Whoever is a partner with a thief hates his own life; He swears to tell the truth, but reveals nothing.
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.
- KJV Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul: he heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not.
- BSB A partner to a thief hates his own soul; he receives the oath, but does not testify.
- 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 5:1“‘If anyone sins, in that he hears the voice of adjuration, he being a witness, whether he has seen or known, if he doesn’t report it, then he shall bear his iniquity.
- Prov 8:36But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul. All those who hate me love death.”
- Prov 1:11–19If they say, “Come with us. Let’s lay in wait for blood. Let’s lurk secretly for the innocent without cause.
- Ps 50:18–22When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers.
- Isa 1:23Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They don’t judge the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.
- Prov 15:32He who refuses correction despises his own soul, but he who listens to reproof gets understanding.
- Judg 17:2He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me. I took it.” His mother said, “May Yahweh bless my son!”
- Prov 6:32He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul.
- Mark 11:17He taught, saying to them, “Isn’t it written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations?’ But you have made it a den of robbers!”
- Prov 20:2The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion. He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life.
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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