What Does Proverbs 6:12 Mean in the King James?
A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.
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 mouth’s crookedness is also the path the person walks: speech and direction share one shape.
THE MEANING
When a person’s speech twists what is true, the crookedness reaches beyond a sentence and becomes a way of walking through life. The verse joins mouth and movement: words reveal a direction that continues beyond one utterance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that speech is a detachable surface: the mouth can be crooked while the life remains straight.
THE ROOT
עִקְּשׁוּת
iqqeshut
GROWS FROM
עקש
ʿ-q-š
To be or make crooked; to twist.
“froward” in this verse is iqqeshut. The verse uses the noun “crookedness,” joining the mouth itself to distortion. The same root describes crooked paths, so speech and direction share one shape.
ALSO GROWS
iqqesh: Crooked, perverse.
עִקֵּשׁ
This adjective shows the same root describing a crooked quality, not just a single crooked utterance.
me’aqqesh: One who twists or perverts.
מְעַקֵּשׁ
This form makes the root active: crookedness can be something a person does to a path.
הוֹלֵךְ
holekh
GROWS FROM
הלך
h-l-k
To walk, go, or move along.
“walketh” in this verse is holekh. Hebrew uses this root for literal walking and for a way of life. Here the crooked mouth belongs to the person’s ongoing course, not just to an isolated moment of speech.
ALSO GROWS
halakh: To walk or go.
הָלַךְ
The base verb keeps the image bodily and moving: this person is walking a crooked course.
halikhah: Walking, going, or a course of movement.
הֲלִיכָה
This related form makes visible how walking can name a continuing way or course.
THE PATTERN
Speech and conduct expose the same direction: the mouth’s shape and the path’s shape belong together.
Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.THE THREAD
Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:The word translated “crooked” comes from the same Hebrew root as “froward” in this verse. Proverbs 2:15 lets you see the shared image: crooked speech and crooked paths express the same bent direction.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us