² Do open your hearts to us again [enlarge them to take us in]. We have wronged no one, we have betrayed or corrupted no one, we have cheated or taken advantage of no one.

³ I do not say this to reproach or condemn [you], for I have said before that you are [nested] in our hearts, [and you will remain there] together [with us], whether we die or live.

⁴ I have great boldness and free and fearless confidence and cheerful courage toward you; my pride in you is great. I am filled [brimful] with the comfort [of it]; with all our tribulation and in spite of it, [I am filled with comfort] I am overflowing with joy.

⁵ For even when we arrived in Macedonia, our bodies had no ease or rest, but we were oppressed in every way and afflicted at every turn—fighting and contentions without, dread and fears within [us].

⁶ But God, Who comforts and encourages and refreshes and cheers the depressed and the sinking, comforted and encouraged and refreshed and cheered us by the arrival of Titus.

⁷ [Yes] and not only by his coming but also by [his account of] the comfort with which he was encouraged and refreshed and cheered as to you, while he told us of your yearning affection, of how sorry you were [for me] and how eagerly you took my part, so that I rejoiced still more.

⁸ For even though I did grieve you with my letter, I do not regret [it now], though I did regret it; for I see that that letter did pain you, though only for a little while;

⁹ Yet I am glad now, not because you were pained, but because you were pained into repentance [and so turned back to God]; for you felt a grief such as God meant you to feel, so that in nothing you might suffer loss through us or harm for what we did.

¹⁰ For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to direct, produce a repentance that leads and contributes to salvation and deliverance from evil, and it never brings regret; but worldly grief (the hopeless sorrow that is characteristic of the pagan world) is deadly [breeding and ending in death].

¹¹ For [you can look back now and] observe what this same godly sorrow has done for you and has produced in you: what eagerness and earnest care to explain and clear yourselves [of all ^[a]complicity in the condoning of incest], what indignation [at the sin], what alarm, what yearning, what zeal [to do justice to all concerned], what readiness to mete out punishment [^[b]to the offender]! At every point you have proved yourselves cleared and guiltless in the matter.^(A)

¹² So although I did write to you [as I did], it was not for the sake and because of the one who did [the] wrong, nor on account of the one who suffered [the] wrong, but in order that you might realize before God [that your readiness to accept our authority revealed] how zealously you do care for us.

¹³ Therefore we are relieved and comforted and encouraged [at the result]. And in addition to our own [personal] consolation, we were especially delighted at the joy of Titus, because you have all set his mind at rest, soothing and refreshing his spirit.

¹⁴ For if I had boasted to him at all concerning you, I was not disappointed or put to shame, but just as everything we ever said to you was true, so our boasting [about you] to Titus has proved true also.

¹⁵ And his heart goes out to you more abundantly than ever as he recalls the submission [to his guidance] that all of you had, and the reverence and anxiety [to meet all requirements] with which you accepted and welcomed him.

¹⁶ I am very happy because I now am of good courage and have perfect confidence in you in all things.

Read full chapter

22 A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.

² The rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all.^(A)

³ A prudent man sees the evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished [with suffering].

⁴ The reward of humility and the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.

⁵ Thorns and snares are in the way of the obstinate and willful; he who guards himself will be far from them.

⁶ Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it.^(B)

⁷ The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

⁸ He who sows iniquity will reap calamity and futility, and the rod of his wrath [with which he smites others] will fail.

⁹ He who has a bountiful eye shall be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor.^(C)

¹⁰ Drive out the scoffer, and contention will go out; yes, strife and abuse will cease.

¹¹ He who loves purity and the pure in heart and who is gracious in speech—because of the grace of his lips will he have the king for his friend.

¹² The eyes of the Lord keep guard over knowledge and him who has it, but He overthrows the words of the treacherous.

¹³ The sluggard says, There is a lion outside! I shall be slain in the streets!

¹⁴ The mouth of a loose woman is a deep pit [for ensnaring wild animals]; he with whom the Lord is indignant and who is abhorrent to Him will fall into it.

¹⁵ Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.

¹⁶ He who oppresses the poor to get gain for himself and he who gives to the rich—both will surely come to want.

