What Does Proverbs 7:21 Mean?
With the multitude of her instruction she bends him; with the smoothings of her lips she pushes him.
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
With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.THE KEY
The Hebrew moves from turning him aside to driving him away, with smooth speech as the slippery ground between.
THE MEANING
A persuasive voice bends a direction before its pull feels like force. The verse traces the movement from yielding to being driven off course. The smoothness of the words does not make the outcome gentle or free.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that pleasing words guarantee a freely chosen direction: persuasion can turn a person aside before they feel themselves being forced.
THE ROOT
הִטַּתּוּ
hiṭṭatû
GROWS FROM
נטה
natah
stretch, extend, incline, turn aside
“bends him” in this verse is hiṭṭatû. The verb behind “yield” carries the sense of turning or bending someone aside. Its range includes stretching and inclining, so the verse pictures a direction being bent before it names where that movement leads.
ALSO GROWS
stretch out: extend outward
The same root’s outward movement becomes a person’s direction being pulled away from its course.
incline: bend or turn toward a direction
This reveals that yielding here is a change of direction, not merely agreement.
בְּחֵלֶק
bəḥēleq
GROWS FROM
חלק
ḥalaq
be smooth; smoothness
“smoothings” in this verse is bəḥēleq. The Hebrew images the texture of the speech: smoothness. The same root describes something smooth or slippery, a surface that offers little grip; the words feel easy to follow even as they carry him away.
ALSO GROWS
smooth: having an even, unroughened surface
This is the texture beneath the verse’s description of flattering lips.
slippery: smooth in a way that makes footing uncertain
The image suggests how easy words can loosen a person’s hold on their direction.
תַּדִּיחֶנּוּ
taddiḥennû
GROWS FROM
נדח
nadach
push away, drive out, banish
“pushes him” in this verse is taddiḥennû. The final verb belongs to a root for driving away or banishing. What begins with smooth speech ends with him displaced; yielding is not the verse’s last movement.
ALSO GROWS
drive away: push or send someone away
This is the force named at the end of the verse.
banish: cast someone out from a place or boundary
It makes the final movement feel like displacement, not simple persuasion.
THE PATTERN
Persuasive words can first turn a person aside, then carry them farther than the first moment seemed to choose.
For the lips of a stranger woman drip like honeycomb, and her palate is smoother than oil.The words of his mouth are smoother than butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are opened swords.But each one is tested by his own craving, dragged out and lured.THE THREAD
For the lips of a stranger woman drip like honeycomb, and her palate is smoother than oil.Proverbs 5:3 uses חָלָק (ḥālāq, smooth) from the same חלק (ḥalaq, be smooth) root found in Proverbs 7:21. Together the verses make smoothness more than praise: it is the surface through which a person can be led off course.
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