extension, flattering words.
חֲלָקוֹת
Psalm 12:2 uses this form for “flattering lips,” showing that smoothness is a recurring Hebrew image for persuasive speech.
לִשְׁמָרְךָ
lishmorkha
GROWS FROM
שמר
שָׁמַר (shamar): to keep, guard, or watch over.
“keep thee” in this verse is lishmorkha. The word rendered “keep” carries the image of active guarding. Its branches name a watcher and a watch or charge, so protection appears as alert attention that notices danger before smooth words take hold.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: One who keeps or guards; a watchman.
שֹׁמֵר
This branch makes the protection feel attentive: someone is watching for what may approach.
mishmeret: A watch, charge, or guard duty.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
The same root can name the ongoing keeping of a watch, giving “keep thee” the sense of sustained protection.
THE PATTERN
Protection works by recognizing smooth persuasive speech before it carries the hearer toward harm.
They speak emptiness, each one with his neighbor; with smooth lips, with two hearts, they speak.For such ones do not serve our Lord Jesus, the anointed one, but their own belly, and by good words and fine speech they deceive the hearts of the harmless.THE THREAD
The LORD watches over you from all harm; he watches over your living soul.The Hebrew root שָׁמַר (shamar, to keep or guard) appears in Proverbs 6:24 as “keep” and in Psalm 121:7 as “preserve.” The shared root links protection from a particular seductive voice with the wider image of being kept under watch.
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