Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross.
Parallel translations
- WEB Like silver dross on an earthen vessel are the lips of a fervent one with an evil heart.
- BSB Like glaze covering an earthen vessel are burning lips and a wicked heart.
- NKJV Fervent lips with a wicked heart Are like earthenware covered with silver dross.
- NASB Like an earthenware vessel overlaid with silver impurities Are burning lips and a wicked heart.
- NLT Smooth words may hide a wicked heart, just as a pretty glaze covers a clay pot.
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
Smooth lips over an evil heart are like a cheap pot coated with a thin silver glaze. A pleasing surface can hide inner corruption.
Overview
The image of glazing over common clay pictures attractive words masking a malicious heart. It warns that eloquence is no proof of integrity. Scripture consistently calls us to look beyond outward speech to the heart, which God alone fully sees (1 Sam 16:7; Matt 23:27).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Luke 22:47–48And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him.
- Luke 11:39And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.
- Prov 10:18He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool.
- Ezek 33:31And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.
- Prov 25:4Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.
- Matt 23:27Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
- 2 Sam 20:9–10And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him.
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 26:23 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
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