Eloquent lips covering a wicked heart resemble cheap clay glazed with silver dross.
The image painted in Proverbs 26:23 pictures hot speech glazed over a wicked heart as a counterfeit: Like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross are burning lips and a wicked heart (v. 23).
The picture is of cheap clay covered with a thin layer of impure silver: An earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross. From a distance the vessel looks valuable. Up close, the coating is poor and the substance underneath is common.
Burning lips are passionate, eloquent, persuasive lips. They sound generous, loving, devoted. The wicked heart underneath uses the eloquent speech as a coating that conceals what is actually inside. The verse names a kind of person whose speech does not match his interior, and whose verbal warmth masks calculations the listener cannot see. Compare Matthew 7:15, "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing."
Proverbs 26:23
23 Like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross
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Proverbs 26:23 meaning
The image painted in Proverbs 26:23 pictures hot speech glazed over a wicked heart as a counterfeit: Like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross are burning lips and a wicked heart (v. 23).
The picture is of cheap clay covered with a thin layer of impure silver: An earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross. From a distance the vessel looks valuable. Up close, the coating is poor and the substance underneath is common.
Burning lips are passionate, eloquent, persuasive lips. They sound generous, loving, devoted. The wicked heart underneath uses the eloquent speech as a coating that conceals what is actually inside. The verse names a kind of person whose speech does not match his interior, and whose verbal warmth masks calculations the listener cannot see. Compare Matthew 7:15, "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing."