Then a woman came out to meet him, with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart.
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent.
- KJV And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.
- NKJV And there a woman met him, With the attire of a harlot, and a crafty heart.
- NASB And behold, a woman comes to meet him, Dressed as a prostitute and cunning of heart.
- NLT The woman approached him, seductively dressed and sly of heart.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A woman dressed like a prostitute, with hidden cunning, comes to meet him. Temptation often arrives disguised and calculated.
Overview
The adulteress approaches dressed seductively and with a crafty, concealed agenda. Her appearance and intent reveal deliberate scheming, not mere chance. The verse exposes how alluring temptation can mask a heart set on a man's ruin.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Isa 3:16–24The LORD also says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty—walking with heads held high and wanton eyes, prancing and skipping as they go, jingling the bracelets on their ankles—
- 2 Cor 11:2–3I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
- 1 Tim 2:9Likewise, I want the women to adorn themselves with respectable apparel, with modesty, and with self-control, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes,
- 2 Kgs 9:30Now when Jehu arrived in Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. So she painted her eyes, adorned her head, and looked down from a window.
- Jer 4:30And you, O devastated one, what will you do, though you dress yourself in scarlet, though you adorn yourself with gold jewelry, though you enlarge your eyes with paint? You adorn yourself in vain; your lovers despise you; they want to take your life.
- Gen 38:14–15she removed her widow’s garments, covered her face with a veil to disguise herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah. For she saw that although Shelah had grown up, she had not been given to him as a wife.
- 2 Kgs 9:22When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?” “How can there be peace,” he replied, “as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”
- Isa 23:16“Take up your harp, stroll through the city, O forgotten harlot. Make sweet melody, sing many a song, so you will be remembered.”
- Rev 17:3–5And the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, where I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.
- Gen 3:1Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 7:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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