Proverbs 20:17

Bread gained by deceit ¹  tastes sweet to a person, ²  but afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel. ³ 

Food gained by fraud tastes sweet to a man, but he ends up with a mouth full of gravel.

Bread obtained by falsehood is sweet to a man, But afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.

Stolen bread tastes sweet, but it turns to gravel in the mouth.

Stolen bread tastes sweet, but soon your mouth is full of gravel.

Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but after, his mouth will be full of sand.

Bread gained by deceit is sweet, but afterward the mouth will be full of gravel.

Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, But afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.

Bread gained by deceit ¹  tastes sweet to a person, ²  but afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel. ³ 

¹ tn Heb “bread of deceit” (so KJV, NAB). This refers to food gained through dishonest means. The term “bread” is a synecdoche of specific for general, referring to anything obtained by fraud, including food.

² tn Heb “a man.”

³ sn The image of food and eating is carried throughout the proverb. Food taken by fraud seems sweet at first, but afterward it is not. To end up with a mouth full of gravel (a mass of small particles; e.g., Job 20:14-15; Lam 3:16) implies by comparison that what has been taken by fraud will be worthless and useless and certainly in the way (like food turning into sand and dirt).