Riches are worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.
Parallel translations
- WEB Riches don’t profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.
- KJV Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death.
- NKJV Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, But righteousness delivers from death.
- NASB Riches do not benefit on the day of wrath, But righteousness rescues from death.
- NLT Riches won’t help on the day of judgment, but right living can save you from death.
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
Wealth is useless on the day of judgment, but righteousness rescues from death. No amount of money can buy safety from God's wrath.
Overview
The 'day of wrath' points to God's judgment, when riches lose all value and only righteousness avails. The proverb relativizes earthly security and exalts a right standing with God. Ultimately such saving righteousness is found in Christ, whose righteousness alone delivers us from death and condemnation.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Zeph 1:18Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the Day of the LORD’s wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of His jealousy.” For indeed, He will make a sudden end of all who dwell on the earth.
- Prov 10:2Ill-gotten treasures profit nothing, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.
- Gen 7:1Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.
- Ezek 7:19They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will seem unclean. Their silver and gold cannot save them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. They cannot satisfy their appetites or fill their stomachs with wealth, for it became the stumbling block that brought their iniquity.
- 1 Tim 4:8For physical exercise is of limited value, but godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for the present life and for the one to come.
- Ps 49:6–8They trust in their wealth and boast in their great riches.
- Matt 16:26What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
- Luke 12:20But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’
- Job 36:18–19Be careful that no one lures you with riches; do not let a large bribe lead you astray.
- Prov 12:28There is life in the path of righteousness, but another path leads to death.
- Rom 5:17For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive an abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 11:4 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.