Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you and prove you a liar.
Parallel translations
- WEB Don’t you add to his words, lest he reprove you, and you be found a liar.
- KJV Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.
- NKJV Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.
- NASB Do not add to His words Or He will rebuke you, and you will be proved a liar.
- NLT Do not add to his words, or he may rebuke you and expose you as a liar.
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
Do not add to God's words, or He will rebuke you and expose you as a liar.
Overview
Because God's word is flawless, human additions corrupt rather than improve it and presume to speak for God falsely. This warning guards the sufficiency and purity of divine revelation. It calls believers to humble submission to Scripture as it stands, neither subtracting from nor inflating it, a reverence the New Testament echoes in its closing warnings.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Deut 12:32See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.
- Deut 4:2You must not add to or subtract from what I command you, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you.
- Rev 22:18–19I testify to everyone who hears the words of prophecy in this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.
- Job 13:7–9Will you speak wickedly on God’s behalf or speak deceitfully for Him?
- 1 Cor 15:15In that case, we are also exposed as false witnesses about God. For we have testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead, but He did not raise Him if in fact the dead are not raised.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 30:6 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.