Skip the Pastry

(Proverbs 19:28 KJV)  An ungodly witness scorneth judgment: and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity.

I was struck by the different words used in the KJV and NASB in the second half of this verse.  Actually it was one Hebrew word.  If the NASB did not have a marginal reading that said “literally swallows” I would wonder if they had done their homework.  The NASB has the “wicked” (7563) spreading “iniquity” (205).  This is the only place that it is translated that way.  The most common translation is “swallow”, so the KJV gets it right.

It makes a difference.  The point is that the evil people of the world consume and add to their wickedness.  They seek it out.  We would look at pornography as a sample.  It always amazes me how often we take the epidemic of porn consumption and talk about how even Christians are hooked on the stuff.  I am not sure that is how God sees it.  I think He tends to look at it more as the wicked devouring iniquity.  They don’t just give it out, they take it in.

So?  Pornography is just an obvious example.  There are many sources of evil around us.  They are always tempting.  We are like diabetics in a bakery.  There is whole wheat bread for sale but our eyes and nose are only aware of the temptations.  Beware.