Proverbs 19:1-22:16

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

19 Better the poor walking in integrity
    than one perverse of speech who is a fool.
² Desire without knowledge is not good,
    and one who moves too hurriedly misses the way.
³ One’s own folly leads to ruin,
    yet the heart rages against the Lord.
⁴ Wealth brings many friends,
    but the poor are left friendless.
⁵ A false witness will not go unpunished,
    and a liar will not escape.
⁶ Many seek the favour of the generous,
    and everyone is a friend to a giver of gifts.
⁷ If the poor are hated even by their kin,
    how much more are they shunned by their friends!
When they call after them, they are not there.^[a]
8 To get wisdom is to love oneself;
    to keep understanding is to prosper.
⁹ A false witness will not go unpunished,
    and the liar will perish.
¹⁰ It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury,
    much less for a slave to rule over princes.
¹¹ Those with good sense are slow to anger,
    and it is their glory to overlook an offence.
¹² A king’s anger is like the growling of a lion,
    but his favour is like dew on the grass.
¹³ A stupid child is ruin to a father,
    and a wife’s quarrelling is a continual dripping of rain.
¹⁴ House and wealth are inherited from parents,
    but a prudent wife is from the Lord.
¹⁵ Laziness brings on deep sleep;
    an idle person will suffer hunger.
¹⁶ Those who keep the commandment will live;
    those who are heedless of their ways will die.
¹⁷ Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord,
    and will be repaid in full.
¹⁸ Discipline your children while there is hope;
    do not set your heart on their destruction.
¹⁹ A violent-tempered person will pay the penalty;
    if you effect a rescue, you will only have to do it again.^[b]
20 Listen to advice and accept instruction,
    that you may gain wisdom for the future.
²¹ The human mind may devise many plans,
    but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established.
²² What is desirable in a person is loyalty,
    and it is better to be poor than a liar.
²³ The fear of the Lord is life indeed;
    filled with it one rests secure
    and suffers no harm.
²⁴ The lazy person buries a hand in the dish,
    and will not even bring it back to the mouth.
²⁵ Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence;
    reprove the intelligent, and they will gain knowledge.
²⁶ Those who do violence to their father and chase away their mother
    are children who cause shame and bring reproach.
²⁷ Cease straying, my child, from the words of knowledge,
    in order that you may hear instruction.
²⁸ A worthless witness mocks at justice,
    and the mouth of the wicked devours iniquity.
²⁹ Condemnation is ready for scoffers,
    and flogging for the backs of fools.
20 Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler,
    and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.
² The dread anger of a king is like the growling of a lion;
    anyone who provokes him to anger forfeits life itself.
³ It is honourable to refrain from strife,
    but every fool is quick to quarrel.
⁴ The lazy person does not plough in season;
    harvest comes, and there is nothing to be found.
⁵ The purposes in the human mind are like deep water,
    but the intelligent will draw them out.
⁶ Many proclaim themselves loyal,
    but who can find one worthy of trust?
⁷ The righteous walk in integrity—
    happy are the children who follow them!
⁸ A king who sits on the throne of judgement
    winnows all evil with his eyes.
⁹ Who can say, ‘I have made my heart clean;
    I am pure from my sin’?
¹⁰ Diverse weights and diverse measures
    are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
¹¹ Even children make themselves known by their acts,
    by whether what they do is pure and right.
¹² The hearing ear and the seeing eye—
    the Lord has made them both.
¹³ Do not love sleep, or else you will come to poverty;
    open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.
¹⁴ ‘Bad, bad’, says the buyer,
    then goes away and boasts.
¹⁵ There is gold, and abundance of costly stones;
    but the lips informed by knowledge are a precious jewel.
¹⁶ Take the garment of one who has given surety for a stranger;
    seize the pledge given as surety for foreigners.
¹⁷ Bread gained by deceit is sweet,
    but afterwards the mouth will be full of gravel.
¹⁸ Plans are established by taking advice;
    wage war by following wise guidance.
¹⁹ A gossip reveals secrets;
    therefore do not associate with a babbler.
²⁰ If you curse father or mother,
    your lamp will go out in utter darkness.
²¹ An estate quickly acquired in the beginning
    will not be blessed in the end.
²² Do not say, ‘I will repay evil’;
    wait for the Lord, and he will help you.
²³ Differing weights are an abomination to the Lord,
    and false scales are not good.
