Proverbs 21:6 (BSB)

Making a fortune by a lying tongue is a vanishing mist, a deadly pursuit.

From Proverbs 21. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 21:6

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 21:6: This shows the folly of those that hope to enrich themselves by dishonest practices, by oppressing and over-reaching those with whom they deal, by false-witness-bearing, or by fraudulent contracts, of those that make no scruples of lying when there is any thing to be got by it. They may perhaps heap up treasures by these means, that which they make their treasure; but, 1.
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 21:6: The getting of treasures by a lying tongue,.... By telling lies in trade; by bearing false witness in a court of judicature; or by preaching false doctrines in the church of God: is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death: such treasures, though ever so great, are like any light thing, smoke or vapour, straw, stubble, chaff, or a feather, tossed...
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (Reformed), Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible on Proverbs 21:6: The getting--or, "what is obtained" (compare Job 7:2; Jer 22:13, Hebrew). vanity . . . to and fro--as fleeting as chaff or stubble in the wind (compare Pro 20:17-21; Psa 62:10). Such gettings are unsatisfactory. them . . . death--act as if they did (Pro 8:36; Pro 17:19).
• Keil & Delitzsch (Lutheran), Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament on Proverbs 21:6: Pro 21:6 6 The gaining of treasures by a lying tongue Is a fleeting breath of such as seek death. One may, at any rate, after the free manner of gnomic resemblances and comparisons, regard “fleeting breath” and “such as seek death” as two separated predicates: such gain is fleeting breath, so those who gain are seeking death (Caspari's Beiträge zu Jes. p. 53).