27 Don’t brag about tomorrow,
    since you don’t know what the day will bring.

² Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth—
    a stranger, not your own lips.

³ A stone is heavy and sand is weighty,
    but the resentment caused by a fool is even heavier.

⁴ Anger is cruel, and wrath is like a flood,
    but jealousy is even more dangerous.

⁵ An open rebuke
    is better than hidden love!

⁶ Wounds from a sincere friend
    are better than many kisses from an enemy.

⁷ A person who is full refuses honey,
    but even bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry.

⁸ A person who strays from home
    is like a bird that strays from its nest.

⁹ The heartfelt counsel of a friend
    is as sweet as perfume and incense.

¹⁰ Never abandon a friend—
    either yours or your father’s.
When disaster strikes, you won’t have to ask your brother for assistance.
    It’s better to go to a neighbor than to a brother who lives far away.

¹¹ Be wise, my child,^[a] and make my heart glad.
    Then I will be able to answer my critics.

¹² A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.
    The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.

¹³ Get security from someone who guarantees a stranger’s debt.
    Get a deposit if he does it for foreigners.^[b]

¹⁴ A loud and cheerful greeting early in the morning
    will be taken as a curse!

¹⁵ A quarrelsome wife is as annoying
    as constant dripping on a rainy day.
¹⁶ Stopping her complaints is like trying to stop the wind
    or trying to hold something with greased hands.

¹⁷ As iron sharpens iron,
    so a friend sharpens a friend.

¹⁸ As workers who tend a fig tree are allowed to eat the fruit,
    so workers who protect their employer’s interests will be rewarded.

¹⁹ As a face is reflected in water,
    so the heart reflects the real person.

²⁰ Just as Death and Destruction^[c] are never satisfied,
    so human desire is never satisfied.

²¹ Fire tests the purity of silver and gold,
    but a person is tested by being praised.^[d]

²² You cannot separate fools from their foolishness,
    even though you grind them like grain with mortar and pestle.

²³ Know the state of your flocks,
    and put your heart into caring for your herds,
²⁴ for riches don’t last forever,
    and the crown might not be passed to the next generation.
²⁵ After the hay is harvested and the new crop appears
    and the mountain grasses are gathered in,
²⁶ your sheep will provide wool for clothing,
    and your goats will provide the price of a field.
²⁷ And you will have enough goats’ milk for yourself,
    your family, and your servant girls.

Let all that I am praise the Lord.
²     I will praise the Lord as long as I live.
    I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.

³ Don’t put your confidence in powerful people;
    there is no help for you there.
⁴ When they breathe their last, they return to the earth,
    and all their plans die with them.
⁵ But joyful are those who have the God of Israel^[a] as their helper,
    whose hope is in the Lord their God.
⁶ He made heaven and earth,
    the sea, and everything in them.
    He keeps every promise forever.
⁷ He gives justice to the oppressed
    and food to the hungry.
The Lord frees the prisoners.
⁸     The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down.
    The Lord loves the godly.
⁹ The Lord protects the foreigners among us.
    He cares for the orphans and widows,
    but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.

¹⁰ The Lord will reign forever.
    He will be your God, O Jerusalem,^[b] throughout the generations.

Praise the Lord!