Bible Strands
Proverbs 4:24
Put away deception from your mouth; keep your lips from perverse speech.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses a student or son within a parental instruction sequence, positioning this command between the exhortation to guard the heart and the directive to fix the eyes forward.
The words — הָסֵר (ha.Ser) means "remove," and עִקְּשׁוּת ('i.ke.Shut) denotes "crookedness," treating deceptive speech as a physical obstruction to be discarded.
The thread — The prohibition against twisted language recurs in Proverbs 8:8, which contrasts righteous speech with crooked words, and James 1:26, which ties an unbridled tongue to self-deception.
Why it lands — The text commands the deliberate elimination of deceptive and perverse speech, requiring the reader to treat verbal output as a disciplined practice rather than an automatic reflex.
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
Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
Cross-references
- James 1:26 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless.
- Proverbs 8:8 All the words of my mouth are righteous; none are crooked or perverse.
- Proverbs 8:13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.
- Ephesians 4:25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.
- Proverbs 6:12 A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth,
- James 1:21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and every expression of evil, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save your souls.
- 1 Peter 2:1 Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.
- Colossians 3:8 But now you must put aside all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
- Proverbs 17:20 The one with a perverse heart finds no good, and he whose tongue is deceitful falls into trouble.
- 1 Timothy 6:5 and constant friction between men of depraved mind who are devoid of the truth. These men regard godliness as a means of gain.