Proverbs 6:16

My Notes

What Does Proverbs 6:16 Mean?

Proverbs 6:16 introduces the only explicit list of things God hates in the Bible, using the X / X+1 numerical formula common in wisdom literature: "six things... yea, seven." The pattern signals accumulation — not exactly six or seven items, but a cup of wickedness that has reached its full measure. The seventh is the capstone, the one that overflows the list from "hate" into "abomination."

The Hebrew sane' (hate) is strong — personal aversion, active rejection. And to'avah (abomination) intensifies it: something that disgusts, that provokes revulsion at the deepest level. The margin note — "of his soul" (naphsho) — means these are abominations to God's own soul. This isn't abstract legal disapproval. It's visceral, personal, gut-level revulsion from God Himself.

The seven items (verses 17-19) are: proud eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet swift to run to evil, a false witness, and the one who sows discord among brethren. The list moves through the body — eyes, tongue, hands, heart, feet — and ends with relational destruction. The climax isn't murder or lying. It's sowing discord. The thing God finds most abominable, placed at the capstone position of the list, is the person who breaks apart what should be unified. Division-makers occupy the worst seat at the table of things God hates.

Reflection Questions

• 1.God has a list of things He hates. How does the idea of God hating challenge your picture of a God who only loves?
• 2.The seventh abomination — the climax — is sowing discord among brethren. Why do you think division-making occupies the worst position on God's hate list?
• 3.The list moves through the body: eyes, tongue, hands, heart, feet. Which body part is currently your greatest vulnerability to sin?
• 4.Have you ever been the person who sowed discord — intentionally or unintentionally? What was the cost, and what did you learn?

Devotional

God hates things. That sentence alone should get your attention, because we're far more comfortable with a God who loves than a God who hates. But this verse says the God who is love (1 John 4:8) also has a list of things that disgust Him at the level of His own soul. He's not neutral about evil. He's revolted by it.

The list that follows (verses 17-19) walks through the human body: proud eyes, lying tongue, blood-shedding hands, scheme-devising heart, evil-sprinting feet. God hates what your eyes project, what your mouth produces, what your hands do, what your heart plans, and where your feet go. The hatred is comprehensive — it covers the full spectrum of how sin operates through a human being.

But the capstone — the seventh item, the abomination that overflows the cup — isn't murder or lying. It's sowing discord among brethren. The person who divides what God united. The gossip who fractures a friendship. The manipulator who turns family members against each other. The one who walks into a unified community and leaves it in pieces. That's the top of God's hate list. Not because the other sins are less serious, but because division-sowing attacks something God cares about deeply: the unity of His people. You can do a lot of damage with a lie. But the person who uses lies to split a community occupies a category of abomination that makes God's soul recoil.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture