Many a man proclaims his loving devotion, but who can find a trustworthy man?
Parallel translations
- WEB Many men claim to be men of unfailing love, but who can find a faithful man?
- KJV Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?
- NKJV Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, But who can find a faithful man?
- NASB Many a person proclaims his own loyalty, But who can find a trustworthy person?
- NLT Many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is truly reliable?
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
Many boast of their loyalty, but a truly faithful person is rare. Genuine, dependable faithfulness is hard to find.
Overview
This proverb observes that many men proclaim their own steadfast love, yet asks who can find a truly faithful man, exposing the gap between claimed and proven loyalty. It humbles human pretension and highlights the rarity of real faithfulness. This longing is answered in God, who is perfectly faithful (1 Cor. 1:9), and in Christ, the faithful witness (Rev. 1:5), who alone fully embodies the loyalty we so often lack.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 12:1For the choirmaster. According to Sheminith. A Psalm of David. Help, O LORD, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.
- Matt 6:2So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
- Luke 18:8I tell you, He will promptly carry out justice on their behalf. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”
- Luke 22:33“Lord,” said Peter, “I am ready to go with You even to prison and to death.”
- Prov 25:14Like clouds and wind without rain is the man who boasts of gifts never given.
- Prov 27:2Let another praise you, and not your own mouth—a stranger, and not your own lips.
- Luke 18:11The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like the other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.
- Mic 7:2The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.
- Jer 5:1“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem. Look now and take note; search her squares. If you can find a single person, anyone who acts justly, anyone who seeks the truth, then I will forgive the city.
- Eccl 7:28While my soul was still searching but not finding, among a thousand I have found one upright man, but among all these I have not found one such woman.
- 2 Cor 12:11I have become a fool, but you drove me to it. In fact, you should have commended me, since I am in no way inferior to those “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing.
- Luke 18:28“Look,” said Peter, “we have left all we had to follow You.”
- John 1:47When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.”
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 20:6 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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