Proverbs 20:6

THE MESSAGE

Lots of people claim to be loyal and loving, but where on earth can you find one?

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Many a person proclaims his own loyalty,but who can find a trustworthy person?

Hebrew Names Version
Many men claim to be men of unfailing love, But who can find a faithful man?

King James Version
Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?

English Standard Version
Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?

New American Standard Bible
Many a person proclaims his own loyalty, But who can find a trustworthy person?

New Century Version
Many people claim to be loyal, but it is hard to find a trustworthy person.

Amplified Bible
Many a man proclaims his own loyalty and goodness, But who can find a faithful and trustworthy man?

World English Bible
Many men claim to be men of unfailing love, But who can find a faithful man?

Geneva Bible (1587)
Many men wil boast, euery one of his owne goodnes: but who can finde a faithfull man?

Legacy Standard Bible
Many a man will call out his own lovingkindness,But a faithful man, who can find?

Berean Standard Bible
Many a man proclaims his loving devotion, but who can find a trustworthy man?

Contemporary English Version
There are many who say, "You can trust me!" But can they be trusted?

Complete Jewish Bible
Most people announce that they show kindness, but who can find someone faithful [enough to do it]?

Darby Translation
Most men will proclaim every one his own kindness; but a faithful man who shall find?

Easy-to-Read Version
You might call many people your "friends," but it is hard to find someone who can really be trusted.

George Lamsa Translation
Many men are considered merciful; but a faithful man who can find?

Good News Translation
Everyone talks about how loyal and faithful he is, but just try to find someone who really is!

Lexham English Bible
Many a person will proclaim his loyalty for himself, but a man who is trustworthy, who can find?

Literal Translation
Most men will proclaim each his own kindness, but who can find a faithful man?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Many there be that are called good doers, but where shal one fynde a true faithful ma?

American Standard Version
Most men will proclaim every one his own kindness; But a faithful man who can find?

Bible in Basic English
Most men make no secret of their kind acts: but where is a man of good faith to be seen?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness; but a faithful man who can find?

King James Version (1611)
Most men will proclaime euery one his owne goodnes: but a faithfull man who can finde?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Many there be that woulde be called good doers: but where shall one finde a faythfull man?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
A man is valuable, and a merciful man precious: but it is hard to find a faithful man.

English Revised Version
Most men wilt proclaim every one his own kindness: but a faithful man who can find?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Many men ben clepid merciful; but who schal fynde a feithful man?

Update Bible Version
Most of man will proclaim every one his own kindness; But a faithful man who can find?

Webster's Bible Translation
Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?

New English Translation
Many people profess their loyalty, but a faithful person—who can find?

New King James Version
Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, But who can find a faithful man?

New Living Translation
Many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is truly reliable?

New Life Bible
Many men tell about their own loving-kindness and good ways but who can find a faithful man?

New Revised Standard
Many proclaim themselves loyal, but who can find one worthy of trust?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
A kind man one may call, a great man, - but, a faithful man, who can find?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Many men are called merciful: but who shall find a faithful man?

Revised Standard Version
Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, but a faithful man who can find?

Young's Literal Translation
A multitude of men proclaim each his kindness, And a man of stedfastness who doth find?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, But who can find a trustworthy man?

Contextual Overview

⁶ Lots of people claim to be loyal and loving, but where on earth can you find one?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

proclaim: Proverbs 25:14, Proverbs 27:2, Matthew 6:2, Luke 18:8, Luke 18:11, Luke 18:28, Luke 22:33, 2 Corinthians 12:11

goodness: or, bounty

but: Psalms 12:1, Ecclesiastes 7:28, Jeremiah 5:1, Micah 7:2, Luke 18:8, John 1:47

Reciprocal: Proverbs 21:2 - right Proverbs 28:20 - faithful Matthew 9:14 - Why Matthew 26:33 - yet Luke 16:15 - Ye

Cross-References

Genesis 20:6
God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know your intentions were pure, that's why I kept you from sinning against me; I was the one who kept you from going to bed with her. So now give the man's wife back to him. He's a prophet and will pray for you—pray for your life. If you don't give her back, know that it's certain death both for you and everyone in your family."

Genesis 26:11
Then Abimelech gave orders to his people: "Anyone who so much as lays a hand on this man or his wife dies."

