Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Proverbs 6:16 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 16. 16These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse opens with “These six things doth the LORD hate” and develops the line through “yea, seven are an abomination unto him”.
Read It With
- Proverbs 6:16–19
Proverbs 6:16–19 is the required frame for Proverbs 6:16. Here the saying opens with “These six things doth the LORD hate” and develops the line through “yea, seven are an abomination unto him”; its collection setting controls whether the words describe a pattern, warning, invitation, or bounded command.
Why This Verse Appears Here
At verse 6:16, Proverbs opens with “These six things doth the LORD hate” and develops the line through “yea, seven are an abomination unto him”. The line belongs to “Seven practices the LORD hates” and remains governed by the unit's source limits and misuse boundaries.
Follow the Context
- Opening (6:16): the unit opens with “These six things doth the LORD hate” and develops the line through “yea, seven are an abomination unto him”.
- Development (6:16–19): adjacent lines test speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence, truthful testimony, honest measures, and integrity, violence, predation, conflict, and protection through parallelism, contrast, motive, image, or consequence.
- Close (6:19): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren”, creating the next supported pause.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an...”
In plain language: reverent accountability before the LORD
This verse opens with “These six things doth the LORD hate” and develops the line through “yea, seven are an abomination unto him”.
Why it matters: This wording carries interpretive, pastoral, or misuse risk requiring the full unit and explicit limits.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
The list does not authorize hatred of persons, a closed catalog of wrongdoing, or using one item to excuse another.
What Remains True
Wisdom begins with reverent accountability to the LORD and refuses to make human insight self-sufficient. In Proverbs 6:16, that bounded truth is expressed through “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an...,” not through a promise detached from its literary form.
How It Can Shape Life
- Bring the decision under truthful worship, moral accountability, and correction rather than using religious language to shield preference or power. For Proverbs 6:16, preserve the sequence: verse role (opens with “These six things doth the LORD hate” and develops the line through “yea, seven are an abomination unto him”) -> contextual meaning in Proverbs 6:16–19 -> proportionate truth -> this accountable response.
Teach It Back
Explain Proverbs 6:16's exact role in Proverbs 6:16–19. Distinguish pattern from guarantee, include “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea,...,” name one uncertainty, and explicitly reject one harmful use.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Proverbs 6:16–19 — Seven practices the LORD hatesSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The numerical form ‘six ... yea, seven’ intensifies and completes a list; it is not a ranking of all possible sins.
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 6:16–19, 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 6:16-6:19
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Proverbs with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-attached textual, lexical, grammatical, syntactic, parallelism, and older-English controls for the exact range.
Exact location: NET Bible Proverbs PDF, printed pp. 1093-1096, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 6:16–19
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
Proverbs
K. T. Aitken
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001
Supports: Whole-book and collection orientation, local commentary, social-setting proposals, and named interpretation limits.
Exact location: Aitken, ‘Proverbs,’ Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 405-422, subsection covering 6:16–19 and the Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly outline
Open source ↗peer reviewed journal article
Wisdom and Folly in the city: exploring urban contexts in the book of Proverbs
Katharine J. Dell
Scottish Journal of Theology 69.4, 2016
Supports: One tested account of urban imagery and continuity across the book without inferring one composition setting.
Exact location: Dell, ‘Wisdom and Folly in the city,’ SJT 69.4 (2016), pp. 389-401, sections on maxims, social indicators, Proverbs 1-9, and conclusion relevant to Proverbs 6:16–19
Open source ↗