What Does Proverbs 11:20 Mean?
The crooked of heart are an abomination to the LORD, but those whole in their way are his delight.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
They that are of a froward heart are abomination to the LORD: but such as are upright in their way are his delight.THE KEY
The verse places the heart’s inward bend beside the path’s wholeness: what is crooked within and what is whole in a life both become visible to the LORD.
THE MEANING
Your inward life is not separate from the course you take: a bent heart shapes a crooked way, while a whole way is the LORD’s delight. The verse speaks plainly about both the severity of inward crookedness and the value of a life made whole in its path.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that inward crookedness is harmless if it stays unseen: the verse names the heart itself as an abomination to the LORD.
THE ROOT
עִקְּשֵׁי
ʿiqqĕšê
GROWS FROM
עקשׁ
עָקַשׁ (ʿāqaš): to twist or be crooked.
English “froward” can sound like mere stubbornness, but עִקֵּשׁ (ʿiqqēsh, “crooked”) keeps the image of something bent out of true. The verse locates that bend in the heart, making inward crookedness part of the same pattern as a crooked course.
ALSO GROWS
ʿiqqēsh: Crooked, perverse; the bent quality named in the verse.
עִקֵּשׁ
The same root makes the heart’s frowardness a kind of crookedness, not merely a disagreeable temperament.
ʿiqqĕšût: Crookedness, perversity.
עִקְּשׁוּת
This noun carries the root’s image of a bent or distorted condition, showing what the heart’s frowardness consists of.
תְּמִימֵי
temimê
GROWS FROM
תמם
תָּמַם (tāmam): to be complete, whole, or brought to completion.
תָּמִים (tāmîm, “whole” or “complete”) gives “upright” a sense beyond straight posture: it describes a life intact in its way. The related verb תָּמַם (tāmam, “to be complete”) makes wholeness sound like reaching a full measure, not performing an outward pose.
ALSO GROWS
tāmîm: Whole, complete, sound; hence blameless.
תָּמִים
It shows that being upright in one’s way carries the sense of an undivided, intact course.
tāmam: To be complete or come to completion.
תָּמַם
This verb links the quality of the whole way to the idea of reaching its full measure.
דֶּרֶךְ
derekh
GROWS FROM
דרך
דָּרַךְ (dārakh): to tread, step, or travel.
The root names the act of treading, while דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) names the course underfoot. A path is the track made by steps, so the verse’s contrast reaches into the route a life takes, not just what a person says about themselves.
ALSO GROWS
dārakh: To tread, step, or set foot.
דָּרַךְ
The action behind “way” presents a life-course as something formed by movement along it.
midrākh: A footprint, track, or place of stepping.
מִדְרָךְ
This branch makes the path tangible as a track left by repeated steps.
THE PATTERN
The heart’s inner condition takes visible form in the path a person walks and the fruit that comes from them.
Above every watch you keep, guard your heart, for from it flow the springs of life.He who walks whole, works alignment, and speaks truth in his heart.A good human brings out good from the good treasure of the heart, and an evil human brings out evil from the evil treasure of the heart, for from the overflow of the heart his mouth speaks.THE THREAD
Whose ways are crooked, and they turn aside in their tracks.Proverbs 2:15 uses עִקְּשִׁים (ʿiqqĕšîm, “crooked”), from the same root עקשׁ (ʿāqaš, “to twist or be crooked”). Here the root names the bend in the heart; there it traces that bend through ways and paths, making the inner and outer pattern plain.
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