Proverbs 6:16 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

These six things doth the Lord hate... — Rather, six are the things which He hateth. It is a sort of climax: — He hates six things, but the seventh worse than all. This numerical form of proverb, to which the name of middah is given by later writers, is found also in Proverbs 30:15-16; Proverbs 30:18-19; Proverbs 30:21-23; Proverbs 30:29-31; Job 5:19; Amos 1:3 - Amos 2:1; Sir. 23:16; Sir. 25:7; Sir. 26:5; Sir. 26:28; and in all these instances the number first named is increased afterwards by one. This peculiarity is absent from the instances occurring in Proverbs 30:7-9; Proverbs 30:24-28; Sir. 25:1-2.