One who has a perverse heart doesn’t find prosperity, and one who has a deceitful tongue falls into trouble.
Parallel translations
- KJV He that hath a froward heart findeth no good: and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief.
- BSB The one with a perverse heart finds no good, and he whose tongue is deceitful falls into trouble.
- NKJV He who has a deceitful heart finds no good, And he who has a perverse tongue falls into evil.
- NASB One who has a crooked mind finds nothing good, And one who is corrupted in his language falls into evil.
- NLT The crooked heart will not prosper; the lying tongue tumbles into trouble.
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 crooked heart and a deceitful tongue lead to loss, not blessing. Inner corruption and dishonest speech bring trouble upon a person.
Overview
This proverb pairs the heart and the tongue, showing that crooked thinking and twisted speech are two expressions of the same corruption. Such a person 'doesn't find prosperity' and stumbles into calamity. The verse underlines the Bible's insistence that out of the heart the mouth speaks (Matt. 12:34), and that only a heart renewed in Christ produces upright words and a blessed life.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Jas 3:6–8And 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 10:31The mouth of the righteous produces wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off.
- Ps 18:26With the pure, you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.
- Prov 6:12–15A worthless person, a man of iniquity, is he who walks with a perverse mouth;
- Prov 10:10One winking with the eye causes sorrow, but a chattering fool will fall.
- Prov 18:6–7A fool’s lips come into strife, and his mouth invites beatings.
- Eccl 10:12The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but a fool is swallowed by his own lips.
- Prov 10:14Wise men lay up knowledge, but the mouth of the foolish is near ruin.
- Prov 3:32For the perverse is an abomination to Yahweh, but his friendship is with the upright.
- Prov 8:13The fear of Yahweh is to hate evil. I hate pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth.
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 17:20 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.