Bible Strands
Proverbs 29:24
A partner to a thief hates his own soul; he receives the oath but does not testify.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The wisdom writer addresses a community facing moral compromise, placing this warning between exhortations against pride and against fearing human opinion.
The words — חוֹלֵק (cho.lek) denotes one who shares in an enterprise, while אָלָה ('a.lah) refers to a binding oath or legal charge.
The thread — The text echoes Leviticus 5:1 regarding the sin of remaining silent under legal charge, parallels Proverbs 8:36 on self-harm through rejection of wisdom, and contrasts with Proverbs 1:11 where conspirators actively seek innocent blood.
Why it lands — It demands that readers refuse complicity in wrongdoing and testify to the truth, recognizing that protecting a criminal ultimately destroys one’s own standing.
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
Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul: he heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 5:1 “If someone sins by failing to testify when he hears a public charge about something he has witnessed, whether he has seen it or learned of it, he shall bear the iniquity.
- Proverbs 1:11 If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,
- Proverbs 8:36 But he who fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death.”
- Psalms 50:18 When you see a thief, you befriend him, and throw in your lot with adulterers.
- Isaiah 1:23 Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them.
- Proverbs 15:32 He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.
- Judges 17:2 said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse—I have the silver here with me; I took it.” Then his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the LORD!”
- Proverbs 6:32 He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.
- Mark 11:17 Then Jesus began to teach them, and He declared, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
- Proverbs 20:2 The terror of a king is like the roar of a lion; whoever provokes him forfeits his own life.