Proverbs 12:22 · Passage · Truthfulness
The Lying Tongue in Proverbs
Proverbs names the liar's word with two Hebrew nouns, sheqer, falsehood, and kazav, a lie.
Proverbs 26:28 says the lying tongue hates the people it crushes, so the lie the LORD hates is itself a hater.
Lying lips are detestable to the LORD, but those who deal faithfully are His delight.
- The passage
- Proverbs 6:16 to 19, Proverbs 12:17 to 22, Proverbs 14:5, Proverbs 14:25, Proverbs 19:5, Proverbs 19:9
- Book
- Proverbs
- Hold in memory
- Proverbs 12:22, Proverbs 12:19
Summary
Proverbs judges a lie by what it does. It offends the LORD, who hates it. It harms the neighbour, most of all in a court where a witness's word could decide a life. It ruins the liar, whose word and whose gain do not last. At every point the book sets a truthful speaker beside the liar, so its sayings on the lie are also its teaching on honest speech.
- Proverbs counts the lie twice among the seven things the LORD hates, once as a tongue and once as a witness (Proverbs 6:16 to 19).
- The law of Deuteronomy 19 gave a proven false witness the punishment he had meant for his brother.
- Proverbs promises the truthful lip a lasting word and gives the liar's word a short life (Proverbs 12:19).
- Five sayings call the false witness yafiach kezavim, one who breathes out lies, and set him before a judge (Proverbs 6:19, Proverbs 14:5, Proverbs 14:25, Proverbs 19:5 and Proverbs 19:9).
The Lie in Proverbs
Most of the sayings are single lines whose two halves stand against each other.
The Lying Tongue in Proverbs studies what the book of Proverbs says about the lie, the lying lips and the false witness. It belongs to the value of truthfulness, because these sayings give the reasons the wisdom of Scripture offers for speaking the truth to a neighbour.
The question the study answers is why the LORD hates the lying tongue and the false witness, and what Proverbs promises the one who speaks the truth. It reads each saying through its Hebrew phrase, reads the witness sayings beside the law of Deuteronomy 19, and gives two readings of Proverbs 6:16 to 19.
Proverbs 6:16 to 19 stands in a father's lessons to his son and counts six things and then a seventh. Most of the other sayings stand among "The proverbs of Solomon" that begin at Proverbs 10:1.
Proverbs 25:18 and Proverbs 26:28 belong to the proverbs of Solomon "copied by the men of Hezekiah king of Judah" (Proverbs 25:1). The prayer of Proverbs 30:8 belongs to the words of Agur son of Jakeh.
Speech in Proverbs as a whole, the healing word, the guarded mouth and the whisperer, is taught in The Tongue, Death and Life in Proverbs, while the false witness and the court are taught here.
The Sayings on the Lie
Proverbs names the lie in the lips, in the tongue and in the witness's word.
Seven of the eleven sayings speak of a witness, and five use the verb yafiach, he breathes out.
| Verse | The Berean words | The Hebrew phrase | Where the lie is told |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proverbs 10:18 | The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool. | siftei sheqer, lips of falsehood | Among neighbours, to hide hatred |
| Proverbs 12:17 | He who speaks the truth declares what is right, but a false witness speaks deceit. | yafiach emunah, he breathes out faithfulness; 'ed sheqarim, a witness of lies | Before a judge |
| Proverbs 12:19 | Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment. | sfat emet, a lip of truth; leshon shaqer, a tongue of falsehood | In any speech |
| Proverbs 14:5 | An honest witness does not deceive, but a dishonest witness pours forth lies. | 'ed emunim, a witness of faithfulness; yafiach kezavim, he breathes out lies | Before a judge |
| Proverbs 14:25 | A truthful witness saves lives, but one who utters lies is deceitful. | 'ed emet, a witness of truth; yafiach kezavim, he breathes out lies | Before a judge |
| Proverbs 19:5 | A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who utters lies will not escape. | 'ed sheqarim, a witness of lies; yafiach kezavim, he breathes out lies | Before a judge |
| Proverbs 19:9 | A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who pours out lies will perish. | 'ed sheqarim, a witness of lies; yafiach kezavim, he breathes out lies | Before a judge |
| Proverbs 21:6 | Making a fortune by a lying tongue is a vanishing mist, a deadly pursuit. | leshon sheqer, a tongue of falsehood | In getting wealth |
| Proverbs 21:28 | A lying witness will perish, but the man who listens to truth will speak forever. | 'ed kezavim, a witness of lies | Before a judge |
| Proverbs 25:18 | Like a club or sword or sharp arrow is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor. | 'ed sheqer, a witness of falsehood | Before a judge, against a neighbour |
| Proverbs 26:28 | A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth causes ruin. | leshon sheqer, a tongue of falsehood | Against the people it crushes |
Proverbs 19:9, Proverbs 21:6, Proverbs 21:28, Proverbs 25:18, Proverbs 26:28
What the LORD Hates
A list of seven and one Hebrew word set the lie before God.
