Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain.
Parallel translations
- WEB As clouds and wind without rain, so is he who boasts of gifts deceptively.
- BSB Like clouds and wind without rain is the man who boasts of gifts never given.
- NKJV Whoever falsely boasts of giving Is like clouds and wind without rain.
- NASB Like clouds and wind without rain Is a person who boasts of his gifts falsely.
- NLT A person who promises a gift but doesn’t give it is like clouds and wind that bring no rain.
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
One who boasts of gifts he never gives is like clouds that promise rain but bring none. Empty promises disappoint.
Overview
This rebukes the deceptive boaster whose pledges raise hopes only to leave others unfulfilled, like a drought after the look of rain. Wisdom values reliability over impressive talk. It implicitly commends the faithfulness of God, whose every promise is yes and amen in Christ (2 Cor 1:20).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Prov 20:6Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?
- Luke 14:11For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
- Jude 1:16These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
- 2 Pet 2:15–19Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
- 1 Kgs 22:11And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron: and he said, Thus saith the LORD, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have consumed them.
- Jude 1:12–13These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
- Luke 18:10–14Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
- 2 Cor 11:31The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.
- 2 Cor 11:13–18For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
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 25:14 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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