Proverbs 6:16 · World English Bible
Proverbs 6:16 Meaning There Are Six Things Which Yahweh Hates
There are six things which Yahweh hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him:
What does Proverbs 6:16 mean?
Read within, the hatred here is not a mood in God but the mind's own recoil from what love cannot contain. What is about to be counted are not sins to be punished but forms of the single error, separation wearing many faces, each called abomination because none can survive in the presence of the truth about a brother.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
Proverbs 6:16 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
Read within, the hatred here is not a mood in God but the mind's own recoil from what love cannot contain. What is about to be counted are not sins to be punished but forms of the single error, separation wearing many faces, each called abomination because none can survive in the presence of the truth about a brother.
There is no wrath waiting behind the words, only the plain fact that fear and love cannot occupy the same mind at once. To bring these forms into the light already loosens their hold, for they vanish wherever love is welcomed in their place.
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Live Proverbs 6:16 today
- Write down, or just say to yourself, the handful of things you cannot stand in other people. See how often it is the same thing wearing different clothes.
- With one person today, choose warmth over being right. You will feel the moment the choice is in front of you, and it is usually about two seconds long.
- When you are angry at someone and the list of their offenses starts arriving, stop at the first item. That one is the whole of it, and the list is only fear filling in detail.
What is the one thing underneath everything I say I cannot stand?
The same truth in other traditions
Tao Te Ching
It says that the more rules and prohibitions are piled up, the more trouble there seems to be. What looks like a list of offenses is usually one thing seen from many sides.
Buddhism
Fear and loving kindness cannot fill the same mind at the same moment. This is not a punishment, just how a mind works, and it is why the practice is simply to let the kindness in.
Judaism · Hillel
Asked for the whole teaching while standing on one foot, he said do not do to another what you would hate done to you, and called the rest commentary. One error, many names.
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