Proverbs 11 · a question people ask

"There is one who scatters, and increases yet more" (11:24). Is this a promise that giving makes you richer?

In the text

Here is what the verses say. "There is one who scatters, and increases yet more. There is one who withholds more than is appropriate, but gains poverty" (11:24). "The liberal soul shall be made fat. He who waters shall be watered also himself" (11:25). The first verse tells of two people, each beginning "There is one who" (11:24). Neither verse says what is scattered, how much, when the increase comes, or what it is. The same chapter says other things about riches: "Riches don’t profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death" (11:4), "A gracious woman obtains honor, but violent men obtain riches" (11:16), and "He who trusts in his riches will fall" (11:28). And the book says, "An abundance of food is in poor people’s fields, but injustice sweeps it away" (Proverbs 13:23), and "Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than he who is perverse in his ways, and he is rich" (Proverbs 28:6). The book holds all of these sayings together. These notes don't make 11:24-25 a guarantee the text doesn't state, and they don't tell anyone what to do with their money.

The verses

“Riches don’t profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.”
Proverbs 11:4 · World English Bible
“A gracious woman obtains honor, but violent men obtain riches.”
Proverbs 11:16 · World English Bible
“There is one who scatters, and increases yet more. There is one who withholds more than is appropriate, but gains poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat. He who waters shall be watered also himself.”
Proverbs 11:24-25 · World English Bible
“He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous shall flourish as the green leaf.”
Proverbs 11:28 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Proverbs 11

Proverbs 11: Accurate weights

One frame holds a pair of scales and a heart: "A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but accurate weights are his delight" (11:1), and the perverse in heart are "an abomination to the LORD", the blameless "his delight" (11:20). And the Hebrew word for righteousness, tsedaqah, comes five times in this chapter, more than in any other chapter of Proverbs.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions