Proverbs 6:13 - Exposition

He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers. He employs his other members for the same nefarious purpose. In the language of St. Paul, he yields his members to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity ( Romans 6:19 ). "To wink with the eye ( karats ayin ) , " as in Proverbs 10:10 and Psalms 35:19 , or "with the eyes ( karats b'eynayim )," is properly to compress or nip them together, and so to wink, and give the signal to others not to interfere (Gesenius and Delitzsch); cf. the LXX ; ἐννεύει ὀφθαλμῷ ; and the Vulgate, annuit oculis. Aquila and Theodoret, however, read, κνίζει , "he vexes or annoys. " The observation of the teacher in Proverbs 10:10 is, "He that winketh with his eyes causeth sorrow." The same verb karuts is also used of the compression or closing of the lips in Proverbs 16:30 . He speaketh with his feet ; i.e. he conveys signs by them to his companion; cf. the LXX ; σημαίνει δὲ ποδὶ , and the Vulgate, terit pede, which conveys much the same meaning. He teacheth with his fingers ; or, as more fully expressed in the LXX ; διδάσκει δὲ ἐννεύμασι δακτύλων , "he teacheth by the signs of his fingers." Symmachus has δακτυλοδεικτῶν , which, however, in its strictly classical use is pointing at with the finger. "Teaching" is only the secondary meaning of the Hebrew participle moreh, which is here used. The verb yarah, to which it belongs, means properly to extend or stretch out the hand for the purpose of pointing out the way (compare the Hebrew shalakh yod, and the Latin monstrare ) , and hence came to mean "to teach." The crafty and deceitful character which is here presented to as is strikingly reproduced in Ecclesiasticus: "He that winketh with the eyes worketh evil: and he that knoweth him will depart from him. When thou art present, he will speak sweetly, and will admire thy words: but at the last he will writhe his mouth, and slander thy sayings. I have hated many things, but nothing like him; for the Lord will hate him" (Ec 27:22-24). The heathen poet Naevius says of the impudent woman—

" Allium tenet, alii adnutat, alibi manus

Est occupata: est alii percellit pedem. "

Compare also Ovid's words ('Amor.,' 1.4, 16)—

" Clam mihi tange pedem:

Me specta, mutusque meos, vultumque loquacem …

Verba superciliis sine voce loquentia dicam;

Verba leges digitis ."

So Tibullus, 1.12—

"Illa viro coram nutus conferre loquaces

Blandaque compositis abdere verba notis."

The lesson which we may learn from this verse is not to abuse the members of our bodies, by employing them for the purposes of deceit and hypocrisy, and so to promote evil, but to put them to their natural and legitimate use.