Bible Strands
Proverbs 21:6
Making a fortune by a lying tongue is a vanishing mist, a deadly pursuit.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The wisdom writer addresses students of moral instruction, positioning this warning between a contrast of diligent planning versus hasty poverty and a declaration that wicked violence will sweep the unrighteous away.
The words — שָ֑קֶר (Sha.ker) means falsehood or deceit, and הֶ֥בֶל (He.vel) literally means breath or vapor, describing something insubstantial and fleeting.
The thread — The text's warning against illusory wealth appears in Proverbs 13:11, Proverbs 10:2, and Proverbs 20:21, which all record that dishonestly acquired riches quickly dwindle or yield no lasting profit.
Why it lands — The verse states that deceitful fortune accumulation produces only temporary vapor and fatal pursuit, requiring the reader to abandon dishonest gain and accept honest labor as the only viable path.
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 getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 13:11 Dishonest wealth will dwindle, but what is earned through hard work will be multiplied.
- Proverbs 10:2 Ill-gotten treasures profit nothing, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.
- Proverbs 20:21 An inheritance gained quickly will not be blessed in the end.
- 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 8:36 But he who fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death.”
- 1 Timothy 6:9 Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.
- Proverbs 20:14 “Worthless, worthless!” says the buyer, but on the way out, he gloats.
- Proverbs 22:8 He who sows injustice will reap disaster, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.
- Proverbs 30:8 Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread that is my portion.
- 2 Peter 2:3 In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep.