This verse sits inside the portrait of the man who sows discord, Proverbs 6:12–15.
Quick answer
Three gestures, no words. The verse catches him signaling, which is how this kind of damage usually gets done.
Read the whole unit
Four verses sketching a single figure, and the sketch is built almost entirely out of body language. He walks with a crooked mouth. He winks. He scrapes his feet, points with his fingers. The portrait works the way a good caricature works, by watching a person's habits instead of listing his beliefs, and by the end it has moved inward: perversity in his heart, evil devised continually, and then the last item, which is what he actually produces. He sows discord.
That final line is not a flourish. It is a hinge. Three of this passage's words reappear immediately in the list of what the LORD hates: the term rendered "wicked" in verse 12 shows up as "wicked plans" in verse 18, the verb behind "devises" in verse 14 is the same verb in verse 18, and "sows discord" in verse 14 is repeated almost exactly in verse 19, where it is the seventh and final abomination. The two passages are not neighbors by accident. The list that follows is an anatomy of the man just described.
The posture rule applies hard here, so it is worth being direct. This portrait is not a screening tool. It has been used as one, in churches especially, where a passage about a man who wrecks community becomes a way of deciding which member is the problem, which is itself an efficient way of sowing discord. The figure is a mirror. Proverbs is asking whether these habits are yours, and the four verses give no one permission to run the checklist on anybody else.
The closing verse says his collapse is sudden and without remedy, and that language deserves care too. Proverbs is describing how this way of living tends to end, not announcing a sentence on a person. The book's consistent account of consequence is that it grows out of the conduct itself under God's government, which is a different thing from a verdict handed down against a name.
What this verse contributes
This verse is a study in communication that leaves no record. The NKJV footnotes the middle gesture helpfully: he gives signals, literally scrapes. What the three motions have in common is deniability. A wink can be explained away, a gesture can be denied, and none of it can be quoted back to him later. The portrait is sharper for staying physical. This is a man conducting an entire second conversation underneath the visible one, and everyone in the room can feel it happening while nobody can point to a sentence.
Related: Proverbs 10:10 · Proverbs 16:30
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.