Proverbs 15:27

Greed for ill-gotten gain brings trouble on one's own household, while refusing bribes brings life. It matters because covetousness corrupts a person and their family, but integrity preserves.

Cross-references · 20

• Exod 23:8“You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.
• Prov 1:19So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners.
• 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.
• Prov 11:29He who troubles his own house shall inherit the wind. The foolish shall be servant to the wise of heart.
• Isa 33:15–16He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil —
• Deut 16:19You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous.
• Josh 7:24–25Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his cattle, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor.
• Exod 18:21Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men which fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
• Zech 5:3–4Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the surface of the whole land; for everyone who steals shall be cut off according to it on the one side; and everyone who swears falsely shall be cut off according to it on the other side.
• Hab 2:9–11Woe to him who gets an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil!
• Josh 6:18But as for you, only keep yourselves from what is devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted it, you take of the devoted thing; so you would make the camp of Israel accursed, and trouble it.
• Josh 7:11–12Israel has sinned. Yes, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Yes, they have even taken some of the devoted things, and have also stolen, and also deceived. They have even put it among their own stuff.
• Prov 28:16A tyrannical ruler lacks judgment. One who hates ill-gotten gain will have long days.
• Prov 20:21An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning, won’t be blessed in the end.
• Isa 5:8–10Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land!
• Prov 11:19He who is truly righteous gets life. He who pursues evil gets death.
• Deut 7:26You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.
• 1 Sam 8:3–5His sons didn’t walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.
• 2 Kgs 5:27Therefore the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and to your offspring forever.” He went out from his presence a leper, as white as snow.
• Prov 29:4The king by justice makes the land stable, but he who takes bribes tears it down.

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