Proverbs 6:12-19

The Worthless Man (Proverbs 6:12).

We now come to the third person in the triumvirate. The first one committed as a surety what he did not have. He was naive. The second was too lazy to do anything to provide for himself. He was a fool. But this third is a scorner. He is totally untrustworthy. He is called ‘a man of belial', a ‘man without profit', a man in whom there is no good, thus a worthless man. It will be noted that Solomon makes no appeal to him. He sees him as a hopeless case to be warned against. He simply describes him and his end.

The subsection divides into two parts, the first defining the worthless man, the second listing seven things which YHWH hates. There is considerable overlap. The worthless man has a perverse mouth, insolent and untrustworthy eyes, threatening feet, fingers which indicate unpleasantness, and a perverse heart which devises evil continually. He sins with every part of his anatomy. The seven things which YHWH hates include a lying tongue, haughty eyes, feet swift to run to mischief, hands which shed innocent blood, and a heart which devises wicked imaginations.