Verse 8 returns to some of the concerns of verse 1. Evil men meditate on violence (v. 1), and they also calculate, plot, and deliberately work out how to do evil (v. 8). This, again, is not simple foolishness or naïvete. This is deliberate, planned evil. In some passages the word can refer to artistry, the artistry of those who make the furnishings of the temple and tabernacle (Exodus 26:1; 31:4; 2 Chronicles 26:14). What the Proverb envisions is an artisan of evil, not someone who stumbles into evil.

The one who works out evil with artistry will be called a “baal of counsel.” The word “baal” can mean lord, owner, master, or husband, but the word is also used, of course, as a title or name for one of the main rivals to Yahweh. The Proverb associates the plotter of evil with the false God Baal. A man who plots evil gains a reputation for being a master of evil scheming. He is like Satan, a crafty tempter.

Verse 9 can stand on its own, but the word for “devising” (NASB) is from the same root as “schemer” at the end of verse 8. This hook word links the two verses into a pair. In verse 9, the scheme is not to do evil but to do folly. What is identified as sin here is not folly as such, but the deliberate planning of folly – thinking through and executing a foolish scheme is sin. The word “folly” is very common in the Proverbs, and is sometimes played off the similar word for “pre-eminence” (cf. 14:24). Among other follies, the schemer schemes his own pre-eminence and power.

The second clause of verse 9 introduces the scoffer, a familiar character in the Proverbs. The chiastic structure of the verse links the scoffer with the schemer of evil:

Devising of folly

Is sin

And abomination to men

The scoffer.

Scoffers mock and belittle wisdom and righteousness, and this belittling mockery is always at work in people who devise or plan out folly.