Scoundrels create trouble; their words are a destructive blaze.
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.
- BSB A worthless man digs up evil, and his speech is like a scorching 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.
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 3:6And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna.
- Prov 6:14in whose heart is perverseness, who devises evil continually, who always sows discord.
- Isa 5:18Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope;
- Ps 57:4My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
- Ps 17:14–15from men by your hand, Yahweh, from men of the world, whose portion is in this life. You fill the belly of your cherished ones. Your sons have plenty, and they store up wealth for their children.
- 1 Sam 25:17Now therefore know and consider what you will do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his house; for he is such a worthless fellow that one can’t speak to him.”
- Prov 6:12A worthless person, a man of iniquity, is he who walks with a perverse mouth;
- Ps 52:2–4Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
- Prov 2:4If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures:
- 2 Sam 20:1There happened to be there a base fellow, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite; and he blew the trumpet, and said, “We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, Israel!”
- Hab 2:13Behold, isn’t it of Yahweh of Armies that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?
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.