Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.
Parallel translations
- WEB Wealth gained dishonestly dwindles away, but he who gathers by hand makes it grow.
- BSB Dishonest wealth will dwindle, but what is earned through hard work will be multiplied.
- NKJV Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, But he who gathers by labor will increase.
- NASB Wealth obtained from nothing dwindles, But one who gathers by labor increases it.
- NLT Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows over time.
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
Dishonest wealth dwindles, but what is gathered diligently grows. God's blessing rests on honest, patient labor, not on shortcuts.
Overview
This proverb contrasts ill-gotten gain, which slips away, with the steady increase that comes from honest work over time. It affirms God's moral order in which integrity and diligence are rewarded while fraud proves self-defeating. The principle warns against the love of money that tempts toward dishonest gain (1 Timothy 6:9-10).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Prov 20:21An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed.
- Prov 10:2Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death.
- Jas 5:1–5Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
- Prov 28:8He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.
- Prov 13:22–23A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.
- Job 27:16–17Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay;
- Prov 28:20A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.
- Prov 27:23–27Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.
- Prov 28:22He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.
- Jer 17:11As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
- Hab 2:6–7Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!
- Ps 128:2For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
- Job 20:15He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.
- Job 20:19–22Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;
- Eccl 5:14But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
- Job 15:28–29And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.
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 13:11 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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