Seven Things God Hates: The Lying Tongue
Short answer: Proverbs 6:16–19 says there are six things Yahweh hates, yes seven that are an abomination to him, and a lying tongue stands second in the list. The passage sets lying beside arrogant eyes, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart devising wicked schemes, feet swift to mischief, a false witness, and the one who sows discord among brothers. So the answer is direct: God hates a lying tongue, and the closing line ties deceit to real harm done to neighbors and to the community of faith.
A numbered saying inside a Father's warning
Proverbs 6:16–19 does not stand alone. It sits inside a longer warning that begins earlier in the chapter, where a worthless and perverse person is described by what his mouth, heart and hands do. Verses 12–15 trace that character to its end: calamity comes suddenly, and the person is broken without remedy. Then the numbered saying arrives, naming what God hates. Verse 20 returns to the father's voice, urging the son to keep his father's commandment and not forsake his mother's teaching. So the list is framed by instruction. It is a wisdom saying spoken by a father to a son, meant to form a life rather than satisfy curiosity about God's dislikes.
The literary shape is deliberate. The saying opens with a count, six things and then seven, a pattern Hebrew wisdom uses to build emphasis: the list is not exhausted but climaxed. What follows is a sequence of body parts, eyes, tongue, hands, heart, feet, as if sin were traced through a whole person. Arrogant eyes and a lying tongue come first; hands that shed innocent blood and a heart devising wicked schemes follow; feet swift to mischief close the sequence. Then two final items slow the saying down: a false witness who utters lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. Speech and division get the last word.
The covenant setting gives this list its moral weight. Israel was commanded to speak truth and to love neighbor, so the saying echoes the logic of the law rather than inventing a new standard. The closing verses make the setting personal and formative: the teaching is to be bound continually on the heart and tied around the neck, language of a life shaped, not a mind merely informed. One caution belongs here. Verse 15 describes the end of the perverse person; it is not a guarantee that every liar visibly falls in this life. Since all have sinned in speech, accusations of lying call for humility.
Seven things Yahweh hates
The list opens with a count that pauses and then adds one: six things, yes, seven. That pattern signals a complete, deliberate inventory rather than a random tally. The writer uses two words, "hates" and "abomination," and the second is the stronger, reserved for what is detestable to God. Notice also that these are not abstract vices floating in the air. They are attached to a body: eyes, tongue, hands, heart, feet. The proverb pictures sin as whole-person action, the way a person looks, speaks, touches, plans and goes. What God detests is not evil in general but evil as it lives in ordinary human parts.
The items themselves move from inner to outer and back again. Arrogant eyes look down on others. A lying tongue is speech that deceives, and it returns at the end as a false witness who utters lies, deceit under oath or in a legal setting where a life may hang on the answer. Hands that shed innocent blood and feet swift to run to mischief show violence as something chosen and hurried toward. A heart that devises wicked schemes is the planning behind it all. The closing line, sowing discord among brothers, pictures a farmer scattering seed: division thrown out deliberately, then growing.
That final image is the climax, and it is worth sitting with. The passage treats the person who scatters strife among brothers as standing alongside the liar and the violent. Wisdom literature often describes consequences in strong, settled terms, and verse 15 is the proverb's warning about where such a path ends. It is wisdom's general truth, not a promise that every deceiver visibly falls in this life. So the passage searches us rather than arming us against others. All of us have sinned in speech, and honesty about our own tongue comes before any accusation of another's.
Seven things Yahweh hates, and the tongue that lies
Proverbs 6:16–19 is a numbered saying inside a longer warning that starts earlier in the chapter. Verses 12–15 describe a perverse person whose mouth speaks twisted things, whose heart devises evil, and who sows discord. Verse 15 says calamity will come on such a person suddenly, broken beyond remedy. The numbered list then names what God hates: 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. The list is not a random catalog. It traces a life from inner pride to outward harm, and deceit appears at both ends.
Notice the framing: "There are six things which Yahweh hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him:" (Proverbs 6:16). The move from six to seven is a Hebrew poetic device that heightens attention, not a count of exactly seven items to the exclusion of others. What the passage claims is striking: these behaviors are not merely unwise or socially awkward. They are abominable to God himself. A lying tongue sits in that company, next to murder and scheming. The list closes with a false witness and with the one who sows discord among brothers, tying deceit to concrete harm done to neighbors and to the community of faith.
