Bible Strands
Proverbs 10:2
Ill-gotten treasures profit nothing, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Solomon addresses his son in a collection of wisdom proverbs that contrasts the practical outcomes of righteous and foolish conduct.
The words — אוֹצְר֣וֹת ('otz.Rot) means "treasures" and רֶ֑שַׁע (Re.sha') means "wickedness," forming the Hebrew phrase for ill-gotten wealth.
The thread — This exact contrast runs through Proverbs 11:4, which notes riches fail in the day of wrath while righteousness delivers, and Proverbs 21:6, which calls wealth gained by a lying tongue a deadly pursuit.
Why it lands — The text states that unjust wealth provides no lasting benefit and commands the reader to pursue righteousness as the only reliable safeguard against death.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 11:4 Riches are worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.
- Proverbs 12:28 There is life in the path of righteousness, but another path leads to death.
- Proverbs 21:6 Making a fortune by a lying tongue is a vanishing mist, a deadly pursuit.
- Psalms 49:6 They trust in their wealth and boast in their great riches.
- Ezekiel 7:19 They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will seem unclean. Their silver and gold cannot save them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. They cannot satisfy their appetites or fill their stomachs with wealth, for it became the stumbling block that brought their iniquity.
- Zephaniah 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the Day of the LORD’s wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of His jealousy.” For indeed, He will make a sudden end of all who dwell on the earth.
- Romans 5:21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Isaiah 10:2 to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.
- Daniel 4:27 Therefore, may my advice be pleasing to you, O king. Break away from your sins by doing what is right, and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed. Perhaps there will be an extension of your prosperity.”
- Luke 16:22 One day the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man also died and was buried.