Language Studies

Hebrew Thoughts

''âram - עָרַם (Strong's #6191)
Uncover, make naked, manifest

The root verb 'âram עָרַם (Strong's #6191, x5) can be taken two ways. It only occurs 5 times, twice in Proverbs (15:5; 19:25) where it is used to good intent as prudent wisdom and twice in 1 Samuel 23:22 and Psalm 83:3 where the import is negative and conspiratorial.

In its first use (a doubled occurrence actually), Saul sends out the Ziphites to check on David's whereabouts but is concerned about David's fieldcraft. The KJV renders it as, "he dealeth very subtly", the NKJV and NIV have "crafty" and NRSV "cunning". They all use "very" for the Hebrew verb is repeated for emphasis, עָרוּםיַעְרִם 'ârôwm ya''rîm.

"Please go and find out for sure, and see the place where his hideout is,
and who has seen him there. For I am told he is very crafty." (1 Samuel 23:22)

In Psalm 83:3 [Heb.v4] it is joined with the word for "secret counsel" סוד çôwdh (Strong's #05475, x21) and translated as crafty or cunning or conspiracy.

It can mean "to uncover" or "make naked", or "make manifest", which is exactly what the Edenic serpent ultimately did, causing the infamous fig-leaf "cover-up" of Adam and Eve. Of the 11 occurrences of the derived noun 'ârûwm עָרוּם (Strong's #6175) just the one is rendered "subtil", the remainder are covered by "prudent" x8 and "crafty" x2 in the KJV whilst the NAS translates 3 of them as "sensible" and 1 as "shrewd". Indeed, the Hebrew wordplay between Genesis 3:1 and the preceding verse 2:25 portrays the full contrast between Adam and Eve's, "And they were both naked...", innocence, in the Hebrew עָרוּם 'ârôwm (Strong's #6174, x16) and the following "naked seeing" of the serpent described by 'ârûwm עָרוּם.

Apart from Genesis 3:1 every other reference to 'ârûwm עָרוּם is found in either Job or Proverbs. In Job, probably older than Proverbs and more contemporary with the writing of Genesis (to some traditional scholars, at least), the word is generally negative referring to the "devices of the crafty" (Job 5:12) and the "tongue of the crafty" (Job 15:5). By contrast, every reference in Proverbs (12:16, 23; 13:16; 14:8, 15, 18; 22:3; 27:12) is positive and is more appropriately translated as "prudent" or "wise" as with the verb's use in Proverbs.

Other ער '-r verbs include עָרֵל 'ârêl (Strong's #6189, x35) "be uncircumcised"; עָרַם 'âram (Strong's #6209, x4) "to strip"; and עָרָה 'ârâh (Strong's #6168, x16) "to be naked" but in the sense of plucking out as with hair or foliage creating a bald appearance. All with the sense of uncovering.

All the five verbal uses can be seen more neutrally as the kind of wisdom that uncovers the mind, reads the thoughts of others or is openminded, rendering self or others unclothed or naked of mind.

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