Proverbs 16:27
Context| NETBible | A wicked scoundrel 1 digs up 2 evil, and his slander 3 is like a scorching fire. 4 |
| XREF | 1Sa 25:17; 2Sa 20:1; Ps 17:14,15; Ps 52:2-4; Ps 57:4; Pr 2:4; Isa 5:18; Hab 2:13; Jas 3:6 |
| NET © Notes |
1 tn Heb “a man of belial.” This phrase means “wicked scoundrel.” Some translate “worthless” (so ASV, NASB, CEV), but the phrase includes deep depravity and wickedness (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 125-26). 2 tn Heb “digs up” (so NASB). The “wicked scoundrel” finds out about evil and brings it to the surface (Prov 26:27; Jer 18:20). What he digs up he spreads by speech. 3 tn Heb “on his lips” (so NAB) The term “lips” is a metonymy of cause. To say that “evil” is on his lips means that he talks about the evil he has dug up. 4 sn The simile stresses the devastating way that slander hurts people. W. McKane says that this one “digs for scandal and…propagates it with words which are ablaze with misanthropy” (Proverbs [OTL], 494). |
