CUNNING. A word used in KJV often in the sense of “skillful” or the like. It occurs prominently in the latter part of Exodus (26:1, 31; 28:6, 15; 31:4; 35:33, 35 bis; 36:8, 35; 38:23; 39:3, 8); but it appears also in a number of other places in that VS. The OT represents several different Heb. words. The Eng. word occurs both as a noun and as an adjective in the Middle English period. It is formed from ME cunnen, connen (OE cunnan), which meant “to know.” The noun appears in KJV in italics in Psalm 137:5: “...let my right hand forget her cunning.” Here the word is used in what was once its most prominent meaning, of “knowledge how to do a thing,” of “ability, skill, expertness, dexterity, cleverness” (OED). The adjective is notably found in KJV in a similar sense (for examples, see Exod 39:8 and 2 Chron 2:7).

An unfavorable sense (the usual sense of the word today) is applicable to the adjective in Ephesians 4:14 (“cunning craftiness”) and to the adverb in 2 Peter 1:16 (“cunningly devised fables”).

The change in the usual force of the word since the time of KJV is reflected in ERV, ASV and RSV and uses “cunning” or “cunningly” ten times. An example is “the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning” (2 Cor 11:3).

Bibliography OED; HDB; R. Bridges and L. A. Weigle, The Bible Word Book (1960), 91, 92.