There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to evil, a false witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up discord among brothers.It stands here because it places the lie among sins of the eyes, the hands, the heart and the feet, so the lie is weighed with violence and scheming.
The lying tongue of Proverbs 6:17 is leshon sheqer, a tongue of falsehood, and the false witness of Proverbs 6:19 is 'ed sheqer, a witness of falsehood. One noun, sheqer, stands in both.
Proverbs 6:16 calls the seven to'avot, things the LORD finds disgusting. Proverbs 12:22 uses the same word in to'avat YHWH, the abomination of the LORD.
John Gill, in his Exposition of the Old Testament (1748 to 1763), kept the witness apart from the tongue and read it as "the sin of bearing false witness against one's neighbour".
The Lie That Hides Hatred
Two sayings tie the lie to hatred kept out of sight.
In Proverbs 10:18 the lie is a cover for hatred the speaker will not show.
A hateful man disguises himself with his speech, but he lays up deceit in his heart. When he speaks graciously, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart. Though his hatred is concealed by deception, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.These verses stand here because they describe the man behind the lying tongue of Proverbs 26:28 and name the place where his hatred comes to light.
The False Witness in Court
The witness sayings speak of the man who answered before the judges.
In the phrase yafiach kezavim the verb is yafiach, he breathes out, and kezavim is the plural of the noun kazav, a lie.
Proverbs 12:17 is the one saying where the verb takes a good object, so the same breath can carry a lie or faithfulness.
Proverbs 25:18 joins the commandment's verb 'anah, to testify, to the phrase 'ed sheqer. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown (1871) read that verb as "answereth questions," as before a judge.
On Proverbs 14:5 the same commentators give two readings. The dishonest witness "habitually lies", or else "habitual truthfulness, or lying, will be evinced in witness-bearing".
If a false witness testifies against someone, accusing him of a crime, both parties to the dispute must stand in the presence of the LORD, before the priests and judges who are in office at that time. The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is proven to be a liar who has falsely accused his brother, you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. So you must purge the evil from among you.The law stands here because it is the procedure the witness sayings of Proverbs assume.
Barnes stands here for the reason a witness's word decides the verdict of a court.
“The thought which lies below the surface is that of the inseparable union between truth and justice. The end does not justify the means, and only he who breathes and utters truth makes the righteous cause clear.”
Albert Barnes · Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869) · on Proverbs 12:17Evangelical
The ninth commandment (Exodus 20:16), the law of witness in Exodus 23 and the question of the lie told to save a life are taught in Is a Lie Ever Right?
What Becomes of the Liar
The sayings name what the liar's gain and the false witness come to.
Proverbs 21:6 calls the fortune made by a lying tongue hevel nidaf, a breath driven about, which the Berean renders "a vanishing mist" (Proverbs 21:6).
The verdict on the witness of Proverbs 19:5 is that he "will not escape" (Proverbs 19:5). In Proverbs 19:9 and Proverbs 21:28 the verb is yoved, he will perish.
Proverbs 21:28 sets against the lying witness the man who listens to truth, whose word lasts lanetzach, to perpetuity.
One Man or Seven Sins?
Commentators divide over whether Proverbs 6:16 to 19 lists seven sins or draws one man.
The question is whether the seven things of Proverbs 6:16 to 19 are seven separate sins or the portrait of one man.
A single portraitAlbert Barnes; John Gill
Albert Barnes, in his Notes, Explanatory and Practical (1832 to 1869), held that "all the seven in this instance belong to one man, the man of Belial". John Gill found the six "all to be found in a man of Belial, a wicked man before described".
Their ground is the worthless man of Proverbs 6:12 to 15, who "continually sows discord" (Proverbs 6:14), as the seventh thing does.
The objection: the saying counts its items one by one, six and then a seventh, as a list does.
A numbered listAdam Clarke
Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible (1832), numbered the sins one by one and glossed the second, a lying tongue, as "he who neither loves nor tells truth".
The objection: the list's haughty eyes and scheming heart match the winking eyes and the deceitful heart of the worthless man just before it.
A Prayer Against Falsehood
Agur asks God to keep falsehood away, and another saying prefers poverty to lying.
Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread that is my portion.The prayer stands here because it asks God for the honest speech the sayings demand before it asks for bread.
The desire of a man is loving devotion; better to be poor than a liar.The saying stands here because it weighs honesty above wealth, the trade Proverbs 21:6 warns against.
Proverbs treats honest speech as a gift to ask of God as well as a duty to keep before Him.
Each of the two Hebrew nouns has a word page with its uses across the Old Testament.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible, Translators Amalgamated Hebrew Old Testament, the tagged Hebrew text (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0.
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832 to 1869), on Proverbs 6:16.
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832 to 1869), on Proverbs 12:17.
- John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748 to 1763), on Proverbs 6:16.
- John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748 to 1763), on Proverbs 6:19.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Proverbs 6:16.
- Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Proverbs 14:5.
- Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Proverbs 25:18.
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