Proverbs 6:14

Proverbs 6:14, in plain English

At the core of this person is deceit—they're constantly plotting evil in their heart and actively working to create conflict and division wherever they go.

Why it's here

The teacher is showing what animates this wicked person: not circumstance or bad luck, but an internal orientation toward evil and conflict-creation. They don't stumble into trouble; they design it. Their whole energy goes into sowing discord, creating divisions between people.

Who's speaking

The wisdom teacher, revealing the heart motivation behind the wicked person's behavior.

Where it sits in the story

This teaches that real wickedness isn't surface behavior; it flows from what's inside (Mark 7:20-23). Jesus taught that you have to deal with the internal desire for evil, not just the external actions.

The scholarly reading

Internally, this person cultivates evil through deliberate deviousness, and he systematically plants discord and division wherever he goes.

Language and setting

The Hebrew 'tahpukot lev' ('perversities of heart') suggests that his interior disposition is fundamentally twisted. The verb 'devises' (chashav, literally 'thinks/plans') indicates calculation—this is not impulsive wickedness but sustained, intellectual corruption. The phrase 'he continually sows discord' (tamid yishlach midyanim) employs agricultural metaphor: as the industrious ant sows provision, so this perverse man sows division (midyan, 'strife/contention'). The adverb tamid ('continually') indicates habitual character. This is characterological analysis: the person whose interior corruption expresses itself through systematic relational destruction.

Voice

The sage, penetrating from external gesture to interior motivation.

Significance

This exemplifies the biblical understanding that 'from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts' (Mark 7:21). The emphasis on discord-sowing recalls Jesus's saying that 'a good person brings good things out of the good stored up in their heart, and an evil person brings evil things out of the evil stored up in their heart' (Matthew 12:35). This person embodies what James calls the 'tongue [as] a small thing that makes great boasts' and an 'unruly evil, full of deadly poison' (3:5-8).

12A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth,

13winking his eyes, speaking with his feet, and pointing with his fingers.

14With deceit in his heart he devises evil; he continually sows discord.

15Therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in an instant he will be shattered beyond recovery.

16There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him:

Read all of Proverbs 6 — Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise. Nature teaches what lectures can't.