Proverbs 6
v.3
then do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: Go and humble yourself; press your plea with your neighbor!
v.9-11
How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? 10A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—11and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.
v.16
There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him:
Verse 16 uses what is known as a numerical ladder, paralleling “six things” with “seven things” (see also 30:15, 18, 21, 24, 29; Job 5:19; Ecc 11:2; Am 1:6, 9, 13; 2:1, 4, 6; Mic 5:5). The point of such a poetic arrangement is that the present enumeration does not exhaust the list.
There is something of a contrasting parallel arrangement with the Beatitudes in Mt 5, which has seven blessed things to answer these seven hated things; moreover, the first beatitude (“Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Mt 5:5) contrasts with the first hated thing (“haughty eyes,” v.17; i.e., “a proud look”) and the seventh (“peacemakers,” Mt 5:9) with the seventh abomination (“stirs up dissension,” v.19).
v.17
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
The first in the list, “haughty eyes,” refers to a proud look suggesting arrogant ambition. This term “high” is similarly used in Nu 15:30 for the sin of the hand hand, i.e., willful rebellion or defiant sin. Usage of “haughty eyes” in the OT is telling: it describes the pompous Assyrian invader in Isa 10:12-14 as well as the proud king in Da 11:12 (NIV, “pride”). God will not tolerate anyone who things so highly of oneself (see Pr 21:4; Isa 2:11-17).
The second description, is “a lying tongue.” The term is used in Jer 14:14 to portray false prophets who deceive people and in Ps 109:2 to describe the deceiver who betrays—a passage that the disciples applied to Judas in Ac 1:20. Deception in speech is harmful (Pr 26:28), but in the end truth will prevail (Pr 12:19).
The third description focuses on hands as the instruments as murder. Genesis 9:6 prohibited shedding human blood because people are made in the image of God—no matter what one might think of them. But shedding “innocent blood” was an even greater crime. King Manasseh had filled the streets with innocent blood (2Ki 21:16; 24:4). Princes did it for gain according to Ezekiel (22:27). Even King David was prohibited from building the temple because he had shed much blood (1Ch 22:8).
v.19
a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
“Dissension” (GK 4506) is attributed in Proverbs to contentious, quarreling people (21:9; 26:21; 25:24) who have a short fuse (15:18). Paul, on the other hand, warns against envy, malice, and strife (1 Ti 6:4). These things, then, God will not tolerate. If he hates these things, then conversely he must love and desire (1) humility, (2) truthful speech, (3) preservation of life, (4) pure thoughts, (5) the eagerness to do good things, (6) honest witnesses, and (7) peaceful harmony.
v.23-24
For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life, 24keeping you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife.
The motivation for keeping these commands is that they will bring protection from the adulteress.