22 Bible Verses about Dishonesty

A false scale balance is an abomination to Jehovah. A perfect weight is his delight.

Jehovah says: The merchants use dishonest scales. They love to cheat people.

Can I be pure with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful stone weights?

A person who gets rich dishonestly is like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay. During his lifetime, he will lose his wealth. In the end, he will be a wicked fool.

Good for nothing, cries the buyer. But when he goes his way he boasts about the purchase.

A person who gets rich dishonestly is like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay. During his lifetime, he will lose his wealth. In the end, he will be a wicked fool.

Wealth acquired by lying is fleeting vapor and a deadly pursuit.

Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness and his upper rooms without justice. Woe to him who uses his neighbor's services without pay and does not give him his wages.

Better to be poor with righteousness than rich with injustice.

He who gets ahead by oppressing the poor and giving to the rich will certainly suffer loss.

They deprive the poor of justice. They take away the rights of the needy among my people. They prey on widows and rob orphans.

Some of your people murder for pay. Some charge interest on the loans they make to other Israelites and get rich by taking advantage of them. They have forgotten me. The Lord Jehovah has spoken.

You impose unfair rent on the poor and defraud a tribute of grain from them. You haave built houses of hewn stone yet you will not live in them. You planted pleasant vineyards, but you will not drink the wine from them.

Then that servant met another servant who was in debt to him for one hundred denarii. He took him by the throat, saying, 'Pay your debt now.'

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, yet the inside is full of extortion and excess.

Then his wife Jezebel said: Are you now the ruler of Israel? Get up, eat and be happy. I will give you the garden of Naboth the Jezreelite.

Abraham complained to Abimelech because of the well of water that the servants of Abimelech had seized.

The herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac. They said: The water is ours! So he named the well Esek, because they argued with him.

I have been in your house twenty years! I was your servant for fourteen years because of your daughters. I kept your flock for six years. You changed my wages ten times.

Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things and put them in their own possessions.

Do not oppress your neighbor and do not rob him. Do not fail to pay your workers at the end of each day.

You know the commandments, do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.

Instead you do wrong and defraud, and you do this to your brothers and sisters!

A false scale balance is an abomination to Jehovah. A perfect weight is his delight.

Jehovah says: The merchants use dishonest scales. They love to cheat people.

Can I be pure with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful stone weights?

A person who gets rich dishonestly is like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay. During his lifetime, he will lose his wealth. In the end, he will be a wicked fool.

Good for nothing, cries the buyer. But when he goes his way he boasts about the purchase.

Then his wife Jezebel said: Are you now the ruler of Israel? Get up, eat and be happy. I will give you the garden of Naboth the Jezreelite.

Abraham complained to Abimelech because of the well of water that the servants of Abimelech had seized.

The herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac. They said: The water is ours! So he named the well Esek, because they argued with him.

I have been in your house twenty years! I was your servant for fourteen years because of your daughters. I kept your flock for six years. You changed my wages ten times.

Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things and put them in their own possessions.

Jacob said to Laban: Give me my wife for the time is completed. I want to marry Rachel now! Laban gathered all the men of the place and gave a feast. In the evening when it was dark, he took Leah, his daughter, and gave her to him. Jacob slept with her. read more.
Laban gave Zilpah, his servant-girl, to Leah, to be her maid. What have you done to me? Jacob asked Laban: Did I work for you in return for Rachel? Why did you cheat me? Laban answered: It is not our custom to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. Finish the week of wedding festivities with this daughter. Then we will give you the other one too. But you will have to work for me another seven years. Jacob did that. He finished the week with Leah. Then Laban gave his daughter Rachel to him as his wife. Laban gave his slave Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her slave. Jacob slept with Rachel too. He loved Rachel more than Leah. So he worked for Laban another seven years.

