Bible Strands
Proverbs 16:27
A worthless man digs up evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The text delivers wisdom instruction concerning a specific type of person, positioned between observations about a laborer's drive and a gossip's divisiveness.
The words — The Hebrew בְּלִיַּעַל (be.li.ya.'al) denotes worthlessness or corruption, while כֹּרֶה (ko.reh) literally means "is digging up" or excavating. The phrase שְׂפָתוֹ (se.fa.to, "his lips") is compared to אֵשׁ צָרֶבֶת (esh tza.revet, "a scorching fire").
The thread — The imagery of destructive speech parallels James 3:6, which calls the tongue a fire that pollutes the whole person, and Proverbs 6:14, where a deceitful man devises evil and sows discord.
Why it lands — The verse describes a corrupt individual who actively unearths wrongdoing and whose words inflict immediate, burning harm on others. It demands recognition that destructive character inevitably produces corrosive speech, requiring listeners to guard against such influence.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire.
Cross-references
- James 3:6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of wickedness among the parts of the body. It pollutes the whole person, sets the course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
- Proverbs 6:14 With deceit in his heart he devises evil; he continually sows discord.
- 1 Samuel 25:17 Now consider carefully what you must do, because disaster looms over our master and all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that nobody can speak to him!”
- Psalms 17:14 from such men, O LORD, by Your hand—from men of the world whose portion is in this life. May You fill the bellies of Your treasured ones and satisfy their sons, so they leave their abundance to their children.
- Psalms 52:2 Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.
- Psalms 57:4 My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts—with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
- Proverbs 6:12 A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth,
- Isaiah 5:18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit and pull sin along with cart ropes,
- Proverbs 2:4 if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure,
- 2 Samuel 20:1 Now a worthless man named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjamite, happened to be there, and he blew the ram’s horn and shouted: “We have no share in David, no inheritance in Jesse’s son. Every man to his tent, O Israel!”