sub´til, sut´’l, sut´’l-ti (חכם, ḥākhām, נכל, nākhal, מרמה, mirmāh; δόλος, dólos): These words are used (1) in a good sense: [2Sa 13:3], ḥākhām, “wise,” “Jonadab was a very subtle (the American Standard Revised Version “subtle”) man” (discreet); [Pro 1:4], ‛ormāh, “prudence,” “to give subtlety to the simple,” the American Standard Revised Version and the English Revised Version margin “prudence”; The Wisdom of Solomon 7:22, leptṓs, “thin,” said of the spirit in Wisdom (very fine or refined); 8:8, strophḗ, “winding,” “subtilties of speeches”; Ecclesiasticus 39:2, “subtil parables,” the Revised Version (British and American) “the subtleties of parables”; (2) in a bad sense: [Gen 3:1], ‛ārūm, “crafty,” “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field,” the American Standard Revised Version “subtle.”
[Gen 27:35], mirmāh, “deceit,” “fraud,” “Thy brother came with subtlety,” the Revised Version (British and American) “with guile”; [Psa 105:25], nākhal, “to deceive,” the King James Version “deal subtlely,” the American Standard Revised Version “subtly”; [Pro 7:10], nācar, “to watch,” “guard,” “to be hidden or subtle of heart,” the Revised Version (British and American) “wily,” margin “ ’close,’ Hebrew ’guarded’“; [2Ki 10:19], ‛oḳebhāh, “deceit” or “treachery” (here only); Judith 5:11, katasophı́zō, “to use subtlety”; Ecclesiasticus 19:25, panourgı́a, “cunning,” “unscrupulousness,” “There is an exquisite subtlety, and the same is unjust”; [2Co 11:3], “The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,” the Revised Version (British and American) “in his craftiness”; [Mat 26:4], dolos, “deceit,” “that they might take Jesus by subtlety, and kill him”; [Act 13:10], “O full of all subtlety and all mischief,” the Revised Version (British and American) “all guile and all villany.”
English Revised Version has “subtilty” for “wisdom” ([Pro 8:5], [Pro 8:12]), margin and the American Standard Revised Version, “prudence”; for “with subtlety” (the English Revised Version [Mar 14:1], the King James Version “by craft”) the American Standard Revised Version has “with subtlety.”
