A worthless man digs up evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire.
Parallel translations
- WEB A worthless man devises mischief. His speech is like a scorching fire.
- KJV An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire.
- NKJV An ungodly man digs up evil, And it is on his lips like a burning fire.
- NASB A worthless person digs up evil, While his words are like scorching fire.
- NLT Scoundrels create trouble; their words are a destructive blaze.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A worthless person plots evil, and their speech burns like fire. It matters because destructive words can scorch and harm like flame.
Overview
This proverb describes the ungodly man as one who devises mischief, whose speech is a scorching fire. It warns of the damage caused by malicious words and schemes. James similarly compares the tongue to a fire that can set life ablaze (James 3:6).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Jas 3:6The tongue also is a fire, a world of wickedness among the parts of the body. It pollutes the whole person, sets the course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
- Prov 6:14With deceit in his heart he devises evil; he continually sows discord.
- Isa 5:18Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit and pull sin along with cart ropes,
- Ps 57:4My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts—with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
- Ps 17:14–15from such men, O LORD, by Your hand—from men of the world whose portion is in this life. May You fill the bellies of Your treasured ones and satisfy their sons, so they leave their abundance to their children.
- 1 Sam 25:17Now consider carefully what you must do, because disaster looms over our master and all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that nobody can speak to him!”
- Prov 6:12A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth,
- Ps 52:2–4Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.
- Prov 2:4if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure,
- 2 Sam 20:1Now a worthless man named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjamite, happened to be there, and he blew the ram’s horn and shouted: “We have no share in David, no inheritance in Jesse’s son. Every man to his tent, O Israel!”
- Hab 2:13Is it not indeed from the LORD of Hosts that the labor of the people only feeds the fire, and the nations weary themselves in vain?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 16:27 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.