Proverbs 4:24

Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) A froward mouth.—Heb. ‘iqqeshûth, literally, distortion, or twisting of the truth, not the same word as in Proverbs 2:12; Proverbs 2:14.

Perverse lips—i.e., that “turn aside” from the truth.

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 4:24-26. Put away a froward mouth — All sorts of sinful words, which proceed from, and discover an evil heart. Let thine eyes look right on — Let thine intention be pure: direct all thine actions to a right end, namely, the glory of God in thy eternal salvation, and keep thy mind fixed upon that way which leads to it, and neither look or turn aside to the right hand or to the left. Ponder the path of thy feet — Consider thy actions before thou doest them, and see that they agree with the rule. And let all thy ways be established — Or, directed, as יכונוmay be better rendered here. Or, thy ways shall be established. They shall be uniformly and constantly good, in spite of all temptations to the contrary. So this is a promise to confirm the foregoing precept. If thou dost ponder them thou mayest expect God’s blessing and good success in them. Shun all extremes, and neither add to God’s commands nor take from them.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:14-27 The way of evil men may seem pleasant, and the nearest way to compass some end; but it is an evil way, and will end ill; if thou love thy God and thy soul, avoid it. It is not said, Keep at a due distance, but at a great distance; never think you can get far enough from it. The way of the righteous is light; Christ is their Way, and he is the Light. The saints will not be perfect till they reach heaven, but there they shall shine as the sun in his strength. The way of sin is as darkness. The way of the wicked is dark, therefore dangerous; they fall into sin, but know not how to avoid it. They fall into trouble, but never seek to know wherefore God contends with them, nor what will be in the end of it. This is the way we are bid to shun. Attentive hearing the word of God, is a good sign of a work of grace begun in the heart, and a good means of carrying it on. There is in the word of God a proper remedy for all diseases of the soul. Keep thy heart with all diligence. We must set a strict guard upon our souls; keep our hearts from doing hurt, and getting hurt. A good reason is given; because out of it are the issues of life. Above all, we should seek from the Lord Jesus that living water, the sanctifying Spirit, issuing forth unto everlasting life. Thus we shall be enabled to put away a froward mouth and perverse lips; our eyes will be turned from beholding vanity, looking straight forward, and walking by the rule of God's word, treading in the steps of our Lord and Master. Lord, forgive the past, and enable us to follow thee more closely for the time to come.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Speech turned from its true purpose, the wandering eye that leads on to evil, action hasty and inconsiderate, are the natural results where we do not "above all keeping keep our heart" Proverbs 4:23.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. a froward mouth—that is, a mouth, or words of ill nature. The Hebrew word differs from that used (Pr 2:15; 3:32).

perverse—or, "quarreling."

lips—or, "words."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

All sorts of sinful words, which proceed from and discover an evil heart.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Put away from thee a froward mouth,.... A mouth speaking froward and perverse things; things contrary to right reason, to the law of God, and Gospel of Christ; blasphemies against God or men; every thing that is untrue, unchaste, unjust, foolish, and filthy; all swearing, lying, and everything that is repugnant to truth and justice. Some understand it of men that are liars, blasphemers, and froward persons, who are to be shunned and avoided, and to be debarred the houses and society of good men;

and perverse lips put far from thee; do not make use of them thyself, nor keep company with men of such a character. Much the same thing is meant as before.

