Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.
Parallel translations
- WEB Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all wrongs.
- BSB Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers all transgressions.
- NKJV Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all sins.
- NASB Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all offenses.
- NLT Hatred stirs up quarrels, but love makes up for all offenses.
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
Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all wrongs. Hatred breeds conflict; love forgives and heals.
Overview
This well-known proverb contrasts the divisiveness of hatred with the reconciling power of love that covers offenses rather than exposing them. To 'cover' wrongs is not to ignore sin but to forgive and refrain from spreading it. The New Testament cites this truth directly, affirming that love covers a multitude of sins, supremely shown in Christ's atoning love (1 Peter 4:8).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 1 Pet 4:8And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
- 1 Cor 13:4–7Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
- Prov 17:9He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.
- Prov 15:18A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.
- Jas 5:20Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
- Jas 4:1From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
- Prov 28:25He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat.
- Prov 16:27An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire.
- Prov 29:22An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 10:12 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.