Jacob lost his temper. What crime have I committed? he asked angrily. What law have I broken that gives you the right to hunt me down? Now that you have searched through all my belongings, what household article have you found that belongs to you? Put it out here where your men and mine can see it. Let them decide which one of us is right. I have been with you now for twenty years. Your sheep and your goats have not failed to reproduce. I have not even eaten any rams from your flocks. read more.
I always absorbed the loss when wild animals killed a sheep. I did not take it to you to show that it was not my fault. You demanded that I make good anything that was stolen during the day or during the night. Many times I suffered from the heat during the day and from the cold at night. I was not able to sleep. I have been in your house twenty years! I was your servant for fourteen years because of your daughters. I kept your flock for six years. You changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, out of respect for Isaac, had not been with me, you would have sent me away empty-handed by now. God has seen my misery and hard work. Last night he made it right!

We have this ministry to do, even as we obtained mercy, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the hidden things of shame. And we do not walk in craftiness and deceit. We do not adulterate the word of God. But by the manifestation of the truth we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

Abraham complained to Abimelech because of the well of water that the servants of Abimelech had seized.

The Philistines stopped up all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father. They filled them with dirt. Abimelech said to Isaac: Go away from us. You are too powerful for us. Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar where he settled. read more.
Then Isaac dug the water wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham. The Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He gave them the same names his father had given them. Isaac's servants dug in the valley (wadi) (torrent-valley) and found a well of running water. The herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac. They said: The water is ours! So he named the well Esek, because they argued with him. They dug another well. And they quarreled over that one too. So Isaac named it Sitnah (Accusation). He moved on from there and dug another well. They did not quarrel over this one. So he named it Rehoboth (Roomy). He said: Now Jehovah has made room for us. We will prosper in this land.

One day while Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from hunting. He was hungry. He said to Jacob: I am starving! Give me some of that red stuff. (That is why he was named Edom.) Jacob answered: I will give it to you if you give me your birthright as the firstborn son. read more.
Esau said: All right! I am about to die. What good are rights as firstborn to me? Jacob answered: First make a vow that you will give me your birthright. Esau made the vow and gave his rights as firstborn to Jacob.

Laban asked: What should I give you? Jacob answered: Do not give me anything. Instead, do something for me. Then I will go back to taking care of and watching your flocks again. Let me go through all of your flocks today and take every speckled and spotted sheep, every black lamb, and every spotted and speckled goat. They will be my wages. My honesty will speak for itself whenever you come to check on my wages. Any goat I have that is not speckled or spotted or any lamb that is not black will be considered stolen. read more.
Laban answered: I agree; we will do as you have said. Laban took out the striped and spotted male goats, all the speckled and spotted female goats (every one with white on it), and every black lamb. He had his sons take charge of them that same day. They moved away from Jacob with this flock as far as he could travel in three days. Jacob took care of the rest of Laban's flocks. Jacob took green branches of poplar (storax), almond, and plane trees and stripped off some of the bark so that the branches had white stripes on them. He placed these branches in front of the flocks at their drinking troughs. He put them there, because the animals mated when they came to drink. So when the goats bred in front of the branches, they produced young that were streaked, speckled, and spotted. Jacob kept the sheep separate from the goats and made them face in the direction of the streaked and black animals of Laban's flock. In this way he built up his own flock and kept it apart from Laban's. When the strongest of the flock were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the gutters, so that they might mate by the rods. When the flock was feeble, he did not put them in. That way the feebler were Laban's and the stronger Jacob's. He became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.

Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things and put them in their own possessions. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies. They ran from their enemies, because they were accursed. I will not be with you any more until you destroy the devoted things you have among you. Get up and sanctify the people. Say: 'Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow: for the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: There is an accursed thing in the midst of you, O Israel: You cannot stand before you enemies until you take away the devoted thing from among you. read more.
In the morning assemble by tribe. The tribe Jehovah picks will come forward family by family and man by man. He that has take the devoted things shall be burned in the fire, along with all that he owns. He has transgressed the covenant of Jehovah. He has committed a disgraceful thing in Israel.' So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken: He brought the family of Judah; and he took the family of the Zarhites: and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man; and Zabdi was taken: And he brought his household man by man; and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken. Joshua said to Achan: My son, give glory to Jehovah God of Israel and confess to him. Tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me. Achan answered Joshua: Indeed I have sinned against Jehovah the God of Israel. This I have done. When I saw among the spoils a quality Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them. I hid them in the earth in the middle of my tent. So Joshua sent messengers to the tent and found it and the silver. They took them out of the middle of the tent, and brought them to Joshua, and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before Jehovah. And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. Joshua said: Why have you troubled us? Jehovah will trouble you this day. All Israel stoned them with stones. After they stoned them they burned them with fire. They raised over them a great heap of stones that is there to this day. So Jehovah turned from the fierceness of his anger. The name of that place was called, the Valley of Achor, to this day.

