Proverbs 6:16–19: The Lying Tongue God Hates
Short answer: Proverbs 6:16–19 lists seven things Yahweh hates, and a lying tongue is one of them. The list names arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a scheming heart, feet quick to mischief, a false witness, and one who sows discord among brothers. The point is that deceit is not merely unwise in this passage but detestable to God, an expression of his settled character rather than a passing mood. The passage calls the reader to repent of deceit, not to use the list as a weapon against others.
Seven things Yahweh hates: the shape of a wisdom warning
Proverbs 6:16–19 is a numbered proverb, a form the book uses to slow a reader down: a count is given, then raised by one so the last item lands with force. Here the count is six, then seven. The list is poetry, not case law, and it belongs to a father's instruction to a son. Its setting is moral formation, a teacher naming what God's character rejects so that a young person learns to hate it too. The shape moves through the body: eyes, tongue, hands, heart, feet. It ends with two social sins, a false witness and one who sows discord among brothers.
The list does not stand alone. It grows out of the warning just before it, which describes a person whose heart is twisted, who keeps devising evil and always sows discord. Verse 15 announces that such a person's calamity will come suddenly, and the seven things explain what God sees in that life. Then verse 20 turns to the son: keep your father's commandment, do not forsake your mother's teaching, bind them on your heart and tie them around your neck. So this is not a free-floating ethics lesson. It is the reason a child should receive instruction.
The covenant setting matters. Israel was commanded not to bear false witness, and the wisdom teacher applies that loyalty to ordinary speech. Notice how the list resists treating the tongue as an isolated problem. A lying tongue sits between arrogant eyes and hands that shed blood; a heart that devises wicked schemes sits beside feet swift to mischief. Deceit is pictured as flowing from a heart and showing itself in feet. That is why the passage calls for repentance rather than finger-pointing. It names what God hates so that we examine our own speech, not so that we accuse others. Honesty is a response to God's grace, not a guarantee of safety in this life.
The list does not stand alone. It grows out of the warning just before it, which describes a person whose heart is twisted, who keeps devising evil and always sows discord. Verse 15 announces that such a person's calamity will come suddenly, and the seven things explain what God sees in that life. Then verse 20 turns to the son: keep your father's commandment, do not forsake your mother's teaching, bind them on your heart and tie them around your neck. So this is not a free-floating ethics lesson. It is the reason a child should receive instruction.
What God hates and why the list ends where it does
The passage opens with a number formula: six things, then seven. This is a poetic pattern, not a miscount. The writer lists six, then adds a seventh to land the point, and the seventh is the one who sows discord among brothers. The first term, hates, describes settled rejection rather than a passing irritation. The second, abomination, is stronger still, reserved for what is detestable and must be put away. So this is not a list of minor faults God finds annoying. It is a description of what he refuses and rejects, and the structure tells us where the weight falls.
Look at how the list is built. Arrogant eyes come first, then a lying tongue, then hands that shed innocent blood, then a heart that devises wicked schemes, then feet swift to run to mischief. Speech sits in the middle of a body all bent the same direction. The lying tongue is picked up again at the end as the false witness who utters lies, so the passage moves from private speech to speech that damages others in public. The final line, sowing discord among brothers, shows what all of it produces when it matures: division between people who should be joined.
Read this as a call to examine your own tongue, not as a label to pin on someone else. The passage describes a person whose whole life runs in one direction, and it invites each of us to ask where our words fit that pattern. Repentance starts with naming the deceit we actually practice. It does not come with a promise that honesty will make this life safe or rewarded. The grace is that God in Christ receives the one who stops defending the lie, and the response is a tongue that stops scattering what God is gathering.
Seven things the Lord hates
Proverbs 6:16–19 does not offer a loose list of bad habits. It names what God detests: "There are six things which Yahweh hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him:" (6:16). The counting pattern builds to a climax, and the word abomination is reserved for what God finds detestable, not merely inconvenient. The list moves from arrogant eyes to a lying tongue, from hands that shed innocent blood to a heart devising wicked schemes, from feet swift to mischief to a false witness and a sower of discord. Speech bookends the list: the lying tongue near the start, the false witness and the discord-sower at the end. A lying tongue is treated as a moral act with a witness, not a private convenience.
