He who covers a transgression seeks love, But he who repeats a matter separates friends.
Parallel translations
- WEB He who covers an offense promotes love; but he who repeats a matter separates best friends.
- KJV He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.
- BSB Whoever conceals an offense promotes love, but he who brings it up separates friends.
- NASB One who conceals an offense seeks love, But one who repeats a matter separates close friends.
- NLT Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.
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
Forgiving and covering an offense fosters love, but rehearsing it divides friends. It matters because grace toward faults preserves relationships that grudges destroy.
Overview
This proverb contrasts the one who covers an offense, promoting love, with the one who keeps repeating it, separating friends. Choosing forgiveness over rehearsing wrongs builds and protects bonds. It anticipates the gospel call to forbearance and the truth that love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8; Colossians 3:13).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Prov 10:12Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all wrongs.
- 1 Pet 4:8And above all things be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins.
- Prov 16:28A perverse man stirs up strife. A whisperer separates close friends.
- Ps 32:1By David. A contemplative psalm. Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
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 17:9 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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