With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself unsavoury.
Parallel translations
- WEB With the pure you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.
- BSB to the pure You show Yourself pure, but to the crooked You show Yourself shrewd.
- NKJV With the pure You will show Yourself pure; And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd.
- NASB With the one who is pure You show Yourself pure, And with the crooked You show Yourself astute.
- NLT To the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
To the pure God shows himself pure, but to the crooked he shows himself shrewd. God meets sincerity with favor and resists the perverse.
Overview
David completes the principle: God blesses the upright but opposes and outwits the devious. The Lord is not mocked, and the crooked find him their adversary. This sober truth warns against hypocrisy and assures the sincere that God deals with them in faithfulness and grace.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Ps 18:26With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.
- Matt 5:8Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
- Lev 26:23–28And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;
- Isa 45:9Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
- Ps 125:5As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel.
- Exod 18:11Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.
- Deut 28:58–61If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD;
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Christ at the center
God's covenant with David — a son whose throne and kingdom would last forever (7:12–16) — finds its yes in Jesus, the Son of David who reigns without end.
How 2 Samuel 22:27 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.