Let's put that to the test:
’[Jehovah] has hated a divorcing.’ —
Malachi 2:16 (Bracket mine.)
"There are six things that Jehovah hates;
Yes, seven things that he detests:
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
A heart plotting wicked schemes, and feet that run quickly to evil,
A false witness who lies with every breath,
And anyone sowing contentions among brothers." —Proverbs 6:16-19
“Jehovah . . . hates anyone who loves violence.
”—
Psalm 11:5
What does Jehovah God hate?
I absolutely love your example, and it should display quite nicely how even you, yourself (the one doing all of this proclaiming that there is a "right" way to interpret these things) are engaged in entirely wrong ways of thinking.
Take "haughty eyes" as a first example. What are "haughty eyes?" In today's dictionary, "haughty" is defined as: disdainfully proud; snobbish; scornfully arrogant; supercilious. So, God doesn't like people whose eyes are "snobbish", right? Just their eyes? Or am I to interpret this not literally, but figuratively, to mean that God doesn't like people who look down on other people, or treat them without respect? Is that even right? "Haughty eyes" is a poetic way to state something - which is falling down immediately on the job of communicating succinct meaning and intent. This is why legal contracts would never, ever contain words like "haughty eyes."
Take "hands that shed innocent blood." So... he detests hands that shed blood of innocent people? What about hands that shed blood of guilty people? Are we to interpret that this is okay? It isn't mentioned. He specifically states that He detests "hands that shed innocent blood," and since "guilty blood" isn't mentioned, my first guess would be that He, at the very least, doesn't
detest that act. Maybe it is okay to shed guilty blood in some cases? Or maybe God even enjoys "hands that shed guilty blood?" In any case, it doesn't seem to be as bad as "hands that shed innocent blood," so maybe a gray area?
On to "a heart plotting wicked schemes." Does He only detest the heart? Or is that too literal? Does He actually detest the owner of the heart? And I suppose we should ask the question - can a heart (a bodily organ) even plot wicked schemes? I don't know... seems a little hard to imagine, doesn't it? But let's just say God meant He detests
people who plot wicked schemes. There's no mention of those who
carry out wicked schemes. What about anyone who only carries out the scheme for the naughty person who plotted it? If they didn't do any plotting of their own toward the ends of the scheme, are they okay? Not detested? Or still detested? The text doesn't really say, but maybe that's covered in the next one - "feet that run quickly to evil."
As for that one - does He only detest feet that run
"quickly" to evil, or does he also detest those feet that run
slowly to evil? How about those that run
hesitantly to evil? What about those that are already there, just
standing in evil? Does he hate those feet too? Wait... you mean they're not literally "feet" we're talking about here? We're back to people? So He detests people who have feet that run quickly to evil? And by "running to evil" are we talking about them running up to other people who are evil? What if they run to someone who is evil just to stop them from doing something evil... is that still detested? I mean... they were "running quickly to evil" in a way. Maybe it means that they have to be running quickly to do the evil themselves? Ah... maybe He means that He detests people who are prone to acting upon evil impulses without hesitation? But again... what if they
do hesitate? Is all forgiven?
How about "A false witness who lies with every breath?" Does it literally need to be every breath before God detests them? So, anyone who lies
every other breath is not detested? What about every 4th breath? Every tenth? What if it is only one per million breaths? And seriously now - how do I know it doesn't mean a "False witness" who is lying down while they breathe? I mean, it already mentions "false witness" and throwing "lying" in there just seems redundant. So maybe it really is that God detests people who falsely witness while lying down... so if you just stand up, you're not detested anymore!
Poetic wording necessarily leads to interpretation and "what it means to you" processing of information. It just does. And The Bible is poetically worded. Thank you for providing the perfect examples that work 100% in favor of my side of the argument. This same sort of thing can be done (and has been done, even by all sorts of Christians) with most of the writing in The Bible.