---
title: Proverbs 12:22
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/proverbs-12-22/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/proverbs-12-22.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Proverbs 12:22
testament: OT
section: Poetry
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Proverbs 12:22

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Lying lips are detestable to the LORD, but those who deal faithfully are His delight.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Lying lips are detestable to Jehovah, But those acting faithfully bring pleasure to him."

## JW Usage

Proverbs 12:22 is invoked devotionally — Witnesses are encouraged to be honest in personal speech and reliable in business dealings. The verse rarely functions as a check on organisational practice. The Watchtower's "theocratic warfare" doctrine — withholding truth from those "not entitled to it" (Insight on the Scriptures, "Lie") — is treated as a separate category from the lying-lips Proverbs 12:22 condemns.

## Protestant Usage

Hold Proverbs 12:22 up against the documented pattern of Watchtower legal statements that contradict its internal teaching. Gerrit Lösch's 2014 court declaration in Lopez v. Watchtower stated under penalty of perjury "I do not direct, and have never directed, the day-to-day operations of Watchtower" and "I do not answer to Watchtower" — at the same time the Watchtower was telling Witnesses that the Governing Body is "the channel through which Jesus is feeding his true followers" (15 July 2013, p. 20). Pair with Matthew 5:37 ("let your 'Yes' mean yes"), John 18:20 (Jesus: "I have spoken nothing in secret"), and 2 Corinthians 4:2 (Paul: "we have renounced the shameful underhanded things"). The organisation's two-faces problem — one statement to members, another statement to courts — is exactly what Proverbs 12:22 identifies as detestable. Acting faithfully brings pleasure to Jehovah; lying lips do not.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Lösch Court Declaration](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/losch-declaration.md) — 'I Do Not Answer to the Watchtower' [Authority]