1 Samuel 25:26
To Fight God's Battles Samuel died. The whole country came to his funeral. Everyone grieved over his death, and he was buried in his hometown of Ramah. Meanwhile, David moved again, this time to the wilderness of Maon. There was a certain man in Maon who carried on his business in the region of Carmel. He was very prosperous—three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and it was sheep-shearing time in Carmel. The man's name was Nabal (Fool), a Calebite, and his wife's name was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and good-looking, the man brutish and mean. David, out in the backcountry, heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep and sent ten of his young men off with these instructions: "Go to Carmel and approach Nabal. Greet him in my name, ‘Peace! Life and peace to you. Peace to your household, peace to everyone here! I heard that it's sheep-shearing time. Here's the point: When your shepherds were camped near us we didn't take advantage of them. They didn't lose a thing all the time they were with us in Carmel. Ask your young men—they'll tell you. What I'm asking is that you be generous with my men—share the feast! Give whatever your heart tells you to your servants and to me, David your son.'" David's young men went and delivered his message word for word to Nabal. Nabal tore into them, "Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? The country is full of runaway servants these days. Do you think I'm going to take good bread and wine and meat freshly butchered for my sheepshearers and give it to men I've never laid eyes on? Who knows where they've come from?" David's men got out of there and went back and told David what he had said. David said, "Strap on your swords!" They all strapped on their swords, David and his men, and set out, four hundred of them. Two hundred stayed behind to guard the camp. Meanwhile, one of the young shepherds told Abigail, Nabal's wife, what had happened: "David sent messengers from the backcountry to salute our master, but he tore into them with insults. Yet these men treated us very well. They took nothing from us and didn't take advantage of us all the time we were in the fields. They formed a wall around us, protecting us day and night all the time we were out tending the sheep. Do something quickly because big trouble is ahead for our master and all of us. Nobody can talk to him. He's impossible—a real brute!" Abigail flew into action. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep dressed out and ready for cooking, a bushel of roasted grain, a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she had it all loaded on some donkeys. Then she said to her young servants, "Go ahead and pave the way for me. I'm right behind you." But she said nothing to her husband Nabal. As she was riding her donkey, descending into a ravine, David and his men were descending from the other end, so they met there on the road. David had just said, "That sure was a waste, guarding everything this man had out in the wild so that nothing he had was lost—and now he rewards me with insults. A real slap in the face! May God do his worst to me if Nabal and every cur in his misbegotten brood aren't dead meat by morning!" As soon as Abigail saw David, she got off her donkey and fell on her knees at his feet, her face to the ground in homage, saying, "My master, let me take the blame! Let me speak to you. Listen to what I have to say. Don't dwell on what that brute Nabal did. He acts out the meaning of his name: Nabal, Fool. Foolishness oozes from him. "I wasn't there when the young men my master sent arrived. I didn't see them. And now, my master, as God lives and as you live, God has kept you from this avenging murder—and may your enemies, all who seek my master's harm, end up like Nabal! Now take this gift that I, your servant girl, have brought to my master, and give it to the young men who follow in the steps of my master. "Forgive my presumption! But God is at work in my master, developing a rule solid and dependable. My master fights God 's battles! As long as you live no evil will stick to you. If anyone stands in your way, if anyone tries to get you out of the way, Know this: Your God-honored life is tightly bound in the bundle of God-protected life; But the lives of your enemies will be hurled aside as a stone is thrown from a sling. "When God completes all the goodness he has promised my master and sets you up as prince over Israel, my master will not have this dead weight in his heart, the guilt of an avenging murder. And when God has worked things for good for my master, remember me." And David said, "Blessed be God , the God of Israel. He sent you to meet me! And blessed be your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and taking charge of looking out for me. A close call! As God lives, the God of Israel who kept me from hurting you, if you had not come as quickly as you did, stopping me in my tracks, by morning there would have been nothing left of Nabal but dead meat." Then David accepted the gift she brought him and said, "Return home in peace. I've heard what you've said and I'll do what you've asked." When Abigail got home she found Nabal presiding over a huge banquet. He was in high spirits—and very, very drunk. So she didn't tell him anything of what she'd done until morning. But in the morning, after Nabal had sobered up, she told him the whole story. Right then and there he had a heart attack and fell into a coma. About ten days later God finished him off and he died. When David heard that Nabal was dead he said, "Blessed be God who has stood up for me against Nabal's insults, kept me from an evil act, and let Nabal's evil boomerang back on him." Then David sent for Abigail to tell her that he wanted her for his wife. David's servants went to Abigail at Carmel with the message, "David sent us to bring you to marry him." She got up, and then bowed down, face to the ground, saying, "I'm your servant, ready to do anything you want. I'll even wash the feet of my master's servants!" Abigail didn't linger. She got on her donkey and, with her five maids in attendance, went with the messengers to David and became his wife. David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel. Both women were his wives. Saul had married off David's wife Michal to Palti (Paltiel) son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

Psalms 51:4
You're the One I've violated, and you've seen it all, seen the full extent of my evil. You have all the facts before you; whatever you decide about me is fair. I've been out of step with you for a long time, in the wrong since before I was born. What you're after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.

Proverbs 21:1
Good leadership is a channel of water controlled by God ; he directs it to whatever ends he chooses.

1 Corinthians 7:1
Now, getting down to the questions you asked in your letter to me. First, Is it a good thing to have sexual relations?

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness,.... As the Pharisee did, in Luke 18:11; and as the Pharisees in common did; who did all their works to be seen of men, and made clean the outside of the cup and platter; and were very careful to appear outwardly righteous to men, Matthew 23:5. And indeed this is the general cast of men; everyone is proclaiming his goodness to others, and would be thought to be good men; and cannot be easy with doing a good action, unless it is known, and particularly acts of beneficence and alms deeds; and are like the Pharisees, who, on such occasions, sounded a trumpet before them, Matthew 6:2. And the word may be rendered, "his mercy" b, or his kindness to the poor: the Targum renders it,

"many of the children of men are called merciful men;''

and so the Vulgate Latin version; and they like to be so called and accounted, whether they are so or not;

but a faithful man who can find? who answers to the character he gives of himself, or others upon his own representation give him; who is as good as his word, and, having promised assistance and relief, gives it; and who, having boasted that he has done a kindness to such an one and such an one, does the same likewise to another when applied to; or who sticks to his friend, and does not forsake him in his adversity, but supports and supplies him whom he knew in prosperity; it is hard and rare to find such a man; see Psalms 12:1. Or, though every man is talking of his good works, and boasting of his goodness, it is difficult to find an Israelite indeed, in whom the true grace of God is.

b חסדו "misericordiam suam", Pagninus, so some in Vatablus; "unius cujusque misericordiam", Mercerus, Gejerus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Goodness - With the special sense of bounty, beneficence. Contrast promise and performance. People boast of their liberality, yet we look in vain for the fulfillment of actual obligations.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 20:6. Most men will proclaim — Many men merciful ben clepid: a feithful man forsoth, who schal finde? - Old MS. Bible.