The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death.
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.
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...
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).