Proverbs 21:1-9

New King James Version

21 The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord,
Like the ^[a]rivers of water;
He turns it wherever He wishes.

²^(A)Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,
^(B)But the Lord weighs the hearts.

³^(C)To do righteousness and justice
Is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

⁴^(D)A haughty look, a proud heart,
And the ^[b]plowing of the wicked are sin.

⁵^(E)The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty,
But those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty.

⁶^(F)Getting treasures by a lying tongue
^[c]Is the fleeting fantasy of those who seek death.

⁷The violence of the wicked will ^[d]destroy them,
Because they refuse to do justice.

⁸The way of ^[e]a guilty man is perverse;
But as for the pure, his work is right.

⁹Better to dwell in a corner of a housetop,
Than in a house shared with ^(G)a contentious woman.

Proverbs 21:1 channels
Proverbs 21:4 Or lamp
Proverbs 21:6 LXX Pursue vanity on the snares of death; Vg. Is vain and foolish, and shall stumble on the snares of death; Tg. They shall be destroyed, and they shall fall who seek death
Proverbs 21:7 Lit. drag them away
Proverbs 21:8 Or The way of a man is perverse and strange;