Geneva Study Bible

Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - The following admonitions of this chapter bear reference to the outward conduct of life. They continue the subject of ver. 23 by showing how the guarding of the heart is to be done. There is the most; intimate connection between the heart as the fountain of the moral life and of the conduct of life, which, though determined by the condition of the heart, in its turn reacts upon the heart as the moral centre, and keeps it pure. Thus the subject is treated from its two sides. On vers. 24 and 25 Hitzig remarks that they "warn against an arbitrary perverting of the moral judgment into which evil passions so easily betray, and admonish not to give misdirection to thought within the department of morality." A froward mouth, and perverse lips; literally, perverseness of mouth and waywardness of lips (ikk'shuth peh vulzuth s'phathayim). "Perversity of mouth" is fraudulent, deceitful speech; that which twists, distorts, perverts, or misrepresents what is true, and hence falsehood (Proverbs 4:24; Proverbs 6:12; Proverbs 19:1). The σκολιὸν στόμα of the LXX., i.e. the "tortuous mouth," in a metaphorical sense. The phrase is very similar in meaning with the parallel "waywardness of lips," which means speech which turns aside from what is true and right, the noun lazuth being derived from lazah, or luz, "to bend aside." The tongue is the unruly member (James 3:2). Speech is the index of the mind (Lapide). Vigilance over the heart is vigilance over the mouth, inasmuch as "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Matthew 12:34). The admonition may have a twofold application, and may mean either do not indulge in this kind of speech yourself, exercise an unremitting jealousy over every propensity to it; or have no dealings with those who are guilty of it, as in Psalm 101:5. Proverbs 4:24

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The תּוצאות are the point of a thing, e.g., of a boundary, from which it goes forth, and the linear course proceeding from thence. If thus the author says that the תּוצאות חיּים go out from the heart,

(Note: The correct form here is כּי־ממּנּוּ, with the Makkeph to כי.)

he therewith implies that the life has not only its fountain in the heart, but also that the direction which it takes is determined by the heart. Physically considered, the heart is the receptacle for the blood, in which the soul lives and rules; the pitcher at the blood-fountain which draws it and pours it forth; the chief vessel of the physically self-subsisting blood-life from which it goes forth, and into which it disembogues (Syst. der bib. Psychol. p. 232). What is said of the heart in the lower sense of corporeal vitality, is true in the higher sense of the intellectual soul-life. The Scripture names the heart also as the intellectual soul-centre of man, in its concrete, central unity, its dynamic activity, and its ethical determination on all sides. All the radiations of corporeal and of soul life concentrate there, and again unfold themselves from thence; all that is implied in the Hellenic and Hellenistic words νοῦς, λόγος, συνείδησις, θυμός, lies in the word καρδία; and all whereby בּשׂר (the body) and נפשׁ (the spirit, anima) are affected comes in לב into the light of consciousness (Id. p. 251). The heart is the instrument of the thinking, willing, perceiving life of the spirit; it is the seat of the knowledge of self, of the knowledge of God, of the knowledge of our relation to God, and also of the law of God impressed on our moral nature; it is the workshop of our individual spiritual and ethical form of life brought about by self-activity - the life in its higher and in its lower sense goes out from it, and receives from it the impulse of the direction which it takes; and how earnestly, therefore, must we feel ourselves admonished, how sacredly bound to preserve the heart in purity (Psalm 73:1), so that from this spring of life may go forth not mere seeming life and a caricature of life, but a true life well-pleasing to God! How we have to carry into execution this careful guarding of the heart, is shown in Proverbs 4:24 and the golden rules which follow. Mouth and lips are meant (Proverbs 4:24) as instruments of speech, and not of its utterance, but of the speech going forth from them. עקּשׁוּת, distorsio, refers to the mouth (Proverbs 6:12), when what it speaks is disfiguring and deforming, thus falsehood as the contrast of truth and love (Proverbs 2:12); and to the lips לזוּת, when that which they speak turns aside from the true and the right to side-ways and by-ways. Since the Kametz of such abstracta, as well of verbs 'ו'ע like לזוּת, Ezekiel 32:5, as of verbs 'ה'ל like גּלוּת, Isaiah 45:13, חזוּת, Isaiah 28:18, is elsewhere treated as unalterable, there lies in this לזוּת either an inconsistency of punctuation, or it is presupposed that the form לזוּת was vocalized like שׁבוּת equals שׁבית, Numbers 21:29.