Proverbs 4:17

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Proverbs 4:15–19 · Berean Standard Bible

15 Avoid it; do not travel on it. Turn from it and pass on by.

16 For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.

17 For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

18 The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.

19 But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they do not know what makes them stumble.

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

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Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Proverbs 9:17

“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is tasty!”

Proverbs 20:17

Food gained by fraud is sweet to a man, but later his mouth is full of gravel.

Job 24:5

Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children.

Job 24:6

They gather fodder in the fields and glean the vineyards of the wicked.

Psalms 14:4

Will the workers of iniquity never learn? They devour my people like bread; they refuse to call upon the LORD.

Jeremiah 5:26

For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men.

Jeremiah 5:27

Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich.

Jeremiah 5:28

They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.

Ezekiel 22:25

The conspiracy of the princes in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They devour the people, seize the treasures and precious things, and multiply the widows within her.

Ezekiel 22:26

Her priests do violence to My law and profane My holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they fail to distinguish between the clean and the unclean. They disregard My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

Ezekiel 22:27

Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain.

Ezekiel 22:28

Her prophets whitewash these deeds by false visions and lying divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ when the LORD has not spoken.

Ezekiel 22:29

The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and have exploited the foreign resident without justice.

Amos 8:4

Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,

Amos 8:5

asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales.

Amos 8:6

Let us buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the chaff with the wheat!”

Micah 3:5

This is what the LORD says: “As for the prophets who lead My people astray, who proclaim peace while they chew with their teeth, but declare war against one who puts nothing in their mouths:

Micah 6:12

For the wealthy of the city are full of violence, and its residents speak lies; their tongues are deceitful in their mouths.

Zephaniah 3:3

Her princes are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, leaving nothing for the morning.

James 5:4

Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

James 5:5

You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter.