Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul: he heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not.
Parallel translations
- WEB Whoever is an accomplice of a thief is an enemy of his own soul. He takes an oath, but dares not testify.
- BSB A partner to a thief hates his own soul; he receives the oath, but does not testify.
- NKJV Whoever is a partner with a thief hates his own life; He swears to tell the truth, but reveals nothing.
- NASB One who is a partner with a thief hates his own life; He hears the oath but tells nothing.
- NLT If you assist a thief, you only hurt yourself. You are sworn to tell the truth, but you dare not testify.
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
Partnering with a thief is self-destructive; bound by oath, the accomplice dares not testify and ruins himself.
Overview
The accomplice shares the criminal's guilt and is trapped: an oath of silence, or the fear of self-incrimination under a public charge, keeps him from telling the truth. Such complicity hates one's own soul, entangling a person in another's sin and its judgment. The verse urges integrity and warns that shared guilt brings shared ruin, pointing to the need for a clean conscience that only Christ can give.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Lev 5:1And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity.
- Prov 8:36But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
- Prov 1:11–19If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
- Ps 50:18–22When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers.
- Isa 1:23Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
- Prov 15:32He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding.
- Judg 17:2And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my son.
- Prov 6:32But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.
- Mark 11:17And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.
- Prov 20:2The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul.
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 29:24 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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