Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows over time.
Parallel translations
- WEB Wealth gained dishonestly dwindles away, but he who gathers by hand makes it grow.
- KJV Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.
- 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.
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 quickly gained at the beginning, won’t be blessed in the end.
- Prov 10:2Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death.
- Jas 5:1–5Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you.
- Prov 28:8He who increases his wealth by excessive interest gathers it for one who has pity on the poor.
- Prov 13:22–23A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored for the righteous.
- Job 27:16–17Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay;
- Prov 28:20A faithful man is rich with blessings; but one who is eager to be rich will not go unpunished.
- Prov 27:23–27Know well the state of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds:
- Prov 28:22A stingy man hurries after riches, and doesn’t know that poverty waits for him.
- Jer 17:11As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right; in the middle of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be a fool.
- Hab 2:6–7Won’t all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases that which is not his, and who enriches himself by extortion! How long?’
- Ps 128:2For you will eat the labor of your hands. You will be happy, and it will be well with you.
- Job 20:15He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.
- Job 20:19–22For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.
- Eccl 5:14Those riches perish by misfortune, and if he has fathered a son, there is nothing in his hand.
- Job 15:28–29He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
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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
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.