The Seventh

   There are six things which the LORD hates, 
   Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him....
   --Proverbs 6:16

This verse introduces a list of seven things that the Lord hates. We should perk up and give attention to this list. If God ‘hates’ a specific action, we should avoid it at all cost. If God ‘hates’ a specific kind of person, we should do everything within our power to keep from becoming that kind of person.

Abomination...
'Abomination' is stronger than 'hate.'
Question: Is the use of the word hate followed by abomination simply a poetic device or is there something more?

If the ‘number’ had not changed, that would be an easy explanation. But the number did change, from six to seven: Six things hated, seven an abomination.

   There are six things which the LORD hates, 
   Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:
      Haughty eyes,
      A lying tongue,
      And hands that shed innocent blood,
      A heart that devises wicked plans,
      Feet that run rapidly to evil,
      A false witness who utters lies,
      And one who spreads strife among brothers.
                                                               --Proverbs 6:16-19


Recent Hebrew scholarship suggests that the change in number, from six to seven, along with the more intense wording (abomination) in the second half of verse sixteen is a way of emphasizing the last item in the list. Accepting this idea, the overall sense of the verse would be:

   There are six things which the Lord hates, 
   but a seventh is an abomination to Him.

So, the seventh item in the list stands out as something that is hated by God above all the other things that He hates. We might say that it is at the top of His list of 'Things Hated.'

Read the entire list.
Think about the things that God hates.
Look carefully at the seventh!

Of all the things that God hates; among pride, lying, murder, and an evil heart; more than anything else, a person “who spreads strife among brothers” is an abomination to God.

Do your actions and your speech promote peace and unity among your fellow Christians, or are you promoting something else?