What Does Proverbs 18:6 Mean in the King James?
A fool’s lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “lips” also means “language” and “shore,” so speech is a boundary that carries contention toward blows.
THE MEANING
When contention takes over your words, the mouth is already calling toward physical force. The verse shows speech crossing from argument into blows, with the violence left bluntly in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that combative speech is only verbal: here the mouth itself calls for bodily blows.
THE ROOT
שִׂפְתֵי
siftei
GROWS FROM
שפה
sh-p-h
שָׂפָה (safah) means lip; the same word also names language and an edge or shore.
English separates lips, language, and shoreline, but Hebrew holds them in שָׂפָה (safah, lip or boundary). The verse places contentious speech at an edge where words pass outward into conflict.
ALSO GROWS
safah: Lip; language.
שָׂפָה
The same word names the mouth’s edge and the language that crosses it, tying speech directly to the contention that follows.
sefat hayam: Shore or edge of the sea.
שְׂפַת־הַיָּם
A shore is a boundary; here the lips are where inner speech crosses into an outward confrontation.
רִיב
riv
GROWS FROM
ריב
r-y-b
רִיב (riv) means to contend or bring a dispute; it can also name the dispute itself.
The verse’s contention carries the sense of a dispute being actively pressed. The lips do not merely express irritation; they enter into a conflict that is moving somewhere.
ALSO GROWS
yariv: He will contend or bring a dispute.
יָרִיב
This verbal form shows the root as an action, matching the lips that enter into contention.
merivah: Quarrel or strife.
מְרִיבָה
The related noun names conflict itself, making the verse’s movement from words into strife visible.
לְמַהֲלֻמוֹת
le-mahalumot
GROWS FROM
הלם
h-l-m
הָלַם (halam) means to strike or smite; מַהֲלֻמָה (mahalumah) is a blow.
The word for “strokes” belongs to a root for striking, so the verse’s ending is physical and direct. The mouth calls for actual blows, not just a figurative defeat in an argument.
ALSO GROWS
halam: To strike or smite.
הָלַם
The verb names the force behind the blows the mouth calls for.
mahalumah: A blow or beating.
מַהֲלֻמָה
This related noun makes clear that the plural “strokes” points to physical impact.
THE PATTERN
Contentious speech carries conflict toward destructive force.
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife.And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.THE THREAD
A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.The next verse repeats שָׂפָה (safah, lip or language) and shows those lips becoming a snare for the speaker’s נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, living soul). It opens this verse’s violence inward: the mouth that calls for blows is also caught by its own speech.
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