This verse opens the king run, Proverbs 16:10–15, which sets royal power under the LORD of the preceding nine verses.
Quick answer
A king's ruling lands with the weight of an oracle, so his mouth carries an obligation to match: it must not betray justice.
Read both lines
"Divination" is a startling word doing deliberate work: when the king speaks a verdict, it settles things the way an oracle settles things; there is no court above his. The first line is about weight, not the occult. The second answers with an obligation sized to the power: precisely because his mouth functions with finality, it must not transgress. The run describes the king as he ought to be, and Israel's kings fell short often enough to make the reader ache for one who would not. Placed after 16:9, the sequence is pointed: the king who directs a nation's steps has his own steps directed by the LORD.
Related: Proverbs 16:12–13 · 1 Kings 3:28 · Proverbs 29:4
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.