What Does Proverbs 7:26 Mean?
For she has felled many of the pierced; and all the strong ones are her slain.
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
For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.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 ones” 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.
“felled” 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 in smooth places you set them; you make them fall into ruin.But the Philistines gripped him, and dug out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with bronze chains. And he was grinding in the prison house.So let the one who thinks he stands watch, lest he fall.THE THREAD
But he was pierced for our rebellion, and crushed for our crookedness. The straightening that made us whole was upon him, and by his bruises 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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