4:24 Remove perverse speech 1 from your mouth; 2
keep devious talk far from your lips. 3
6:14 he plots evil with perverse thoughts 4 in his heart,
he spreads contention 5 at all times.
16:28 A perverse person 6 spreads dissension,
and a gossip separates the closest friends. 7
23:33 Your eyes will see strange things, 8
and your mind will speak perverse things.
1 tn Heb “crookedness.” The noun עִקְּשׁוּת (’iqqÿshut) refers to what is morally twisted or perverted. Here it refers to things that are said (cf. NAB “dishonest talk”; NRSV “crooked speech”). The term “mouth” functions as a metonymy of cause for perverse speech. Such perverse talking could be subtle or blatant.
2 tn Heb “crookedness of mouth.”
3 tn Heb “deviousness of lips put far from you.”
4 tn The noun is an adverbial accusative of manner, explaining the circumstances that inform his evil plans.
5 tn The word “contention” is from the root דִּין (din); the noun means “strife, contention, quarrel.” The normal plural form is represented by the Qere, and the contracted form by the Kethib.
6 tn Heb “a man of perverse things”; NAB “an intriguer.” This refers to someone who destroys lives. The parallelism suggests that he is a “slanderer” or “gossip” – one who whispers and murmurs (18:8; 26:20, 22).
7 tn The term אַלּוּף (’aluf) refers to a “friend” or “an intimate associate.” The word has other possible translations, including “tame” or “docile” when used of animals. Rashi, a Jewish scholar who lived
8 tn The feminine plural of זָר (zar, “strange things”) refers to the trouble one has in seeing and speaking when drunk.