Proverbs 24:2

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

For their hearts plot violence, And their lips talk about mischief.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Download a study sheet

One document with this verse’s original text, its word-by-word gloss line, the meaning frame, cross-references with their text, attributed commentary, and full source and license credits — printable, and it pastes into notes with its structure intact.

This verse Autodidact and up

Study sheet (.html) Plain text (.txt)

A passage Seminary Student

Up to 50 verses in one chapter. A passage sheet keeps up to 6 commentary sources and 12 cross-references per verse, in the order this page ranks them, and says so on the sheet whenever that leaves anything out. Ask for a single verse and you get the Autodidact verse sheet above.

Everything on this page stays free to read, with no account — the sheet is a download of what is already on screen, not access to it.

Want to remove ads? Support Godless Engineer

Word by word

More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →

Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →

שֹׁ֭ד

shôd

H7701

“violence”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 25× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Job 5:21

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H7736

TWOT: 2331a

havoc, violence, destruction, devastation, ruin - violence, havoc (as social sin) - devastation, ruin

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

7: words
7: distinct lemmas
Wisdom: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is שֹׁ֭ד violence H7701 — appearing just 25 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

שֹׁ֭ד violence H7701 occurs in 24 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
4 nouns
1 conjunction

Verb forms

יֶהְגֶּ֣ה Qal · Imperfect
תְּדַבֵּֽרְנָה Piel · Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 11 words from the Hebrew and 10 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 7 Hebrew tokens and 12 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Proverbs 24:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Psalms 7:14 Behold, he travails with iniquity; Yes, he has conceived mischief, And brought forth falsehood.
Psalms 10:7 His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and oppression. Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.
Psalms 28:3 Don't draw me away with the wicked, With the workers of iniquity who speak peace with their neighbors, But mischief is in their hearts.
Job 15:35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit."
Isaiah 59:4 None sues in righteousness, and none pleads in truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
1 Samuel 23:9 David knew that Saul was devising mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring here the ephod.
Acts 13:10 and said, "Full of all deceit and all cunning, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
Esther 3:6–7 But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai alone; for they had made known to him the people of Mordecai: therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.

Psalms 36:4 He plots iniquity on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good; He doesn't abhor evil.
Psalms 64:4–6 To shoot innocent men from ambushes. They shoot at him suddenly and fearlessly.
Psalms 140:2 Those who devise mischief in their hearts. They continually gather themselves together for war.
Proverbs 6:14 In whose heart is perverseness, Who devises evil continually, Who always sows discord.
Micah 7:3 Their hands are on that which is evil to do it diligently. The ruler and judge ask for a bribe; And the powerful man dictates the evil desire of his soul. Thus they conspire together.
Matthew 26:3–4 Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas.
Luke 23:20–21 Then Pilate spoke to them again, wanting to release Jesus,
Proverbs 24:8 One who plots to do evil Will be called a schemer.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Proverbs 24:2 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

כִּי שֹׁ֭ד יֶהְגֶּ֣ה לִבָּ֑ם וְ֝עָמָ֗ל שִׂפְתֵיהֶ֥ם תְּדַבֵּֽרְנָה

For their hearts plot violence, And their lips talk about mischief.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Proverbs 24:2 Septuagint · lemma form

ψευδής γάρ μελετάω ὁ καρδία αὐτός καί πόνος ὁ χεῖλος αὐτός λαλέω

For their heart meditates falsehoods, and their lips speak mischiefs.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, The Pulpit Commentary discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Proverbs 24:2 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Pro 24:2 For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief.

Ver. 2. For their heart studieth destruction.] Great students they are; wittily wicked; but they consult shame and confusion to them and theirs.

And their lips talk of mischief.] The mischief that they machinate budgeth and blistereth out at their tongues’ ends. They are even big with it, and not well till delivered.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

studieth--meditateth.

talk . . . mischief--Their expressed purposes are to do evil.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

2. destruction] Better, violence, or, oppression. Comp. Pro_21:7, where the same Heb. word is rendered robbery, A.V., and violence, R.V.

These Pro_24:1-2, as compared with Pro_3:31-32, and Pro_23:17-18, are an example of the repetition in this Book of the same injunction, supported by a different reason.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

For their heart studieth destruction,.... To others; to good men, that separate from them, and reprove them, or are in their way; or any ways hinder them in the prosecution of their wicked designs; as Haman's heart studied the destruction of the Jews: or their hearts study to draw men into their destructive methods of living, and therefore should be shunned and avoided. Moreover, their hearts study destruction to themselves; they study what they shall eat and drink, which they pursue to intemperance; and how they shall compass their lewd designs, and which issue in their ruin; destruction and misery are in all the ways they devise and walk in;

and their lips talk of mischief; which they study in their hearts against others; as are their hearts, so are their lips; out of the abundance of the wickedness of their hearts their mouths speak mischievous things; and which, though they design for others, oftentimes fall upon themselves.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Studieth destruction; how they may oppress and destroy others, which yet at last falls upon their own heads.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

For their heart studieth destruction. The grounds of the warning arc here given, as in Pro_1:15. "Destruction" (shod); Vulgate, rapinas, "violence" of all kinds, e.g. robbery, murder. Their lips talk of mischief; utter lies and slanders which may injure other people or bring themselves profit. Admiration of such men and intercourse with them must be repugnant to every religious soul. The LXX refers the verse to evil imaginations issuing in evil talk; "For their heart meditates falsehoods, and their lips speak mischiefs (ponouv )."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Destruction - How they may oppress and destroy others.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Kretzmann's Popular Commentary

Paul E. Kretzmann

v. 2. For their heart studieth destruction, they are constantly meditating upon oppression and violence, and their lips talk of mischief, their expressed purpose being to harm others.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Proverbs, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 7 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is shôd (“violence”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “violence” (shôd) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Job 5:21, which shares the word «violence», read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«יֶהְגֶּ֣ה» is a Qal Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 7 Hebrew ↔ 12 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 12 words in this verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.