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26 The appetite of workers works for them,
    for their mouths urge them on.[a](A)
27 Scoundrels are a furnace of evil,
    and their lips are like a scorching fire.
28 Perverse speech sows discord,
    and talebearing separates bosom friends.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 16:26 The adage puzzled ancient and modern commentators. The meaning seems to state the paradox that a person does not toil to feed the gullet but that the gullet itself “toils” in the sense that it forces the person to work. As often in Proverbs, the sense organ stands for the faculty by metonymy. Cf. Eccl 6:7.

26 The appetite of laborers works for them;
    their hunger drives them on.

27 A scoundrel(A) plots evil,
    and on their lips it is like a scorching fire.(B)

28 A perverse person stirs up conflict,(C)
    and a gossip separates close friends.(D)

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