Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 16:27 - 16:27

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 16:27 - 16:27


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

27 A worthless man diggeth evil;

And on his lips is, as it were, scorching fire.

Regarding אִישׁ בְּלִיַּעַל, vid., Pro 6:12, and regarding כָּרָה, to dig round, or to bore out, vid., at Gen 49:5; Gen 50:5; here the figure, “to dig for others a pit,” Pro 26:27, Psa 7:16, etc.: to dig evil is equivalent to, to seek to prepare such for others. צָרֶבֶת Kimchi rightly explains as a form similar to קַשֶּׁבֶת; as a subst. it means, Lev 13:23, the mark of fire (the healed mark of a carbuncle), here as an adj. of a fire, although not flaming (אֵשׁ לֶהָבָה, Isa 4:5, etc.); yet so much the hotter, and scorching everything that comes near to it (from צָרֵב, to be scorched, cogn. שְׁרֵב, to which also שָׂרַף is perhaps related as a stronger power, like comburere to adurere). The meaning is clear: a worthless man, i.e., a man whose disposition and conduct are the direct contrast of usefulness and piety, uses words which, like an iron glowing hot, scorches and burns; his tongue is φλογιζομένη ὑπὸ τῆς γεέννης (Jam 3:6).