843 verses about Honesty

Debate your case with your neighbor, and don’t betray the confidence of another;

lest one who hears it put you to shame, and your bad reputation never depart.

As clouds and wind without rain, so is he who boasts of gifts deceptively.

A man who gives false testimony against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, or a sharp arrow.

Confidence in someone unfaithful in time of trouble is like a bad tooth, or a lame foot.

is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “Am I not joking?”

Like silver dross on an earthen vessel are the lips of a fervent one with an evil heart.

A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but he harbors evil in his heart.

His malice may be concealed by deception, but his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.

A lying tongue hates those it hurts; and a flattering mouth works ruin.

Better is open rebuke than hidden love.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; although the kisses of an enemy are profuse.

Better is the poor who walks in his integrity, than he who is perverse in his ways, and he is rich.

He who conceals his sins doesn’t prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

One who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than one who flatters with the tongue.

Whoever robs his father or his mother, and says, “It’s not wrong.” He is a partner with a destroyer.

If a ruler listens to lies, all of his officials are wicked.

Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

Whoever is an accomplice of a thief is an enemy of his own soul. He takes an oath, but dares not testify.

A dishonest man detests the righteous, and the upright in their ways detest the wicked.

Don’t you add to his words, lest he reprove you, and you be found a liar.

Remove far from me falsehood and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me;

lest I be full, deny you, and say, ‘Who is Yahweh?’ or lest I be poor, and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.

“Don’t slander a servant to his master, lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.

The heart of her husband trusts in her. He shall have no lack of gain.

When you vow a vow to God, don’t defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you vow.

It is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay.

Don’t allow your mouth to lead you into sin. Don’t protest before the messenger that this was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?

The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and that which was written blamelessly, words of truth.

Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water.

Your 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.

who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent!

The elder and the honorable man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail.

who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for the arbiter in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony.

who tell the seers, “Don’t see!” and to the prophets, “Don’t prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits.

The fool will no longer be called noble, nor the scoundrel be highly respected.

He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil—

I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness. I didn’t say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, Yahweh, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.

“Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come out of the waters of Judah. You swear by Yahweh’s name, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.

No one sues in righteousness, and no one pleads in truth. They trust in vanity, and speak lies. They conceive mischief, and give birth to iniquity.

“For I, Yahweh, love justice. I hate robbery and iniquity. I will give them their reward in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

“Yet you said, ‘I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me.’ “Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’

and you will swear, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. The nations will bless themselves in him, and they will glory in him.”

Though they say, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ surely they swear falsely.”

“‘How do you say, “We are wise, and Yahweh’s law is with us?” But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely.

“They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood. They have grown strong in the land, but not for truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me,” says Yahweh.

Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart, he waits to ambush him.

As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right. In the middle of his days, they will leave him. At his end, he will be a fool.

As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you. I haven’t desired the woeful day. You know. That which came out of my lips was before your face.

“I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’

The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat?” says Yahweh.

“Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says Yahweh, “who each steal my words from his neighbor.

because they have done foolish things in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely, which I didn’t command them. I am he who knows, and am witness,” says Yahweh.

I signed the deed, sealed it, called witnesses, and weighed the money in the balances to him.

So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the terms and conditions, and that which was open;

and I delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who subscribed the deed of the purchase, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the guard.

Then Baruch answered them, “He dictated all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.”

When he was in Benjamin’s gate, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are defecting to the Chaldeans!”

Moreover Jeremiah said to king Zedekiah, “How have I sinned against you, against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison?

Ebedmelech went out of the king’s house, and spoke to the king, saying,

Then Zedekiah the king sent and took Jeremiah the prophet to himself into the third entry that is in Yahweh’s house. Then the king said to Jeremiah, “I will ask you something. Hide nothing from me.”

Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death? If I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.”

Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no man know of these words, and you won’t die.

But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you, and tell you, ‘Declare to us now what you have said to the king; don’t hide it from us, and we will not put you to death; also tell us what the king said to you;’

then you shall tell them, ‘I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan’s house, to die there.’”

Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, “Please let me go, and I will kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man will know it. Why should he take your life, that all the Jews who are gathered to you should be scattered, and the remnant of Judah perish?”

But ten men were found among those who said to Ishmael, “Don’t kill us; for we have stores hidden in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey.” So he stopped, and didn’t kill them among their brothers.

Then they said to Jeremiah, “May Yahweh be a true and faithful witness among us, if we don’t do according to all the word with which Yahweh your God sends you to tell us.

Haven’t you seen a false vision, and haven’t you spoken a lying divination, in that you say, ‘Yahweh says;’ but I have not spoken?”

“‘Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Because you have spoken falsehood and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you,” says the Lord Yahweh.

“But if a man is just, and does that which is lawful and right,

Her prophets have plastered for them with whitewash, seeing false visions, and divining lies to them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh,’ when Yahweh has not spoken.

“You shall have just balances, a just ephah, and a just bath.

But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you will receive of me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the dream and its interpretation.”

They answered the second time and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.”

The king answered, “I know of a certainty that you are trying to gain time, because you see the thing has gone from me.

and over them three presidents, of whom Daniel was one; that these satraps might give account to them, and that the king should suffer no loss.

Then the presidents and the satraps sought to find occasion against Daniel as touching the kingdom; but they could find no occasion or fault, because he was faithful. There wasn’t any error or fault found in him.

They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood, and the house of Israel with deceit. Judah still strays from God, and is unfaithful to the Holy One.

A merchant has dishonest scales in his hand. He loves to defraud.

They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.

Saying, ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may market wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit;

Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.”

Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a short ephah that is accursed?

Shall I be pure with dishonest scales, and with a bag of deceitful weights?

Her rich men are full of violence, her inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their speech.

Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. The prey doesn’t depart.

The remnant of Israel will not do iniquity, nor speak lies, neither will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they will feed and lie down, and no one will make them afraid.”

Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the surface of the whole land; for everyone who steals shall be cut off according to it on the one side; and everyone who swears falsely shall be cut off according to it on the other side.

I will cause it to go out,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and it will enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him who swears falsely by my name; and it will remain in the middle of his house, and will destroy it with its timber and its stones.”

These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates,

and let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate,” says Yahweh.

It will happen in that day, that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision, when he prophesies; neither will they wear a hairy mantle to deceive:

but he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for I have been made a bondservant from my youth.’

But when it came to my house, it began to cry, and I said to her, Where did this kid come from? Is it stolen? Give it back to the owners; for it is not lawful to eat anything that is stolen.

But she said, “It has been given to me for a gift more than the wages.” I didn’t believe her, and I asked her to return it to the owners; and I was ashamed of her. But she answered and said to me, “Where are your alms and your righteous deeds? Behold, you and all your works are known.”

You know, Lord, that I am pure from all sin with man,

For if you do what is true, your deeds will prosperously succeed for you, and for all those who do righteousness.