¹⁷ Listen (consent and submit) to the words of the wise, and apply your mind to my knowledge;

¹⁸ For it will be pleasant if you keep them in your mind [believing them]; your lips will be accustomed to [confessing] them.

¹⁹ So that your trust (belief, reliance, support, and confidence) may be in the Lord, I have made known these things to you today, even to you.

²⁰ Have I not written to you [long ago] excellent things in counsels and knowledge,

²¹ To make you know the certainty of the words of truth, that you may give a true answer to those who sent you?^(D)

²² Rob not the poor [being tempted by their helplessness], neither oppress the afflicted at the gate [where the city court is held],^(E)

²³ For the Lord will plead their cause and deprive of life those who deprive [the poor or afflicted].^(F)

²⁴ Make no friendships with a man given to anger, and with a wrathful man do not associate,

²⁵ Lest you learn his ways and get yourself into a snare.

²⁶ Be not one of those who strike hands and pledge themselves, or of those who become security for another’s debts.

²⁷ If you have nothing with which to pay, why should he take your bed from under you?

²⁸ Remove not the ancient landmark which your fathers have set up.

²⁹ Do you see a man diligent and skillful in his business? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.

23 When you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider who and what are before you;

² For you will put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to desire.

³ Be not desirous of his dainties, for it is deceitful food [offered with questionable motives].

⁴ Weary not yourself to be rich; cease from your own [human] wisdom.^(G)

⁵ Will you set your eyes upon wealth, when [suddenly] it is gone? For riches certainly make themselves wings, like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.

⁶ Eat not the bread of him who has a hard, grudging, and envious eye, neither desire his dainty foods;

⁷ For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. As one who reckons, he says to you, eat and drink, yet his heart is not with you [but is grudging the cost].

⁸ The morsel which you have eaten you will vomit up, and your complimentary words will be wasted.

⁹ Speak not in the ears of a [self-confident] fool, for he will despise the [godly] Wisdom of your words.^(H)

¹⁰ Remove not the ancient landmark and enter not into the fields of the fatherless,^(I)

¹¹ For their Redeemer is mighty; He will plead their cause against you.

¹² Apply your mind to instruction and correction and your ears to words of knowledge.

¹³ Withhold not discipline from the child; for if you strike and punish him with the [reedlike] rod, he will not die.

¹⁴ You shall whip him with the rod and deliver his life from Sheol (Hades, the place of the dead).

¹⁵ My son, if your heart is wise, my heart will be glad, even mine;

¹⁶ Yes, my heart will rejoice when your lips speak right things.

¹⁷ Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord all the day long.

¹⁸ For surely there is a latter end [a future and a reward], and your hope and expectation shall not be cut off.

¹⁹ Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your mind in the way [of the Lord].

²⁰ Do not associate with winebibbers; be not among them nor among gluttonous eaters of meat,^(J)

²¹ For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

²² Hearken to your father, who begot you, and despise not your mother when she is old.

²³ Buy the truth and sell it not; not only that, but also get discernment and judgment, instruction and understanding.

²⁴ The father of the [uncompromisingly] righteous (the upright, in right standing with God) shall greatly rejoice, and he who becomes the father of a wise child shall have joy in him.

²⁵ Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her who bore you rejoice.

²⁶ My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe and delight in my ways,

²⁷ For a harlot is a deep ditch, and a loose woman is a narrow pit.

²⁸ She also lies in wait as a robber or as one waits for prey, and she increases the treacherous among men.

²⁹ Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness and dimness of eyes?

³⁰ Those who tarry long at the wine, those who go to seek and try mixed wine.^(K)

³¹ Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the wineglass, when it goes down smoothly.

³² At the last it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.

³³ [Under the influence of wine] your eyes will behold strange things [and loose women] and your mind will utter things turned the wrong way [untrue, incorrect, and petulant].

³⁴ Yes, you will be [as unsteady] as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, and [as open to disaster] as he who lies upon the top of a mast.

³⁵ You will say, They struck me, but I was not hurt! They beat me [as with a hammer], but I did not feel it! When shall I awake? I will crave and seek more wine again [and escape reality].