Riches do not benefit on the day of wrath, But righteousness rescues 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.
- BSB Riches are worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.
- NKJV Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, But righteousness delivers 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 in the day of Yahweh’s wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land.
- Prov 10:2Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death.
- Gen 7:1Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.
- Ezek 7:19They will cast their silver in the streets, and their gold will be as an unclean thing. Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath. They won’t satisfy their souls, neither fill their bellies; because it has been the stumbling block of their iniquity.
- 1 Tim 4:8For bodily exercise has some value, but godliness has value in all things, having the promise of the life which is now, and of that which is to come.
- Ps 49:6–8Those who trust in their wealth, and boast in the multitude of their riches —
- Matt 16:26For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?
- Luke 12:20“But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared — whose will they be?’
- Job 36:18–19Don’t let riches entice you to wrath, neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.
- Prov 12:28In the way of righteousness is life; in its path there is no death.
- Rom 5:17For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.
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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.