Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, But those who deal faithfully are His delight.
Parallel translations
- WEB Lying lips are an abomination to Yahweh, but those who do the truth are his delight.
- KJV Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight.
- BSB Lying lips are detestable to the LORD, but those who deal faithfully are His delight.
- NKJV Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, But those who deal truthfully are His delight.
- NLT The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in those who tell the truth.
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
Lying lips are detestable to God, but truthful people are His delight. The Lord loves truth and hates deceit.
Overview
This proverb declares God's strong moral response: He abhors lying lips and delights in those who deal truthfully. Honesty is not merely social etiquette but a reflection of God's own nature. The God who cannot lie calls His people to truthfulness as those remade in the image of Christ, who is full of grace and truth.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 5:6You will destroy those who speak lies. Yahweh abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
- Rev 22:15Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
- Prov 6:16–17There are six things which Yahweh hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him:
- Prov 11:20Those who are perverse in heart are an abomination to Yahweh, but those whose ways are blameless are his delight.
- Jer 9:24But let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight,” says Yahweh.
- Isa 9:15The elder and the honorable man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail.
- Prov 11:1A false balance is an abomination to Yahweh, but accurate weights are his delight.
- Ezek 13:22Because with lies you have grieved the heart of the righteous, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, and be saved alive.
- Prov 15:8The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
- Ezek 13:19You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to kill the souls who should not die, and to save the souls alive who should not live, by your lying to my people who listen to lies.’
- Rev 21:8But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
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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 12:22 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
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