Proverbs 1:4

subtilty to the simple Both words are here used in a good sense, or perhaps we might say, in their proper or neutral sense. The Hebrew word for simpleis literally open(Heb.), sc. to influence, whether good or bad. The primary meaning of the English word simple, whether it be without fold(Trench) or one-fold(Skeat) is entirely different; but the idea conveyed by it adequately represents the meaning of the Hebrew. For, as Trench points out, to be without fold (or to be one-fold) is to be "just what we may imagine Nathanael to have been, and what our Lord attributes as the highest honour to him, the -Israelite without guile." " But then since, as he truly adds, "in a world like ours such a man will make himself a prey, will prove no match for the fraud and falsehood he will everywhere encounter," he needs the safeguard of subtilty, or prudence(R.V. marg.) to preserve him (see Proverbs 1:22, below). Such subtilty may be the craftof the serpent (Genesis 3:1, where the Heb. word is the same); but it may be the wisdomof the serpent without its guile (see Matthew 10:16, and comp. Proverbs 8:5; Proverbs 15:5; Proverbs 19:25).

The simple, though specially to be found among the youngof the parallel clause of the verse, embrace others also.