Honest Scales
He who searches out good finds favor, but evil will come to him who seeks it. Proverbs 11:27 · Berean Standard Bible
When you actively search for good—looking for ways to help, to build, to create—you find favor; but searching for evil inevitably brings it back on you.
You have agency. Your attention and effort go somewhere. This verse says that what you seek, you find—not just physically but spiritually and morally. You become what you hunt for.
Solomon, teaching you that your choices about what to pursue shape your entire life.
This reflects the consistent biblical pattern: you reap what you sow. Your inner search reveals and creates your outer reality. It connects to Jesus's teaching that the eye is the lamp of the body.
Actively seeking good secures divine favor and protection, while intentionally pursuing evil inevitably encounters destructive consequences.
The Hebrew דרש (darash, to seek or inquire) typically describes deliberate investigation or pursuit—here used morally to distinguish between those who intentionally orient themselves toward טוֹב (tob, good in its fullest sense: moral, material, relational flourishing) versus those who actively search for רָעָה (ra'ah, evil, harm, misfortune). The verse suggests that one's deliberate choices and the direction of one's seeking shape what one encounters; this reflects the principle that the universe responds to moral orientation.
The wisdom teacher, articulating the principle that intention and seeking determine destiny.
This connects to Jesus's teaching about seeking first the kingdom of God, and to the New Testament's insistence that faith involves active pursuit of righteousness rather than passive waiting.
25A generous soul will prosper, and he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.
26The people will curse the hoarder of grain, but blessing will crown the one who sells it.
27He who searches out good finds favor, but evil will come to him who seeks it.
28He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like foliage.
29He who brings trouble on his house will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart.
Read all of Proverbs 11 — The Lord detests dishonest scales. Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.
This page covers one. BibleKey does all 31,102 — tap any verse for its meaning, any word for its Hebrew or Greek root, and keep reading without leaving the chapter.
Not just the famous ones. BibleKey is free on iPhone and iPad.
Download on the App StoreFree on iPhone & iPad