The list does not float free. It sits inside a warning that begins earlier, describing a person whose heart is perverse, who devises evil continually and always sows discord (6:14). Verse 15 announces that such a person's calamity will come suddenly and without remedy. The seven things then explain what God sees in that life. Notice the anatomy: the tongue is not isolated. A heart devises, feet run, hands act, and the mouth speaks. Then verse 20 turns to the son: keep your father's commandment, do not forsake your mother's teaching, bind them on your heart and neck. The list is the reason a child should receive instruction, not a detached ethics lesson.
The covenant setting gives this weight. Israel was commanded not to bear false witness, and the wisdom teacher applies that loyalty to ordinary daily speech. So the passage claims that God does hate a lying tongue, and that hatred belongs to his settled character rather than a passing mood. That is a call to repent of deceit, not a club for shaming others; the reader is the one addressed. Honesty is not promised safety or reward in this life. Grace comes first: God's mercy in Christ meets the liar, and our response is to put away falsehood and speak truth.
Where readers disagree about the seven things God hates
Some careful readers treat the list in Proverbs 6:16–19 as a fixed moral code to be preached item by item, while others read the number formula as a poetic device. The pattern of six, then seven, is a common way of saying and one more, which would make the final item the emphasis rather than a strict count. Notice that the list moves from eyes to tongue to hands to heart to feet, then ends with the false witness and the sower of discord. On either reading, the point is not arithmetic but the character of a person whose speech and scheming damage neighbors.
Another disagreement concerns verse 15, which promises sudden calamity and breaking without remedy. Some read this as a specific divine judgment on the person described; others read it as a wisdom principle about how such conduct tends to collapse in this life. Wisdom literature often states a pattern rather than an unconditional guarantee, and the passage does not say every liar is ruined by Friday. What stays central across these readings is that God's hatred of deceit is real, and that lying falls squarely under his moral attention.
A third question is how the church should apply the list under the new covenant. Some treat these seven as commands to obey directly; others read them as a description of character God forms in his people by his grace. Both readings agree that deceit is to be repented of, not merely regretted. This is not a passage for shaming others or for accusing people of being the wicked person in the list. It invites each reader to examine their own speech, and it promises no safety or reward in this life for honesty.
The connection to the surrounding verses matters. Verses 20–21 urge the son to bind parental teaching on his heart and neck, which places the list inside a call to receive instruction rather than a courtroom verdict on outsiders. That context softens the temptation to wield the passage as a weapon. Read this way, the seven things God hates become a mirror held up to the reader's own tongue and heart, and the appropriate response is repentance and a plea for God to form truthful speech in us.
The God who hates the lying tongue
Proverbs 6:16–19 opens with a count that refuses to stay tidy: six things Yahweh hates, yes, seven that are an abomination to him. The list then moves from the eyes down to the feet and out to the community. Arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet swift to mischief, a false witness who utters lies, and the one who sows discord among brothers. Notice that two of the seven concern speech, and the last one concerns what speech does between people. The passage is not describing distant criminals. It is naming what God finds detestable in ordinary human conduct.
This list is not softened by the gospel. It is taken more seriously. Jesus never had a lying tongue, yet false witnesses rose against him at his trial, and the innocent one bore the very sin this passage condemns. His cross answers the calamity verse 15 describes, because he took the judgment that deceit deserves on behalf of those who have lied. That is where repentance begins, not in comparing ourselves favorably with others, but in seeing our own speech in this list and finding mercy at the cross. The resurrection gives hope that a new heart can produce new speech.
So this passage calls us to repent of deceit, not to use it as a weapon against someone else. Read it first in your own mouth: the exaggeration, the flattering word, the story told to make yourself look better, the quiet remark that divides two friends. Verse 19 names the sower of discord among brothers, and that is close to home. Honesty is not a strategy for a safe and rewarded life; it is the fruit of a heart made new. Ask God for a clean tongue, and where you have lied, go and speak the truth plainly.
