What Does Proverbs 6:14 Mean?
Twistings are in his heart; he plows evil at all times; he sends out strife.
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
Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.THE KEY
The discord here is the outward dispatch of an inward turning.
THE MEANING
The verse describes a pattern alive now: distortion settles in the heart, thought keeps working harm, and strife goes out into relationships. What appears between people has already been taking shape within.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that discord begins only in the words people exchange: the verse traces it to an inward turning that keeps devising harm.
THE ROOT
תַּהְפֻּכוֹת
tahpukhot
GROWS FROM
הפך
haphakh
To turn or overturn.
“twistings” in this verse is tahpukhot. English names a quality; the Hebrew word pictures distortion as a turning within the heart. This root also describes overthrow, so the inward twist already carries disruptive force.
ALSO GROWS
haphakh: To turn or overturn.
הָפַךְ
The word for frowardness carries the image of something turned from its proper orientation.
mahpekah: Overthrow or upheaval.
מַהְפֵּכָה
This branch shows how a turning can overturn what surrounds it, echoing the verse’s movement from the heart into discord.
יִשְׁלַח
yishlaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
shalach
To send, send forth, or release.
“sends out” in this verse is yishlaḥ. The sowing image shows how conflict spreads; the Hebrew verb also pictures strife being sent out. The same root appears in words for sending away and for Shiloach, the sent waters, while here what moves outward is quarrel.
ALSO GROWS
shilluach: Sending away or dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch makes the verse’s outward movement vivid: strife is released from within into the space between people.
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of a water channel.
שִׁלֹחַ
The sent waters of Shiloach share the root’s movement outward, while this verse names strife as what gets sent.
THE PATTERN
What is settled in the heart takes outward form and spreads through relationships.
A man of twistings sends out strife, and a whisperer splits apart the closest friends.You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.Even so the tongue is a small limb, and it lifts its neck over great things. Look how great a forest a little fire kindles!THE THREAD
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here I am; send me.The Hebrew root translated “send” in Isaiah is the same one behind “soweth discord” in Proverbs, where the verse says he sends strife out. The root names outward movement; what is released can be a quarrel or a messenger.
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