Bible Strands
Proverbs 29:5
A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The wisdom tradition addresses a general audience, placing this warning immediately after a contrast between a king who brings stability through justice and one who destroys through extortion. The speaker frames interpersonal conduct as equally consequential to civic order.
The words — The text highlights מַחֲלִ֣יק (ma.cha.Lik), meaning "flatters," and רֶ֝֗שֶׁת (Re.shet), meaning "a net." These terms establish the verse's core image of deceptive speech as a trap.
The thread — This warning against deceptive speech appears alongside Job 17:5, which describes denouncing friends for a price, and Psalm 5:9 and Psalm 12:2, which condemn open graves in the throat and double-hearted flattering lips.
Why it lands — The text states that flattery functions as a concealed snare, requiring the reader to reject persuasive but insincere speech and recognize its inherent danger.
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
A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet.
Cross-references
- Job 17:5 If a man denounces his friends for a price, the eyes of his children will fail.
- Psalms 5:9 For not a word they speak can be trusted; destruction lies within them. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.
- Psalms 12:2 They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.
- Proverbs 26:24 A hateful man disguises himself with his speech, but he lays up deceit in his heart.
- Hosea 5:1 “Hear this, O priests! Take heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O royal house! For this judgment is against you because you have been a snare at Mizpah, a net spread out on Tabor.
- 2 Samuel 14:17 And now your servant says, ‘May the word of my lord the king bring me rest, for my lord the king is able to discern good and evil, just like the angel of God. May the LORD your God be with you.’”
- Proverbs 1:17 How futile it is to spread the net where any bird can see it!
- Proverbs 7:5 that they may keep you from the adulteress, from the stranger with seductive words.
- Proverbs 7:21 With her great persuasion she entices him; with her flattering lips she lures him.
- Proverbs 20:19 He who reveals secrets is a constant gossip; avoid the one who babbles with his lips.