Proverbs 6:16

“six . . . seven--a mode of speaking to arrest attention (Pro 30:15, Pro 30:18; Job 5:19).”

“A new section, but not a new subject. The closing words, “he that soweth discord” (Proverbs 6:19, compare Proverbs 6:14), lead us to identify the sketch as taken from the same character. With the recognized Hebrew form of climax (see Proverbs 30:15, Proverbs 30:18, Proverbs 30:24; Amos 1:1-15; Amos 2:0; Job 5:19), the teacher here enumerates six qualities as detestable, and the seventh as worse than all (seven represents completeness), but all the seven in this instance belong to one man, the man of Belial Proverbs 6:12. return to 'Top of Page'”

“Hate - Above many other sins which have a worse name in the world. Proverbs 6:18”

“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).”

“six: Pro 8:13, Pro 30:18, Pro 30:21, Pro 30:24, Pro 30:29; Amo 1:3, Amo 1:6, Amo 1:9, Amo 1:11, Amo 2:1, Amo 2:4, Amo 2:6 an: Pro 3:32, Pro 11:1, Pro 11:20, Pro 15:8, Pro 15:9, Pro 17:15, Pro 20:10, Pro 20:23; Deu 18:10-12, Deu 23:18, Deu 24:4; Deu 25:16; Rev 21:27 unto him: Heb. of his soul, Psa 11:5 Proverbs 6:17”

“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…”