Proverbs 6:14

Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:12-19 If the slothful are to be condemned, who do nothing, much more those that do all the ill they can. Observe how such a man is described. He says and does every thing artfully, and with design. His ruin shall come without warning, and without relief. Here is a list of things hateful to God. Those sins are in a special manner provoking to God, which are hurtful to the comfort of human life. These things which God hates, we must hate in ourselves; it is nothing to hate them in others. Let us shun all such practices, and watch and pray against them; and avoid, with marked disapproval, all who are guilty of them, whatever may be their rank.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A naughty person - literally, "a man of Belial," i. e., a worthless man (see the Deuteronomy 13:13 note). This is the portrait of the man who is not to be trusted, whose look and gestures warn against him all who can observe. His speech is tortuous and crafty; his wink tells the accomplice that the victim is already snared; his gestures with foot and hand are half in deceit, and half in mockery.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. Frowardness—as in Pr 2:14.

deviseth—literally, "constructs, as an artisan."

mischief—evil to others.

discord—especially litigation. Cunning is the talent of the weak and lazy.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Frowardness; perverse or wicked thoughts and desires.

He soweth discord; either out of malice against others, or out of a base design of improving it to his own advantage.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Frowardness is in his heart,.... Or perverse things; evil habits and principles of sin; all manner of wickedness, errors and heresies; things contrary to right reason, repugnant to the will and law of God, and the reverse of sound doctrine; all evil thoughts and evil things; see Matthew 15:19;

he deviseth mischief continually; against his neighbours, and especially against good men; he is continually planning schemes, contriving methods, ways, and means, how to disturb, distress, and ruin men; being a true child of Belial, or of the devil, his heart is the forge where he is continually framing wickedness in one shape or another; and the ground which he is always ploughing up and labouring at to bring forth sin and wickedness, and with which it is fruitful;

he soweth discord; or "strifes" (z): the Syriac version adds, "between two"; which Jarchi interprets between a man and his Maker; rather between a man and his neighbour; between one friend and another; between husband and wife, parents and children, brethren and brethren, magistrates and subjects; between kings and princes of the earth in which sort of work the man of sin, antichrist, has been very busy. The Targum is, "he casteth out strifes", as firebrands among men. The words in the Hebrew text are, "he sendeth out discord", or "strife" (a); these are the messengers sent out by him to make mischief.

(z) "contentiones", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus, Gejerus; "jurgia", V. L. "lites", Baynus, Cocceius; "litigia", Schultens. (a) "mittet", Pagninus, Montanus; "immittit", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus, Gejerus, Schultens, Michaelis.

Geneva Study Bible

Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. soweth) Vulg. seminat. So R.V. with “Heb. letteth loose”, in marg. Lit. sendeth or casteth forth, as was done in the hand sowing of those days and countries. Comp. ὡς ἄνθρωπος βάλῃ τὸν σπόρον ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, Mark 4:26. The idea of sowing is not contained, however, in the Heb. word, and the phrase “sowing strife” may merely be chosen as the best Eng. equivalent for the Heb. phrase. Comp. Proverbs 6:19 below, and Proverbs 16:28.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - From these external features the teacher passes to the heart the seat of all this mischief and deceit. In this respect we observe a striking correspondence with the method adopted by our Saviour in his leaching, who referred everything to the heart, as the true seat of all that was good or bad in man. Frowardness is in his heart (Hebrew, tah'pukoth b'libbo); i.e. his heart is full of perverse imaginations, it is there he nourishes his jealousy, his hatred, his malice, his ill will. It is there, too, he deviseth mischief continually. "Devising mischief" carries us one step further back in the history of evil. It is this feature, this deliberate premeditation to plot mischief and to devise means to carry it into execution, which makes the character of the man simply diabolical. He makes his heart as it were the workshop wherein he fabricates and prepares his villainy. The Hebrew kharash (to which the participle khoresh belongs) is equivalent to the Vulgate machinari, and the LXX. τεκαίνομαι, "to fabricate, devise, plot." (See Proverbs 3:29 and ver. 18; and cf. Psalm 36:4, "He deviseth mischief upon his bed.") The LXX. combines the two statements in one proposition: "A perverse heart deviseth evil at all times." Similarly the Vulgate, which, however, joins "continually" (Hebrew, b'koleth; Vulgate, omni tempore) to the second hemistich, thus: "And at all times he sows discord (et omni tempore jurgia seminat)." He soweth discord (Hebrew, mid'-yanim (Keri) y'shalleakh); literally, he sends forth (i.e. excites) strife; or, as the margin, he casteth forth strife. The Keri reading mid'yanim, for the Khetib m'danim, is probably, as Hitzig suggests, derived from Genesis 37:36. The phrase occurs again as shallakh m'danim in ver. 19, and as shillakh madon Proverbs 16:28 (cf. Proverbs 10:12). This is the culminating point in the character of the wicked man. He takes delight in breaking up friendship and in destroying concord among brethren (see ver. 19), and thus destroys one of the most essential elements for promoting individual happiness and the welfare of the community at large. This idea of the community is introduced into the LXX., which reads, "Such an one brings disturbance to the city (ὁ τοσοῦτος ταραχὰς συνίστησι πόλει)." The motive cause may be either malice or self-interest. Proverbs 6:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In this verse is continued the description of the subject, only once returning to the particip. The clauses are arranged independently, but logically according to the complex conception of the subject. תּהפּכות .tce are just the knaveries, i.e., the malicious wickedness which comes to light in word and deportment as עקשׁות פה. Regarding the double figure of the smithy and of agriculture underlying חרשׁ, machinari, vid., at Proverbs 3:29, and regarding the omission of the הוּא to חרשׁ, at Psalm 7:10. The phrase שׁלּח מדנים (as Proverbs 6:19, Proverbs 16:28), to let loose disputes, so that they break forth, reminds us rather of the unfettering of the winds by Aeolus than of the casting in of the apple of discord. Instead of מדנים the Kerı̂ has מדינים; on the other hand, מדנים remains uncorrected Proverbs 6:19; Proverbs 10:12. The form מדינים occurs once, Proverbs 18:18, and its constr. מדיני once, Proverbs 19:13. Everywhere else the text has מדונים, for which the Kerı̂ has מדינים, Proverbs 18:19; Proverbs 21:9, Proverbs 21:19; Proverbs 23:29; Proverbs 25:24; Proverbs 26:21; Proverbs 27:15. The forms מדין and מדן are also recognised: the former stands alone without any analogous example; the latter is compared at least with מצד, Arab. masâd (Psalmen, p. 163, 3). Probably these two forms are warranted by Genesis 25:2, cf. Genesis 37:28, Genesis 37:36, where מדין and מדן occur as the names of two sons of Abraham by Keturah. But the national name מדינים is no reason for the seven times laying aside of the regular form מדונים, i.e., מדונים, which is the plur. of מדון after the forms מאורים, מעורים, although מדוּנים, after the forms מבוּשׁים, מצוּקים, is also found.