Bird's-eye view
This verse is a masterful piece of antithetical parallelism, setting up a stark and absolute contrast that runs through all of Scripture. It is not a contrast between mostly good people and really bad people. It is a fundamental division of all humanity into two distinct categories, defined by their internal character and God's resultant disposition toward them. On one side are those with a "crooked heart," whose inner being is twisted and perverse; God's reaction to them is not mere disapproval but abomination, a term of ultimate revulsion. On the other side are those of a "blameless way," whose life is characterized by integrity and wholeness; God's reaction to them is not mere approval but delight, a term of deep, personal pleasure. This proverb forces us to see that God is not neutral. The orientation of the human heart is the issue, and He responds to it with either holy loathing or holy love.
Outline
- 1. The Great Antithesis (Prov 11:20)
- a. The Object of Divine Loathing: The Crooked Heart (v. 20a)
- b. The Object of Divine Delight: The Blameless Way (v. 20b)
Context In Proverbs
Proverbs is built on the foundation of the great antithesis: the way of the wise versus the way of the fool, the path of the righteous versus the path of the wicked. This verse distills that overarching theme into a single, potent statement. It moves beyond mere descriptions of behavior (e.g., the lazy vs. the diligent, the scoffer vs. the teachable) to the very source of that behavior: the heart. Throughout chapters 10-15, Solomon lays out a series of these contrasts, showing how righteousness leads to life and blessing, while wickedness leads to ruin and judgment. Verse 20 is a theological anchor for this section, reminding the reader that the consequences of wisdom and folly are not arbitrary. They are rooted in the very character of God, who personally and passionately hates evil and loves righteousness.
Key Issues
- The Heart as the Source of Life
- The Meaning of Divine "Abomination"
- The Nature of Blamelessness
- God's Personal Delight in His People
- The Antithesis Between the Righteous and the Wicked
The Two Dispositions
We live in an age that wants to flatten all distinctions. Our culture, and too often the church within it, wants to believe that God is a sort of benevolent, grandfatherly type who is vaguely fond of everyone in a general sort of way. We are told not to be "judgmental," which usually means we are not to draw any sharp moral lines at all. This proverb is a bucket of ice water in the face of such sentimentalism. It tells us that the living God has two, and only two, fundamental dispositions toward mankind. He regards some as an abomination, and He regards others as His delight. There is no middle ground, no neutral territory. The determining factor is not our resume of good deeds or bad deeds, but rather the fundamental orientation of our heart, which then gives rise to our "way" or manner of life.
Verse by Verse Commentary
20 Those with a crooked heart are an abomination to Yahweh...
The verse begins with the character of the wicked. They are defined by their "crooked heart." The Hebrew word for crooked, iqqesh, means twisted, distorted, perverse. This is not a description of someone who occasionally makes a mistake or has a bad day. This describes a fundamental misalignment of the soul. The heart, in biblical thought, is the wellspring of life; it is the seat of our intellect, will, and emotions. A crooked heart, therefore, means that the very core of the person is bent out of shape. It is a heart that does not align with reality as God has defined it. It calls evil good and good evil. It is a heart that is, at its root, deceitful.
And God's response to this condition is absolute. Such a person is an abomination to Yahweh. The Hebrew word is toebah, and it is one of the strongest biblical terms for revulsion. It is the word used to describe idolatry, homosexual practice, and child sacrifice. It signifies a deep, visceral, holy disgust. God does not simply dislike a crooked heart; He loathes it. He finds it utterly detestable. This is because a crooked heart is an idolatrous heart. It has twisted itself away from the worship of the true God to the worship of a false god, which is almost always the self. This is the natural state of every human heart since the Fall.
...But those of a blameless way are His delight.
The "but" pivots to the glorious contrast. The righteous are described as having a "blameless way." The Hebrew for blameless is tamim, which means whole, complete, sound, or having integrity. It is the word used to describe an unblemished sacrificial animal. It does not mean sinless perfection. No man, apart from Christ, is sinless. Rather, it describes a person whose life, their "way" (derek), is characterized by wholeness and integrity. They are not two-faced. Their inner life and their outer walk are integrated. What they profess with their lips, they pursue with their feet. There is a straightness, a soundness, to their character.
And God's response to this person is just as personal and passionate as His loathing for the crooked. They are His delight. The word is rason, meaning His good pleasure, His favor, His acceptance. Where God finds the crooked heart disgusting, He finds the heart of integrity to be a source of joy. He takes pleasure in the person whose way is blameless. This is the affection of a loving Father, not the impersonal approval of a distant deity. It is the pleasure that the Father has always had in His Son, the only one with a truly and perfectly blameless way, a pleasure that is extended to all who are found in Him.
Application
The first and most obvious application is that we must all ask which of these two categories describes us. There is no third option. Is the fundamental orientation of my heart crooked, bent toward self and sin? Or is my way, by the grace of God, one of integrity?
But as soon as we ask that question honestly, we are driven to the gospel. Jeremiah tells us that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick" (Jer. 17:9). Our natural condition is that of the crooked heart. We cannot straighten ourselves out. No amount of rule-keeping or self-improvement can fix a crooked heart. A crooked thing needs to be made new. This is precisely what God promises in the new covenant: "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezek. 36:26).
The only man who was ever truly of a "blameless way" is the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is the Father's ultimate delight, in whom He is well pleased. Our only hope is to be united to Him by faith. In Christ, our crookedness is nailed to His cross, and His blamelessness is credited to our account. God looks upon us, and for the sake of His Son, He calls us His delight. The Christian life, then, is the process of learning to walk in a way that is consistent with the new heart we have been given. We pursue integrity not in order to win God's favor, but because, in Christ, we already have it. We strive to be a delight to our Father because He has already, for Christ's sake, declared us to be His delight.