This saying echoes the moral logic of Israel's covenant, which commanded truth-telling and love of neighbor; it does not invent a new standard. The surrounding verses make the teaching personal and formative. Verse 20 returns to the father's instruction, and verses 21 urge the son to bind it on his heart and tie it around his neck, so that it shapes a life, not just informs a mind. One caution belongs here. Verse 15 describes the end of the perverse person; it does not guarantee that every liar visibly falls in this life. All of us have sinned in speech, so accusations of lying call for humility. Grace comes first: God in Christ forgives the lying tongue and teaches his people to love truth.
The passage answers the reader's question directly: God hates a lying tongue, and the wise son is called to love truth instead. That call is not abstract. It reaches the tongue, the witness stand, and the ordinary conversations where brothers are divided or reconciled. Because the teaching is bound on the heart, truth becomes a settled habit rather than a rule consulted in a crisis. The one who fears Yahweh does not merely avoid detectable lies; he learns to speak in a way that builds up neighbors and guards the unity of the community of faith.
Where readers differ on the seven things God hates
The list in 6:16–19 opens with a counting device: six things, then seven. Some careful readers take this as a ranked or complete catalog of especially serious sins, so that anything outside the seven falls short of the warning. Others see a Hebrew poetic habit of naming a number and adding one for emphasis, which makes the list representative rather than exhaustive. Notice what the seven have in common: eyes, tongue, hands, heart, feet, a false witness, and a sower of discord. The passage is less a legal checklist than a portrait of a person whose whole self is bent toward deceit.
Verse 15 announces sudden calamity and breaking without remedy for the person described in 6:14. Readers differ on how to read that. Some treat it as a general wisdom principle: deceit eventually collapses under its own weight. Others point out that Proverbs often states a norm rather than an unconditional promise, since the wicked do not always visibly fall in this age. What the text does not do is guarantee that every liar will be publicly broken in this life. Pastors should resist turning verse 15 into that guarantee, and should speak about lying with humility, since all of us have sinned in speech.
The final item, sowing discord among brothers, raises another question. Some read it mainly against the covenant community of Israel, where division threatened a people bound to one God. Others hear it speaking to the church as well, and the New Testament repeatedly urges unity among believers. Either way, the list ends where verse 14 began: a heart devising evil that spreads through words. Across these disagreements, what stays central is God's own truthfulness. Deceit is detestable to him, and the wise respond not by grading sins but by repenting and committing themselves to truthful speech.
The God who hates lying tongues
The list in Proverbs 6:16–19 is a portrait of a person, not a random collection of sins. Eyes, tongue, hands, heart, feet, and a witness stand are named in turn, as if the whole body is enlisted in deceit. The last item gathers the rest: a false witness who lies and a man who sows discord among brothers. Verse 15 has already said calamity comes suddenly to such a person, broken without remedy. That is a serious claim, and it describes the end of an unrepentant schemer, not a promise that every liar will visibly collapse in this life.
Read honestly, the passage sets a standard no one keeps. Every person has spoken falsely, and the tongue that seems so small turns out to be the hinge of the whole list. The gospel does not soften the standard; it supplies the one who met it. Christ never deceived, yet he was condemned on false testimony and handed over to death, bearing the penalty that lying tongues deserve. Because he rose and sends his Spirit, his people are renewed to put away falsehood and speak truth with their neighbors.
That renewal changes how a church handles accusations of lying. Since all have sinned in speech, no one confronts deceit from a height. Verse 15 is not a weapon for predicting another person's downfall; it is a warning that should make us tremble for ourselves and gentle with others. The whole of Scripture moves from God's hatred of deceit to his provision of a truthful Savior, and the church lives between those two poles: honest about the tongue, hopeful because of Christ.
Truthful speech and the God who hates lies
Proverbs 6:16–19 lists seven things Yahweh hates, and three of the seven concern the mouth: a lying tongue, a false witness, and the one who sows discord among brothers. The list moves from eyes to tongue to hands to heart to feet, as if to show that speech is never isolated. A lie begins in a heart that devises wicked schemes and ends in feet that run toward mischief. Notice too that the false witness and the sower of discord stand last, where the harm is done to other people. God's hatred of lying is not fussiness about manners. It is His character, and He names what damages community.
What does faithful response look like on an ordinary Tuesday? Refuse the lie that protects your reputation, the exaggeration that inflates a story, and the flattering word that misleads someone into a bad decision. Because the passage pairs the lying tongue with the sower of discord, examine speech that divides: the rumor passed along at lunch, the concern shared as prayer request that leaves a brother diminished. Verses 20–21 call the father's instruction to be bound on the heart and worn continually, which means habits of meditation and practice, not occasional resolve. Grace comes first: Christ's truthfulness and forgiveness cover our speech, and His Spirit teaches us to speak plainly.
One caution belongs here. Verse 15 says calamity comes suddenly to the one who devises evil, but we should not turn that into a guarantee that every liar visibly falls in this life. Some do, some seem not to, and the proverb states a wisdom principle about God's moral order rather than a timetable we can enforce. Handle accusations of lying with humility, since all have sinned in speech. The passage promises no particular outcome for us, only that God's character is truthful and that the wise align their words with it, trusting His judgment rather than managing outcomes ourselves.
Biblical fidelity check
Proverbs 6:16–19 is read carefully by noticing its shape before its application. The numbered saying, six then seven, signals emphasis rather than a tidy census, and the list moves through body parts: eyes, tongue, hands, heart, feet. The final line returns to the tongue, so deceit frames the whole. Readers should resist treating the seven as a ranked severity scale or a complete catalog of sin. The Hebrew wording behind "abomination" marks what is detestable to God, and the pairing of a lying tongue with a false witness shows deceit in ordinary speech and under oath alike.
The real disagreement concerns verse 15's sudden calamity. Some read it as a general wisdom norm about consequences; others note that Proverbs often states how life usually goes rather than an unconditional promise, since the wicked do not always visibly fall now. Readers also debate whether sowing discord addresses Israel's community or the church, though the New Testament repeats the concern for unity. What stays central is God's truthful character, his hatred of deceit, and the wise response of repentance and truthful speech.
Other passages that speak to Proverbs 6:16-19
These themes run through the whole book of Proverbs, so it repays reading the surrounding chapters alongside this list. For a wider sweep of Scripture's teaching on truth and speech, see Proverbs 26:4-5: When to Answer a Fool and When to Stay and Proverbs 31 Virtuous Woman: Wisdom for Today, and for how the New Testament addresses the same matters, compare Proverbs 1:1-7: The Fear of Yahweh Is the Beginning with 1 Corinthians 14:26-33: Order Instead of Confusion.
Frequently asked questions
Does God really hate lying, or does the Bible just say he dislikes it?
This passage says God hates a lying tongue, listing it among the things that are an abomination to him, which is stronger than mere dislike. The word sits in a list of seven behaviors, and lying appears twice: once as the tongue that lies and once as the false witness who utters lies. The list is not ranked, so lying stands beside shedding innocent blood and devising wicked schemes without being softened. The point is that God's opposition to deceit is real and settled, not a mild preference.
Why does Proverbs list seven things God hates, and is that list complete?
The list is a poetic way of saying God's hatred of evil is full and settled, not a numbered inventory with exactly seven items. The writer names six, then adds a seventh to complete the picture, a common pattern in wisdom writing that signals sufficiency rather than a closed set. The seven describe character and conduct, from proud eyes to a lying tongue to feet quick to do harm, all flowing from a heart that devises wicked schemes. The list is representative, not exhaustive, and it ends where the passage began, with the one who sows discord among brothers.
What is the difference between a lying tongue and sowing discord among brothers?
A lying tongue harms by what it says, while sowing discord harms by what it does between people. Proverbs 6:19 names both among the things God hates, pairing the false witness who utters lies with the one who sows discord among brothers. The lie distorts the truth; the discord tears apart a relationship, often using words as the tool. The first corrupts speech, the second divides a community, and both flow from a heart that devises wicked schemes.
