Proverbs 6:16

What now follows is not a separate section (Hitzig), but the corroborative continuation of that which precedes. The last word (מדנים, strife) before the threatening of punishment, 14b, is also here the last. The thought that no vice is a greater abomination to God than the (in fact satanical) striving to set men at variance who love one another, clothes itself in the form of the numerical proverb which we have already considered, pp. 12, 13. From that place we transfer the translation of this example of a Midda: - 16 There are six things which Jahve hateth, And seven are an abhorrence to His soul: 17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood; 18 An heart that deviseth the thoughts of evil, Feet that hastily run to wickedness, 19 One that uttereth lies as a false witness, And he who soweth strife between brethren. The sense is not, that the six things are hateful to God, and the seventh an abomination to Him besides (Lwenstein); the Midda-form in Amos 1:3-2:6, and in the proverb in Job 5:19, shows that the seven are to be numbered separately, and the seventh is the non plus ultra of all that is hated by God. We are not to translate: sex haecce odit, for המּה, הנּה, (הם, הן) points backwards and hitherwards, but not, as אלּה, forwards to that immediately following; in that case the words would be שׁשׁ אלה, or more correctly האלה שׁשׁ. But also Hitzig's explanation, "These six things (viz., Pro 6:12-15) Jahve hateth," is impossible; for (which is also against that haecce) the substantive pronoun המה nuonorp , הנה (ההמה, ההנה) is never, like the Chald. המּון (המּו), employed as an accus. in the sense of אתהם, אתהן, it is always (except where it is the virtual gen. connected with a preposition) only the nom., whether of the subject or of the predicate;…

In this chapter we have, I. A caution against rash suretiship (Pro 6:1-5). II. A rebuke to slothfulness (Pro 6:6-11). III. The character and fate of a malicious mischievous man (Pro 6:12-15). IV. An account of seven things which God hates (Pro 6:16-19). V. An exhortation to make the word of God familiar to us (Pro 6:20-23). VI. A repeated warning of the pernicious consequences of the sin of whoredom (Pro 6:24-35). We are here dissuaded from sin very much by arguments borrowed from our secular interests, for it is not only represented as damning in the other world, but as impoverishing in this.

6:16-19 The first line gives a number followed by a second line that increases that number by one. This device (called number parallelism) introduces a list of items and often, as here, draws attention to the climactic final item (see also 30:15-23).