Joab sent someone to Tekoa to get a wise woman from there. He told her: Please act like a mourner. Dress in mourning clothes. Do not use any cosmetic lotions. Act like a woman who has been mourning for the dead for a long time. Go to the king and speak to him in this way. Then Joab told her exactly what to say. The woman from Tekoa came to the king. She immediately bowed down with her face touching the ground. Help me, Your Majesty, she said. read more.
The king asked her: What can I do for you? She answered: I am a widow; my husband is dead. I had two sons who fought with each other in the field. There was no one to separate them. One killed the other. All my relatives have turned against me and are demanding that I hand my son over to them. They want to kill him for murdering his brother. If they do this, I will be left without a son. They will destroy my last hope. They will leave my husband without a son to keep his name alive. The king responded: Go back home. I will take care of the matter. Your Majesty, she said, do whatever you must. My family and I will take the blame. You and the royal family are innocent. The king replied: If someone threatens you, bring him to me. He will never bother you again. She said: Please pray to Jehovah your God, Your Majesty, so that my relative who is responsible for avenging the death of my son will not commit a greater crime by killing my other son. I promise by the living Jehovah, David replied, your son will not be harmed. She added: Your Majesty, May I say something? Yes, he answered. The woman said: Have you been hurting God's people? Your own son had to leave the country. When you judged in my favor, it was the same as admitting that you should have let him come back. We each must die and disappear like water poured out on the ground. But God does not take our lives. Instead, he figures out ways of bringing us back when we run away. Your Majesty, I came here to tell you about my problem. I was afraid of what someone might do to me. I decided to come to you, because I thought you could help. In fact, I knew that you would listen and save my son and me from those who want to take the land that God gave us. I can rest easy now that you have given your decision. You know the difference between right and wrong just like an angel of God. I pray that Jehovah your God will be with you. David said: Now I ask you a question. Do not try to hide the truth! The woman replied: Please go ahead, Your Majesty. Did Joab put you up to this? The king asked. The woman answered: I solemnly swear on your life, Your Majesty, you are absolutely right! Yes, your servant Joab ordered me to do this. He told me to say exactly what I said. Your servant Joab has done this to view this matter from a different angle. You are as wise as an angel of God (messenger of God), who knows everything on earth.

But we will let you marry her, if you and the other men in your tribe get circumcised. Then we will give our daughters to you. And we will take your daughters for us. We will live with you as one people. But if you will not undergo circumcision as we say, then we will take our daughter and go. read more.
Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor's son Shechem. The young man did not delay to do what was required. This was because he had delight in Jacob's daughter. He was the most honored of all his family. Hamor and his son Shechem went to their city gate to speak to the men of their city. They said: These people are friendly toward us. So let them live in our land and move about freely in the area. Look, there is plenty of room in this land for them. We can marry their daughters and let them marry ours. These people will consent to live with us and become one nation on one condition: Every male must be circumcised, as they are. Then all their livestock and everything else they own will be ours. So let us agree that they can live among us. All the citizens of the city agreed with what Hamor and Shechem proposed. Then all the males were circumcised. Three days later the men who had been circumcised were still weak from pain. So Simeon and Levi, two of Dinah's brothers, attacked with their swords and killed every man in town. They also killed Hamor and Shechem. Then they took Dinah and left. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain. They plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled. They took their flocks and their herds, their asses and whatever was in the city and in the field. They captured their wives and all their little ones. They took all the wealth that was in their houses. Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi: You have brought trouble on me by making me loathsome to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Per'izzites. My numbers are few. If they gather themselves against me and attack my household I will be destroyed. They responded: Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?