What honesty looks like when no one is watching
Proverbs 6:16–19 lists seven things God hates, and two of them concern speech: a lying tongue and a false witness who utters lies. The list is not random. Arrogant eyes come first, then hands that shed blood, then a heart devising wicked schemes, and it ends with the person who sows discord among brothers. The passage treats words as moral acts, not minor slips. The previous verses describe someone who devises evil continually and always sows discord, and verse 15 says his calamity comes suddenly. The point is sober: deceit is not a small weakness God overlooks. It is something he names as an abomination.
So the first faithful response is honest self-examination, not finger-pointing at others. Ask where you have shaded the truth to protect yourself, repeated a rumor you never checked, or used words to turn one person against another. Confession means naming this as sin against God and neighbor, not managing it as a personality quirk. Grace is the ground here. We do not clean up our speech to earn God's favor; we do it because we are already forgiven in Christ. That changes the motive from fear to gratitude, and it makes honesty possible without self-righteousness.
Then comes the ordinary work. Speak what is true, and refuse to pass along what you cannot verify, even when the story is interesting. Where you have broken trust with your words, go back and repair what you can, plainly and without excuses. This will not always be rewarded in this life. Honesty may cost you a friendship, a position, or the comfort of being liked. The passage promises no safety for truth-tellers. It simply tells us what God hates and calls us to put it away, trusting him with the outcome.
Biblical fidelity check
The number formula, six then seven, shapes how this passage should be read. It is a poetic way of saying the list is complete, and the last item carries the weight: the one who sows discord among brothers. The list also moves outward, from arrogant eyes and a scheming heart to a lying tongue, hands that shed blood, feet swift to mischief, and finally a false witness in public. Private speech and public speech are the same problem here, which is why the closing line lands where it does.
Readers differ on whether verse 15's sudden calamity is a general wisdom pattern or a specific divine judgment, and on whether these seven items function as commands or as a portrait of character God forms in his people. What stays central is that God's settled rejection of deceit is real, that lying damages neighbors, and that speech falls under his moral attention. The proverb describes a pattern; it does not promise that every liar is broken by Friday.
Binding teaching on the heart and neck (6:21) is the response this calls for, not mere avoidance of the list.
Other passages that speak to Proverbs 6:16-19
These studies trace how Scripture treats speech, honesty, and the fear of the Lord across wisdom literature and the prophets. Proverbs 26:4-5: When to Answer a Fool and When to Stay examines the tongue in Proverbs, Proverbs 31 Virtuous Woman: Wisdom for Today looks at the ninth commandment, Proverbs 1:1-7: The Fear of Yahweh Is the Beginning considers Jesus's teaching on oaths and truthfulness, and Exodus 20:16 Meaning: The Ninth Commandment Against False follows the theme of discord and false witness in the church.
Frequently asked questions
Does God really hate lying, or is that just an Old Testament way of speaking?
The passage says plainly that a lying tongue is among the things Yahweh hates and calls an abomination to him. That is not loose poetry about dislike; the writer places deceit in the same short list as shedding innocent blood and devising wicked schemes. The New Testament does not soften this, since Jesus traces lies to the devil and calls him the father of lies, and Revelation keeps liars outside the city. The wording is strong because the stakes are real: a lie attacks the trust that words are meant to carry.
Why does Proverbs list seven things if it starts by saying six?
The shift from six to seven is a deliberate poetic device, a way of numbering a list so that the final item lands with weight. The writer is not correcting himself or losing count; he builds toward the seventh entry and makes it the climax. That seventh item is the one who sows discord among brothers, which ties back to the perverse person of 6:14 who always sows discord. The device tells the reader to keep reading, because the last line is the point the whole list is moving toward.
What is the difference between a lying tongue and a false witness in this passage?
The lying tongue is the general habit of speech that distorts the truth, while the false witness is that habit turned into formal testimony against someone. The list moves from the tongue in verse 17 to the false witness in verse 19, showing how deceit grows from a private habit into public harm. A false witness does damage inside a courtroom or a community dispute, where words carry official weight and can cost a person their reputation or their life. Both are named as hated by God, so the passage does not treat one as minor and the other as serious.
