Verse Lens · Context pointer
Proverbs 12:20 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 20. 20Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the counsellors of peace is joy.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
This verse uses contrastive parallelism to place “Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil” against “to the counsellors of peace is joy”.
Read It With
- Proverbs 12:17–22
Read Proverbs 12:20 with 12:17–22. Read alone, “Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the…” could turn a compressed observation, warning, comparison, or command into a guarantee or complete policy. The full unit establishes: uses contrastive parallelism to place “He that speaketh truth sheweth forth righteousness” against “a false witness deceit”; by 12:22, it uses contrastive parallelism to place “Lying lips are abomination to the LORD” against “they that deal truly are his delight”. Together the unit concentrates on speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence, truthful testimony, honest measures, and integrity, justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation within “First Solomonic sentence-saying collection.”
Why It Needs Context
Read this role inside the complete unit: the verse uses contrastive parallelism to place “Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil” against “to the counsellors of peace is joy”. It does not carry a responsible standalone mandate apart from Proverbs 12:17–22.
Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read Proverbs 12:17–22 — Speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence — He that speaketh truth sheweth forth righteousness: but a…Sources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? probable
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, canonical order, paragraph flags, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: Proverbs 12:17–22, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Proverbs
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology used only for the exact unit's lexical, grammatical, parallel, superscription, number-saying, and acrostic questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Prov.xml, OSIS 12:17-12:22
Open source ↗