Proverbs 21:6

Proverbs 21:6, in plain English

Getting rich through lying might seem successful for a moment, but it evaporates quickly and destroys you in the end.

Why it's here

Solomon addresses the temptation to use deception for gain—something people see around them constantly. He's saying it never actually works in the long term; it's like trying to hold onto mist or chasing something deadly.

Who's speaking

Solomon, warning against a specific form of wickedness that appeals to the greedy.

Where it sits in the story

The Bible consistently shows that ill-gotten gains don't stick around. Think of Judas's thirty pieces of silver or the rich man in Luke who stored up treasures for himself but wasn't rich toward God. Dishonest money is inherently unstable.

The scholarly reading

Wealth obtained through deception is intrinsically unstable and ultimately destructive, pursued at the cost of one's own life and welfare.

Language and setting

The commercial world of ancient Israel included fraudulent merchants, false weights, and commercial dishonesty—temptations particularly acute during periods of prosperity and trade expansion. The verse warns that while dishonest gain might produce quick returns, the structure of reality itself works against its permanence. What seems profitable proves lethal.

Voice

The wisdom teacher, employing the image of 'vanishing mist' (hebel, הבל—the term Qohelet would later use for all human futility) to suggest that ill-gotten wealth possesses no substance. The phrase 'deadly pursuit' (dōrēš māwet) indicates that one's pursuit itself becomes the mechanism of self-destruction.

Significance

This insight surfaces throughout Scripture: Achan's theft (Joshua 7), the servants' embezzlement (1 Kings 12:4-14), and Judas's betrayal for thirty pieces all demonstrate that dishonest gain generates its own undoing. The principle becomes a central feature of Paul's ethical teaching in 1 Timothy 6:9-10, where the 'love of money' becomes the root of 'all kinds of evil.'

4Haughty eyes and a proud heart— the guides of the wicked—are sin.

5The plans of the diligent bring plenty, as surely as haste leads to poverty.

6Making a fortune by a lying tongue is a vanishing mist, a deadly pursuit.

7The violence of the wicked will sweep them away because they refuse to do what is just.

8The way of a guilty man is crooked, but the conduct of the innocent is upright.

Read all of Proverbs 21 — The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever He will. Even power submits to providence.