59 Bible Verses about Deception

Then he began to curse violently. "I don't know the man!" he swore solemnly. Just then a rooster crowed.

"I'm Esau, your firstborn!" Jacob told his father. "I've done what you asked, so please sit up and eat what I caught, so you can bless me."

Please say that you are my sister, so things will go well for me for your sake. That way, you'll be saving my life."

because Abraham kept saying about his wife Sarah, "She is my sister," King Abimelech of Gerar summoned them and took Sarah into his household.

Later on, the men of that place asked about his wife, so he replied, "She's my sister," because he was afraid to call her "my wife." He kept thinking, ""otherwise, the men around here will kill me on account of Rebekah, since she's very beautiful."

You will destroy those who speak lies. The LORD abhors the person of bloodshed and deceit.

For many deceivers have gone out into the world. They refuse to acknowledge Jesus the Messiah as having become human. Any such person is a deceiver and an antichrist.

But you, God, bring them down to the Pit of corruption; bloodthirsty and deceitful people will not live out half their days. But I put my full confidence in you. To the Director: A special Davidic psalm to the tune of "A Silent Dove Far Away," when the Philistines seized him in Gath.

A truthful witness saves lives, but the person who lies is deceitful.

Like the maniac who shoots fiery darts and deadly arrows that's what someone is like who lies to his neighbor and then says, "I was joking, wasn't I?"

they took the initiative by preparing their provisions shrewdly: they took tattered sacks for their donkeys, worn-out, torn, and mended wineskins,

and sent them to Bethlehem. He told them, "As you go, search carefully for the child. When you find him, tell me so that I, too, may go and worship him."

"You certainly will not die!" the Shining One told the woman.

Ehud approached him while he was sitting by himself in the cool roof chamber of his palace. He said, "I have a message from God for you!" So when Eglon got up from his seat,

So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came to visit him, Amnon asked the king, "Please let my sister Tamar come and make some of her bread especially for me, so she can feed it to me personally."

Dear friends, we are now God's children, but what we will be like has not been revealed yet. We know that when the Messiah is revealed, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is.

Stop being deceived: "Wicked friends lead to evil ends."

Do not let anyone deceive you with meaningless words, for it is because of these things that God becomes angry with those who disobey.

Now we ask you, brothers, regarding the coming of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, and our gathering together to him, not to be so quickly upset or alarmed when someone claims that we said, either by some spirit, conversation, or letter that the Day of the Lord has already come. Do not let anyone deceive you in any way, for it will not come unless the rebellion takes place first and the man of sin, who is destined for destruction, is revealed.

Charm is deceitful and beauty fades; but a woman who fears the LORD will be praised.

The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful.

Wounds from someone who loves are trustworthy, but kisses from an enemy speak volumes.

The wisdom of the prudent helps him know how to live, but a fool's stupidity deceives him.

"The heart is more deceitful than anything. It is incurable who can know it? I am the LORD who searches the heart, who tests the inner depths to give to each person according to what he deserves, according to the fruit of his deeds.

For if anyone thinks he is something when he is really nothing, he is only fooling himself. Each person must examine his own actions, and then he can boast about his own accomplishments and not about someone else.

Keep on being obedient to the word, and not merely being hearers who deceive themselves. For if anyone hears the word but is not obedient to it, he is like a man who looks at himself in a mirror and studies himself carefully, and then goes off and immediately forgets what he looks like. read more.
But the one who looks at the perfect law of freedom and remains committed to it thereby demonstrating that he is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of what that law requires will be blessed in what he does. If anyone thinks that he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but instead deceives himself, his religion is worthless.

If we say that we do not have any sin, we are deceiving ourselves and we're not being truthful to ourselves.

You say, "I am rich. I have become wealthy. I don't need anything." Yet you don't realize that you are miserable, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

Please say that you are my sister, so things will go well for me for your sake. That way, you'll be saving my life."

because Abraham kept saying about his wife Sarah, "She is my sister," King Abimelech of Gerar summoned them and took Sarah into his household.

The survivors of Israel will not practice lawlessness nor tell lies, nor will a deceitful message be found in their mouths, because they will eat and rest, with no one to cause fear."

Don't testify against your neighbor without a cause, and don't lie when you speak.

Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but later his mouth will be full of gravel.

For if anyone thinks he is something when he is really nothing, he is only fooling himself.

Right about then, Absalom and his entourage from the people of Israel entered Jerusalem, accompanied by Ahithophel. When David's friend Hushai the Archite approached Absalom, Hushai greeted Absalom, "Long live the king! Long live the king!" But Absalom asked Hushai, "So this is how you demonstrate your loyalty to your closest friends? Why didn't you leave with your friend?" read more.
Hushai replied, "No! On the contrary, whomever the LORD, this group, and all the men of Israel choose is where I'll be, and I'll remain with him! Besides, who else should I be serving? Why not the son? The same way I served your father, I'll serve you."

David got up that day and fled from Saul, and he went to King Achish of Gath. The officials of Achish told him, "Isn't this David, king of the land? Isn't this the one about whom they sang as they danced, "Saul has struck down his thousands, but David his ten thousands'?" David took these words seriously, and he was very frightened of King Achish of Gath. read more.
So David changed his behavior before them and acted like he was crazy in their presence. He scribbled on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva run down his beard. Achish told his officials, "Look, you see a person acting like a madman. Why'd you bring him to me? Am I lacking madmen that you bring me this one to act like a madman around me? Shall this one come into my house?"

Absalom had gone to the king to ask him, "I've brought some men to shear the sheep. Won't you please come and join me, along with your senior staff?" But King David declined, saying to Absalom, "No, my son, we won't all go, since that would be too much trouble for you." Although Absalom begged David, he would not go, even though he did give his blessing. So Absalom responded, "If you aren't coming, please allow my brother Amnon to accompany us." The king asked, "Why should he go with you?" read more.
But Absalom kept begging David until he sent Amnon and all of David's sons to accompany Absalom. Then Absalom instructed his young men, "Please keep watching Amnon until he's drunk. Then I'll tell you, "Attack Amnon!' As soon as I do, kill him and don't be afraid! You have your orders, so be strong and brave!"

He tends ashes. A deceived mind has lead him astray. It cannot be his life, nor can he say, "There's a lie in my right hand."

Later, when Reuben returned to the cistern, Joseph wasn't there! In mounting panic, he tore his clothes, returned to his brothers, and shouted, "He's not there! Now what? Where am I to go?" So they took Joseph's coat, slaughtered a young goat, and dipped the coat in the blood. read more.
Then they stretched out the richly-embroidered tunic to dry, and brought it to their father. "We've found this," they reported. "Look at it and see if this is or isn't your son's tunic." Examining it, he cried out, "It's my son's tunic! A wild animal has no doubt torn Joseph to pieces." So Jacob tore his clothes, dressed himself in sackcloth, and then mourned many days for his son. All his sons and daughters showed up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. He kept saying, "Leave me alone! I'll go down to the next world, still mourning for my son." So Joseph's father wept for him.

But Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceptively, because Shechem had dishonored their sister Dinah. They told them, "We can't do this. We can't give our sister to a man who isn't circumcised, because that would be insulting to us. But we'll agree to your request, only if you will become like us by circumcising every male among you. read more.
Then we'll give our daughters to you and take your daughters for ourselves, live among you, and be as a united people. But if you won't listen to us, then we're going to take our daughter and leave." What they said pleased Hamor and his son Shechem, so the young man did not delay the matter any further, since he was delighted with Jacob's daughter. Now Shechem was the most important person in his father's household. So Hamor and his son Shechem entered the gate of their city and addressed the men of their city. "These men are at peace with us," they announced. "Therefore, let them live in the land and trade in it. Look! The land is large enough for them. Let's take their daughters as wives for ourselves and let's give our sons to them. "However," they added, "only on this condition will the men consent to live with us and be united as a single people with us: every male among us will have to be circumcised just as they are. Shouldn't all their cattle, acquisitions, and animals belong to us? So, let's give our consent to them, and then they'll live with us." All of the males who heard Hamor and his son Shechem, who had gone out to the city gate, were circumcised. Three days later, while they were still in pain, Jacob's sons Simeon and Levi, two of Dinah's brothers, each grabbed a sword and entered the city unannounced, intending to kill all the males. They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took back Dinah from Shechem's house, and left. Jacob's other sons came along afterward and plundered the city where their sister had been defiled, seizing all of their flocks, herds, donkeys, and whatever else was in the city or had been left out in the field. They carried off all their wealth, their children, and their wives as captives, plundering everything that remained in the houses. Then Jacob told Simeon and Levi, "You have certainly stirred up trouble for me! You've made me despised by the Canaanites and the Perizzites who live in this territory. Because I have only a few men with me, they're going to gather themselves together and attack me until I am totally destroyed, along with my entire household!" "Should he have treated our sister like a whore?" they asked in response.

So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came to visit him, Amnon asked the king, "Please let my sister Tamar come and make some of her bread especially for me, so she can feed it to me personally." So David sent for Tamar back at the palace, telling her, "Please go to your brother Amnon's home and prepare some food for him." Tamar went to her brother Amnon's home, where he was lying down. She brought along some dough, kneaded it, prepared some cakes especially for him, baked them, read more.
and emptied the baking skillet just for him, but he refused to eat. "Send everybody out of here," Amnon said. So everyone left the room. Amnon told Tamar, "Bring the food into my private bedroom, so I can eat it with you personally." So Tamar took the cakes she had prepared and brought them into the private bedroom for her brother Amnon. But as soon as she brought them near him to eat, he overpowered her and told her, "Come here and have sex with me, my sister!" "No, my brother!" she kept telling him. "Don't humiliate me like this! This just isn't done in Israel! Don't do this utterly foolish thing! And what about me? Where will I go to escape this disgrace? And as for you, you'll be known as one of Israel's greatest fools! So please talk to the king, because he won't withhold me from you!" But he was unwilling to listen to what she was saying. Since he was stronger than she was, he forced her into having sex with him.

