Sons of Belial

(Proverbs 16:27 KJV)  An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire.

If you have a background in the KJV you are familiar with this word “worthless” (1100) as a transliteration of the Hebrew.  It is usually accompanied by the words “sons” or “children” and you see “sons of Belial”.  The root meaning of the word is “good for nothing”.  Although there are no numbers or percentages given here the implication throughout Proverbs is that many good-for-nothings are running around loose.

The old “chicken or the egg” question comes up.  Are they worthless because they bring out evil or are they evil because they are worthless.  It really doesn’t make much difference.  We need to be aware that all men are not benevolent or simply mistaken.  We must make sure that we are not falling into this trap.

So?  Evil exists in greater numbers than we want to admit.  We are called to be righteous.  It makes for a world with a lot of tension.