Proverbs 22:1-16

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

22 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,
    and favor is better than silver or gold.
² The rich and the poor meet together;
    the Lord is the maker of them all.
³ A prudent man sees danger and hides himself;
    but the simple go on, and suffer for it.
⁴ The reward for humility and fear of the Lord
    is riches and honor and life.
⁵ Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse;
    he who guards himself will keep far from them.
⁶ Train up a child in the way he should go,
    and when he is old he will not depart from it.
⁷ The rich rules over the poor,
    and the borrower is the slave of the lender.
⁸ He who sows injustice will reap calamity,
    and the rod of his fury will fail.
⁹ He who has a bountiful eye will be blessed,
    for he shares his bread with the poor.
¹⁰ Drive out a scoffer, and strife will go out,
    and quarreling and abuse will cease.
¹¹ He who loves purity of heart,
    and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend.
¹² The eyes of the Lord keep watch over knowledge,
    but he overthrows the words of the faithless.
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;
    he with whom the Lord is angry will fall into it.
¹⁵ Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,
    but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
¹⁶ He who oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth,
    or gives to the rich, will only come to want.