Rebekah gave these instructions to her son Jacob: "Quick! Pay attention!" she said. "I heard your father talking to your brother Esau. He told him, "Bring me some game and then prepare some food for me so I can eat and bless you in the presence of the LORD before I die.' So now, my son, listen to what I have to say and pay attention to what I'm about to tell you. read more.
Go to the flock and bring me two healthy young goats. I'll prepare some delicious food for your father, just the way he loves it. Then you are to take it to your father so that he can eat and bless you before he dies." "But look!" Jacob pointed out to his mother Rebekah, "My brother Esau is a hairy man, but I'm smooth skinned. My father might touch me and he'll realize that I'm deceiving him. Then, I'll bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing." "My son," she replied, "let any curse against you fall on me. Just listen to me, then go and get them for me." So out he went, got them, and brought them to his mother, who then prepared some delicious food, just the way his father liked it. Then Rebekah took some garments that belonged to her elder son Esau the best ones available and put them on her younger son Jacob. She put some goat skins over his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. Then she handed the delicious food and bread that she had prepared to her son Jacob, who went to his father and said, "My father"" "It's me!" he replied. "Which one are you, my son?" "I'm Esau, your firstborn!" Jacob told his father. "I've done what you asked, so please sit up and eat what I caught, so you can bless me." "How did you get it so quickly, my son?" Isaac asked. Jacob responded, ""because the LORD your God made me successful." So Isaac told Jacob, "Come here, my son, so I can feel you and know for sure whether or not you're my son Esau." So Jacob approached his father, who felt him and said, "It's Jacob's voice, but Esau's hands." He didn't recognize Jacob, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau, so Isaac blessed him.

But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they took the initiative by preparing their provisions shrewdly: they took tattered sacks for their donkeys, worn-out, torn, and mended wineskins, worn-out, patched sandals for their feet, and worn-out clothes. All of their food was dried out and covered in mold. read more.
Then they approached Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and addressed him and the Israelis, "We've arrived from a distant country, so please make a treaty with us right now." But the Israelis responded to the Hivites, "Perhaps you live in our midst. If this is so, how can we make a treaty with you?" So they responded to Joshua, "We are your servants." Joshua asked them, "Who are you? And where did you come from?" They answered, "Your servants have arrived from a very distant land, because of the reputation of the LORD your God, because we've heard a report about all that he did in Egypt, along with all of what he did to the two Amorite kings who were beyond the Jordan River that is, to King Sihon of Heshbon and to King Og of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth. So our leaders and all of the inhabitants of our country told us, "Take provisions along with you for your journey, go to meet them, and tell them, "We are your servants. Come now and make a treaty with us."' Look at our bread: it was still warm when we took it from our houses as our food for our journey on the very day we set out to come to you. But now, look how it's dry and moldy. And these wineskins were new when we filled them, but look now they're cracked. And our clothes and sandals are worn out from our very long journey." So the leaders of Israel sampled their provisions, but did not ask the LORD about it. They made a treaty with them, guaranteeing their lives with a covenant, and the leaders of the congregation confirmed it with an oath to them.

But when the Israelis cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up Gera's son Ehud, a left-handed descendant of Benjamin, as a deliverer for them. The Israelis paid tribute through him to king Eglon of Moab. Ehud forged a double-edged sword that was one cubit long, tied it to his right thigh under his cloak, and went to present the tribute to King Eglon of Moab. Now Eglon happened to be a very obese man. read more.
As he finished presenting the tribute, Ehud sent away the people who had been carrying it. He had turned away from the idols that were at Gilgal. So he told Eglon, "I have a secret message for you, king." King Eglon responded "Silence!" and all of his attendants left him. Ehud approached him while he was sitting by himself in the cool roof chamber of his palace. He said, "I have a message from God for you!" So when Eglon got up from his seat, Ehud used his left hand to take the sword from his right thigh and then plunged it into Eglon's abdomen. The hilt also penetrated along with the sword blade, and Eglon's fat closed in over the blade. Because he did not withdraw the sword from Eglon's abdomen, the sword point exited from Eglon's entrails. Then Ehud left the cool chamber in the direction of the vestibule, shutting and locking the doors behind him. After he left, Eglon's attendants came to look, but the doors to the cool chamber were locked! So they said, "He must be relieving himself in the inner part of the cool chamber." They waited until they were embarrassed, since he never opened the doors to the chamber. Eventually they took a key, opened the doors, and found their master dead on the ground. Meanwhile, Ehud escaped while they were delayed, passed by the idols, and escaped in the direction of Seirah. When he arrived there, he sounded a trumpet in the mountainous region of Ephraim. While the Israeli army accompanied Ehud from the mountainous regions, he told them, "Attack them, because the LORD has given your enemies the Moabites into your control." So the Israeli army followed after him, seized the fords of the Jordan River opposite Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross. At that time they attacked about 10,000 Moabites, all of whom were strong and valiant men. Not one man escaped. As a result, Moab was subdued under the control of Israel, and the land remained quiet for 80 years.

