Bible Strands
Proverbs 28:13
He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Wisdom literature, not a speech in a scene. The speaker is an unnamed wise man addressing a general audience; no narrative context frames the saying.
The words — מְכַסֶּה (me.kha.Seh, "one who conceals") and וְעֹזֵב (ve.'o.Zev, "and he forsakes") form the operative contrast: covering over versus actively letting go.
The thread — Job 31:33 echoes the concealing language ("covered my transgressions... hiding my guilt"), and Psalms 32:3 shows the cost of silence; 1 John 1:8 extends the principle to a community of believers.
Why it lands — It names a practical cost (no prosperity) for hiding sin and demands two things at once: confession and renunciation, not just one or the other.
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
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
Cross-references
- 1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
- Psalms 32:3 When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.
- Job 31:33 if I have covered my transgressions like Adam by hiding my guilt in my heart,
- Luke 15:18 I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
- Jeremiah 3:12 Go, proclaim this message toward the north: ‘Return, O faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will no longer look on you with anger, for I am merciful,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will not be angry forever.
- Psalms 51:1 For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him after his adultery with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.
- Daniel 9:20 While I was speaking, praying, confessing my sin and that of my people Israel, and presenting my petition before the LORD my God concerning His holy mountain—
- Exodus 10:16 Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.
- Psalms 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
- Job 33:27 Then he sings before men with these words: ‘I have sinned and perverted what was right; yet I did not get what I deserved.