The thoughts of the righteous are right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit.
Parallel translations
- WEB The thoughts of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful.
- BSB The plans of the righteous are just, but the counsel of the wicked leads to deceit.
- ESV The thoughts of the righteous are just; the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.
- NKJV The thoughts of the righteous are right, But the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.
- NASB The thoughts of the righteous are just, But the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.
- NLT The plans of the godly are just; the advice of the wicked is treacherous.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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
The plans of the righteous are just, but the counsel of the wicked is deceitful. Our inner thoughts and advice reveal our true character.
Overview
This proverb contrasts the just intentions of the righteous with the deceitful schemes of the wicked. What we plan and counsel flows from the heart and shows what we are. The transformation of the inner life, so that even our thoughts become just, is the work of God's renewing grace in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 139:23Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
- Isa 55:7Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
- Ps 41:6–7And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he telleth it.
- Jer 4:14O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?
- Ps 140:1–3Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;
- Matt 26:4And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.
- Prov 11:23The desire of the righteous is only good: but the expectation of the wicked is wrath.
- Matt 2:16Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.
- Ps 12:2–3They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
- Ps 119:15I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.
- 2 Cor 4:2But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
- Prov 24:9The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men.
- Matt 2:3–8When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
- Ps 36:2–4For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.
- 1 Cor 4:5Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 12:5 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.