After this incident, he loved a woman in Sorek Valley whose name was Delilah. The Philistine officials approached her and told her, "Entice him to discover where his great strength is, and how we can overpower him. We intend to tie him up and torture him. We'll each pay you 1,100 silver coins." So Delilah asked Samson, "Please tell me the secret to your great strength and how you may be tied up and tortured." read more.
Samson replied, "If I'm tied up with seven green cords that have never been dried out, then I'll become weak and just like any other human being." Then the Philistine leaders brought her seven green cords that had never been dried, and she tied him up with them. Meanwhile, some kidnappers were hiding inside an inner room, waiting for her signal. So she told him, "The Philistines are attacking you!" But he snapped the cords as one might break a burned candle wick. So his secret remained undiscovered. Some time later, Delilah told Samson, "Look here! You've been mocking me and lying to me. Now please tell me how you can be tied up." He told her, "If I'm tied up securely with new ropes that have never been used, then I'll become weak and just like any other human being." So Delilah grabbed some new ropes and tied him up. Then she told him, "The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!" because some kidnappers were hiding inside an inner room. But he snapped the ropes from his arms like thread. Later on, Delilah told Samson, "You're still mocking me and telling me lies! Tell me how to tie you up!" He answered her, "If you weave the seven locks on my head into a loom and fasten it with a peg, then I will become weak and just like any other human being." So Delilah took the seven locks on his head and wove them into the loom while he slept. She fastened his hair with a peg and then told him, "The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!" But he woke up from his nap and pulled the pin from the loom and the weaving. Some time later, she asked him, "How can you keep saying "I love you!' when your heart isn't with me? These three times you've lied to me and haven't told me where your great strength lies." She nagged him every day with this speech, pestering him until he was annoyed nearly to death. So he finally disclosed everything. He told her, "A razor has never touched my head, because I've been a Nazirite for God before I was born. If I am shaved, then my strength will abandon me and I will become weak like every human being." When Delilah realized that he had disclosed everything to her, she sent for the Philistine officials and told them, "Hurry up and come here at once, because he has told me everything." So the Philistine officials went to her and brought their money with them. So she enticed him to fall asleep on her lap, called for a man to shave off his seven locks of hair from his head, and so began to humiliate him. Then his strength abandoned him. When she cried out, "The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!" he woke from his sleep and told himself, "I'll go out like I did at other times like this and shake myself free." But he didn't know that the LORD had abandoned him.

If anyone thinks that he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but instead deceives himself, his religion is worthless.

He flatters himself too much to discover his transgression and hate it.

Keep on being obedient to the word, and not merely being hearers who deceive themselves.

If we say that we do not have any sin, we are deceiving ourselves and we're not being truthful to ourselves.

"I'm a prophet like you," the old man replied, "and an angel spoke to me and delivered this message from the LORD: "Bring him back with you to your house and give him food and water.'" But he was lying,

But my brothers have acted treacherously like a cascading river, like torrential rivers that overflow.

And so it was that forty years after Israel had demanded a king, Absalom asked the king, "Please let me go to Hebron so I can pay my vow that I made to the LORD,

They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. They said, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere and that you teach the way of God truthfully. You don't favor any individual, because you pay no attention to external appearance.

After Naaman had gone only a short distance, Gehazi, the attendant to Elisha, the man of God, told himself, "Look how my master has spared this Aramean, Naaman! He declined to take from him what he brought. As the LORD lives, I'm going to run after him and get something from him."

Just then an expert in the Law stood up to test Jesus. He asked, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

Later on, the men of that place asked about his wife, so he replied, "She's my sister," because he was afraid to call her "my wife." He kept thinking, ""otherwise, the men around here will kill me on account of Rebekah, since she's very beautiful."

Now it was two days before the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The high priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus secretly and to have him put to death,

Your tongue, like a sharp razor, devises wicked things and crafts treachery.

But then a man named Ananias, with the consent of his wife Sapphira, sold some property.

"You certainly will not die!" the Shining One told the woman.

and sent them to Bethlehem. He told them, "As you go, search carefully for the child. When you find him, tell me so that I, too, may go and worship him."