Proverbs 4:24

Remove perverse speech ¹  from your mouth; ²  keep devious talk far from your lips. ³ 

Job 11:14; Pr 8:8,13; Pr 17:20; Eze 18:31; Eph 4:25-31; Col 3:8; 1Ti 6:5; Jas 1:21,26; 1Pe 2:1

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.”