Ahab said to Naboth: Give me your garden so that I may have it for a garden of sweet plants. Since it is near my house let me give you a better vine-garden in exchange. If it seems good to you, let me give you its value in money. But Naboth said to Ahab, God forbid that I give you the heritage of my fathers. Ahab returned to his house bitter and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite said to him: I will not give you the heritage of my fathers. Stretching himself on the bed with his face turned away, he would not eat. read more.
Jezebel his wife came to him and asked: Why is your spirit so bitter that you have no desire for food? He replied: I was talking to Naboth the Jezreelite. I said to him: 'Let me have your garden for money, or, if it pleases you, I will give you another garden for it.' 'But he said: I will not give you my garden.' Then his wife Jezebel said: Are you now the ruler of Israel? Get up, eat and be happy. I will give you the garden of Naboth the Jezreelite. So she sent a letter in Ahab's name, stamped with his stamp, to the elders and nobles who were in authority with Naboth. The letter she wrote is as follows: Let a time of public sorrow be fixed, and put Naboth at the head of the people. Get two good-for-nothing persons to come before him and give witness that he has been cursing God and the king. Then take him out and have him stoned to death. So the elders and nobles in authority in his town did as Jezebel said in the letter she sent them. They gave orders for a day of public sorrow and put Naboth at the head of the people. The two good-for-nothing persons came in and took their seats before him and gave witness against Naboth, in front of the people. They said: Naboth has been cursing God and the king. Then they took him outside the town and had him stoned to death. Then they sent word to Jezebel, saying: Naboth has been stoned and is dead. Jezebel, hearing that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, said to Ahab: Get up and take as your heritage the garden of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he would not give you for money. Naboth is dead. When he heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab went down to the garden of Naboth the Jezreelite to take it as his heritage.

The five men who had gone to spy on the country around Laish said to their companions: Did you know that here in one of these houses there is a wooden idol covered with silver? There are also other idols and an ephod. Consider what you should do. They went into Micah's house, where the young Levite lived. They greeted the Levite. The six hundred soldiers from the tribe of Dan, ready for battle, stood at the gate. read more.
The five spies went straight into the house. They took the wooden idol covered with silver, the other idols, and the ephod. The priest stayed at the gate with the six hundred armed men. The men went into Micah's house and took the sacred objects. The priest asked them: What are you doing? They told him: Be quiet. Do not say a word. Come with us and be our priest and adviser. Is it better for you to be a priest to the house of one man, or to be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel? This filled the priest with joy. He took the sacred objects and went along with them. They turned around and started off, with their children, their livestock, and their belongings going ahead.

Rebekah said to her son Jacob: I have just heard your father speak to your brother Esau. He said: 'Bring me some wild game, and prepare a good-tasting meal for me to eat. Then I will bless you in the presence of Jehovah before I die.' Now listen to me, Son, and do what I tell you. read more.
Go to the flock and pick out two fat young goats. I will cook them and make some of that food your father likes so much. You take it to him to eat. Then he will give you his blessing before he dies. Jacob said to his mother: You know that Esau is a hairy man. I have smooth skin. Perhaps my father will touch me and find out that I am deceiving him. That way, I will bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing. His mother replied: Let any curse against you fall on me, my son. Just do as I say, and go and get the goats for me. So Jacob brought the meat to his mother. And she cooked the tasty food that his father liked. Then she took Esau's best clothes and dressed Jacob in them. She also covered the smooth part of his hands and neck with goatskins. She gave her son Jacob the good-tasting meal and the bread she had prepared.

