Bible Strands
Proverbs 16:8
Better a little with righteousness than great gain with injustice.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The wisdom writer addresses the audience of Proverbs, positioning the verse between a promise of God-brokered peace with enemies and a statement that God ultimately determines human steps.
The words — The Hebrew צְדָקָה (tz.da.Kah) literally means righteousness, and מִשְׁפָּט (mish.Pat) denotes justice, establishing the verse’s core contrast as a moral accounting rather than a financial one.
The thread — The same valuation appears in Proverbs 15:16, Psalms 37:16, and 1 Timothy 6:6, which each subordinate material accumulation to reverence for God or godly contentment.
Why it lands — The text explicitly commands preferring a small, ethically sound provision over a large, exploitative profit, requiring readers to actively reject short-term gain that violates divine justice.
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
Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 15:16 Better a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure with turmoil.
- Psalms 37:16 Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many who are wicked.
- 1 Timothy 6:6 Of course, godliness with contentment is great gain.
- Jeremiah 17:11 Like a partridge hatching eggs it did not lay is the man who makes a fortune unjustly. In the middle of his days his riches will desert him, and in the end he will be the fool.”
- Proverbs 21:6 Making a fortune by a lying tongue is a vanishing mist, a deadly pursuit.
- Micah 6:10 Can I forget any longer, O house of the wicked, the treasures of wickedness and the short ephah, which is accursed?