²⁴ All our steps are ordered by the Lord;
    how then can we understand our own ways?
²⁵ It is a snare for one to say rashly, ‘It is holy’,
    and begin to reflect only after making a vow.
²⁶ A wise king winnows the wicked,
    and drives the wheel over them.
²⁷ The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord,
    searching every inmost part.
²⁸ Loyalty and faithfulness preserve the king,
    and his throne is upheld by righteousness.^[c]
29 The glory of youths is their strength,
    but the beauty of the aged is their grey hair.
³⁰ Blows that wound cleanse away evil;
    beatings make clean the innermost parts.
21 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord;
    he turns it wherever he will.
² All deeds are right in the sight of the doer,
    but the Lord weighs the heart.
³ To do righteousness and justice
    is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
⁴ Haughty eyes and a proud heart—
    the lamp of the wicked—are sin.
⁵ The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance,
    but everyone who is hasty comes only to want.
⁶ The getting of treasures by a lying tongue
    is a fleeting vapour and a snare^[d] of death.
⁷ The violence of the wicked will sweep them away,
    because they refuse to do what is just.
⁸ The way of the guilty is crooked,
    but the conduct of the pure is right.
⁹ It is better to live in a corner of the housetop
    than in a house shared with a contentious wife.
¹⁰ The souls of the wicked desire evil;
    their neighbours find no mercy in their eyes.
¹¹ When a scoffer is punished, the simple become wiser;
    when the wise are instructed, they increase in knowledge.
¹² The Righteous One observes the house of the wicked;
    he casts the wicked down to ruin.
¹³ If you close your ear to the cry of the poor,
    you will cry out and not be heard.
¹⁴ A gift in secret averts anger;
    and a concealed bribe in the bosom, strong wrath.
¹⁵ When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous,
    but dismay to evildoers.
¹⁶ Whoever wanders from the way of understanding
    will rest in the assembly of the dead.
¹⁷ Whoever loves pleasure will suffer want;
    whoever loves wine and oil will not be rich.
¹⁸ The wicked is a ransom for the righteous,
    and the faithless for the upright.
¹⁹ It is better to live in a desert land
    than with a contentious and fretful wife.
²⁰ Precious treasure remains^[e] in the house of the wise,
    but the fool devours it.
²¹ Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness
    will find life^[f] and honour.
²² One wise person went up against a city of warriors
    and brought down the stronghold in which they trusted.
²³ To watch over mouth and tongue
    is to keep out of trouble.
²⁴ The proud, haughty person, named ‘Scoffer’,
    acts with arrogant pride.
²⁵ The craving of the lazy person is fatal,
    for lazy hands refuse to labour.
²⁶ All day long the wicked covet,^[g]
    but the righteous give and do not hold back.
²⁷ The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination;
    how much more when brought with evil intent.
²⁸ A false witness will perish,
    but a good listener will testify successfully.
²⁹ The wicked put on a bold face,
    but the upright give thought to^[h] their ways.
³⁰ No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel,
    can avail against the Lord.
³¹ The horse is made ready for the day of battle,
    but the victory belongs to the Lord.
22 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,
    and favour is better than silver or gold.
² The rich and the poor have this in common:
    the Lord is the maker of them all.
³ The clever see danger and hide;
    but the simple go on, and suffer for it.
⁴ The reward for humility and fear of the Lord
    is riches and honour and life.
⁵ Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse;
    the cautious will keep far from them.
⁶ Train children in the right way,
    and when old, they will not stray.
⁷ The rich rules over the poor,
    and the borrower is the slave of the lender.
⁸ Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,
    and the rod of anger will fail.
⁹ Those who are generous are blessed,
    for they share their bread with the poor.
¹⁰ Drive out a scoffer, and strife goes out;
    quarrelling and abuse will cease.
¹¹ Those who love a pure heart and are gracious in speech
    will have the king as a friend.
¹² The eyes of the Lord keep watch over knowledge,
    but he overthrows the words of the faithless.
¹³ The lazy person says, ‘There is a lion outside!
    I shall be killed in the streets!’
¹⁴ The mouth of a loose^[i] woman is a deep pit;
    he with whom the Lord is angry falls into it.
¹⁵ Folly is bound up in the heart of a boy,
    but the rod of discipline drives it far away.
¹⁶ Oppressing the poor in order to enrich oneself,
    and giving to the rich, will lead only to loss.