Rebekah said to her son Jacob: I have just heard your father speak to your brother Esau. He said: 'Bring me some wild game, and prepare a good-tasting meal for me to eat. Then I will bless you in the presence of Jehovah before I die.' Now listen to me, Son, and do what I tell you. read more.
Go to the flock and pick out two fat young goats. I will cook them and make some of that food your father likes so much. You take it to him to eat. Then he will give you his blessing before he dies. Jacob said to his mother: You know that Esau is a hairy man. I have smooth skin. Perhaps my father will touch me and find out that I am deceiving him. That way, I will bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing. His mother replied: Let any curse against you fall on me, my son. Just do as I say, and go and get the goats for me. So Jacob brought the meat to his mother. And she cooked the tasty food that his father liked. Then she took Esau's best clothes and dressed Jacob in them. She also covered the smooth part of his hands and neck with goatskins. She gave her son Jacob the good-tasting meal and the bread she had prepared. He went to his father and said: Father? Yes, he answered. Who are you, Son? Jacob answered: I am your older son Esau. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of the meat that I brought you. Then you can give me your blessing. Isaac said: How did you find it so quickly, son? Jacob answered: Jehovah your God helped me find it. Isaac said to Jacob: Please come closer. Let me touch you. Are you really Esau? Jacob went closer. His father touched him. He said: You sound like Jacob, but your hands feel hairy like Esau's. So Isaac blessed Jacob, thinking he was Esau. Isaac asked: Are you really my son Esau? Yes, I am, Jacob answered. So Isaac told him: Serve me the wild meat. I can give you my blessing. Jacob gave him some meat, and he ate it. He also gave him some wine, and he drank it. Then his father Isaac said to him: Come close, my son, and kiss me. He came close and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his garments. Then he blessed him and said: See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field Jehovah has blessed. May God give you of the dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth, and an abundance of grain and new wine. May peoples serve you. And nations bow down to you. Be master of your brothers. And may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you. Blessed be those who bless you.

He did not say this because he cared for the poor. He was a thief. He had the moneybox and took away what was put in it.

When Laban went to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father's household idols.

He said to his mother: When someone stole those eleven hundred pieces of silver from you, you put a curse on the robber. I heard you do it. Look, I have the money. I am the one who took it. His mother said: Jehovah blesses you.

A person who gets rich dishonestly is like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay. During his lifetime, he will lose his wealth. In the end, he will be a wicked fool.

Every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand.

He did not say this because he cared for the poor. He was a thief. He had the moneybox and took away what was put in it.

A false scale balance is an abomination to Jehovah. A perfect weight is his delight.

Jehovah says: The merchants use dishonest scales. They love to cheat people.

Can I be pure with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful stone weights?

A person who gets rich dishonestly is like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay. During his lifetime, he will lose his wealth. In the end, he will be a wicked fool.

Good for nothing, cries the buyer. But when he goes his way he boasts about the purchase.

A person who gets rich dishonestly is like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay. During his lifetime, he will lose his wealth. In the end, he will be a wicked fool.

Wealth acquired by lying is fleeting vapor and a deadly pursuit.

Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness and his upper rooms without justice. Woe to him who uses his neighbor's services without pay and does not give him his wages.

Better to be poor with righteousness than rich with injustice.

He who gets ahead by oppressing the poor and giving to the rich will certainly suffer loss.

They deprive the poor of justice. They take away the rights of the needy among my people. They prey on widows and rob orphans.

Some of your people murder for pay. Some charge interest on the loans they make to other Israelites and get rich by taking advantage of them. They have forgotten me. The Lord Jehovah has spoken.

You impose unfair rent on the poor and defraud a tribute of grain from them. You haave built houses of hewn stone yet you will not live in them. You planted pleasant vineyards, but you will not drink the wine from them.

Then that servant met another servant who was in debt to him for one hundred denarii. He took him by the throat, saying, 'Pay your debt now.'

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, yet the inside is full of extortion and excess.

Then his wife Jezebel said: Are you now the ruler of Israel? Get up, eat and be happy. I will give you the garden of Naboth the Jezreelite.

Abraham complained to Abimelech because of the well of water that the servants of Abimelech had seized.

The herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac. They said: The water is ours! So he named the well Esek, because they argued with him.

I have been in your house twenty years! I was your servant for fourteen years because of your daughters. I kept your flock for six years. You changed my wages ten times.

Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things and put them in their own possessions.

Elisha left Jericho to go to Bethel. On the way some boys came out of a town and taunted and made fun of him. They shouted: Get out of here, baldy!

Even young children despise me. If I stand up, they make fun of me.

They have attacked me on my right side like a mob. They trip my feet and then prepare ways to destroy me.

People will oppress each other. Everyone will harass his neighbor. The young will tyrannize the old. The common people will taunt their superiors.

Do not oppress your neighbor and do not rob him. Do not fail to pay your workers at the end of each day.

You know the commandments, do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.

Instead you do wrong and defraud, and you do this to your brothers and sisters!