Bible Strands
Proverbs 12:5
The plans of the righteous are just, but the counsel of the wicked leads to deceit.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The author addresses a student within a wisdom discourse that immediately follows a warning about marital character and precedes a warning about violent speech.
The words — מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) means justice, and מִרְמָה (mirmah) means deceit. The Hebrew juxtaposes the structural integrity of righteous plans with the hidden fraud of wicked counsel.
The thread — Isaiah 55:7 links wicked thoughts to a direct command to abandon them, and Psalm 41:6 tracks how slander is gathered in the heart before being voiced.
Why it lands — The text demands careful examination of one’s own intentions before they become actions. It requires readers to reject hidden fraud in favor of transparent, just decision-making.
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
The thoughts of the righteous are right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit.
Cross-references
- Psalms 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.
- Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.
- Psalms 41:6 My visitor speaks falsehood; he gathers slander in his heart; he goes out and spreads it abroad.
- Psalms 140:1 For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men. Protect me from men of violence,
- Jeremiah 4:14 Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you?
- Psalms 12:2 They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.
- Psalms 36:2 For his eyes are too full of conceit to detect or hate his own sin.
- Psalms 119:15 I will meditate on Your precepts and regard Your ways.
- Proverbs 11:23 The desire of the righteous leads only to good, but the hope of the wicked brings wrath.
- Proverbs 24:9 A foolish scheme is sin, and a mocker is detestable to men.