Bible Strands
Proverbs 6:14
With deceit in his heart he devises evil; he continually sows discord.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The wisdom writer addresses a student, describing the character of a divisive person immediately after detailing his deceptive gestures and before pronouncing sudden judgment.
The words — The text highlights חֹרֵשׁ (cho.Resh), meaning he is devising, and מִדְיָנִים (me.da.nim), meaning contentions, to describe the active cultivation of malice and conflict.
The thread — This pattern of plotting evil and creating divisions appears in Micah 2:1 regarding those who scheme iniquity, Romans 16:17 warning against those who create obstacles and divisions, and Proverbs 6:18 which pairs a heart devising wicked schemes with feet swift to evil.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition of how internal deceit manifests as active conflict, requiring readers to identify and avoid the character who treats discord as a daily practice.
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
Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.
Cross-references
- Micah 2:1 Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.
- Romans 16:17 Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Turn away from them.
- Proverbs 6:18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to evil,
- Hosea 8:7 For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.
- Psalms 36:4 Even on his bed he plots wickedness; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he fails to reject evil.
- Proverbs 2:14 from those who enjoy doing evil and rejoice in the twistedness of evil,
- Proverbs 26:17 Like one who grabs a dog by the ears is a passerby who meddles in a quarrel not his own.
- Proverbs 3:29 Do not devise evil against your neighbor, for he trustfully dwells beside you.
- Proverbs 16:28 A perverse man spreads dissension, and a gossip divides close friends.
- Proverbs 21:8 The way of a guilty man is crooked, but the conduct of the innocent is upright.