Proverbs 22

Proverbs 21 Proverbs 23

Proverbs 22New International Version (NIV)

22 A good name is more desirable than great riches;
to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.

²Rich and poor have this in common:
The Lord is the Maker of them all.

³The prudent see danger and take refuge,
but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

⁴Humility is the fear of the Lord;
its wages are riches and honor and life.

⁵In the paths of the wicked are snares and pitfalls,
but those who would preserve their life stay far from them.

⁶Start children off on the way they should go,
and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

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

⁸Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity,
and the rod they wield in fury will be broken.

⁹The generous will themselves be blessed,
for they share their food with the poor.

¹⁰Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife;
quarrels and insults are ended.

¹¹One who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace
will have the king for a friend.

¹²The eyes of the Lord keep watch over knowledge,
but he frustrates the words of the unfaithful.

¹³The sluggard says, “There’s a lion outside!
I’ll be killed in the public square!”

¹⁴The mouth of an adulterous woman is a deep pit;
a man who is under the Lord’s wrath falls into it.

¹⁵Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,
but the rod of discipline will drive it far away.

¹⁶One who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth
and one who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.

Thirty Sayings of the Wise

Saying 1

¹⁷Pay attention and turn your ear to the sayings of the wise;
    apply your heart to what I teach,
¹⁸for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart
    and have all of them ready on your lips.
¹⁹So that your trust may be in the Lord,
    I teach you today, even you.
²⁰Have I not written thirty sayings for you,
    sayings of counsel and knowledge,
²¹teaching you to be honest and to speak the truth,
    so that you bring back truthful reports
    to those you serve?

Saying 2

²²Do not exploit the poor because they are poor
and do not crush the needy in court,
²³for the Lord will take up their case
and will exact life for life.

Saying 3

²⁴Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person,
do not associate with one easily angered,
²⁵or you may learn their ways
and get yourself ensnared.

Saying 4

²⁶Do not be one who shakes hands in pledge
or puts up security for debts;
²⁷if you lack the means to pay,
your very bed will be snatched from under you.

Saying 5

²⁸Do not move an ancient boundary stone
set up by your ancestors.

Saying 6

²⁹Do you see someone skilled in their work?
They will serve before kings;
they will not serve before officials of low rank.

New International Version (NIV)

Proverbs 23

Proverbs 22 Proverbs 24

Proverbs 23New International Version (NIV)

Saying 7

23 When you sit to dine with a ruler,
    note well what^[a] is before you,
²and put a knife to your throat
    if you are given to gluttony.
³Do not crave his delicacies,
    for that food is deceptive.

Saying 8

⁴Do not wear yourself out to get rich;
    do not trust your own cleverness.
⁵Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone,
    for they will surely sprout wings
    and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

Saying 9

⁶Do not eat the food of a begrudging host,
    do not crave his delicacies;
⁷for he is the kind of person
    who is always thinking about the cost.^[b]
“Eat and drink,” he says to you,
    but his heart is not with you.
⁸You will vomit up the little you have eaten
    and will have wasted your compliments.

Saying 10

⁹Do not speak to fools,
for they will scorn your prudent words.

Saying 11

¹⁰Do not move an ancient boundary stone
or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
¹¹for their Defender is strong;
he will take up their case against you.

Saying 12

¹²Apply your heart to instruction
and your ears to words of knowledge.

Saying 13

¹³Do not withhold discipline from a child;
if you punish them with the rod, they will not die.
¹⁴Punish them with the rod
and save them from death.

Saying 14

¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise,
then my heart will be glad indeed;
¹⁶my inmost being will rejoice
when your lips speak what is right.

Saying 15

¹⁷Do not let your heart envy sinners,
but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord.
¹⁸There is surely a future hope for you,
and your hope will not be cut off.

Saying 16

¹⁹Listen, my son, and be wise,
    and set your heart on the right path:
²⁰Do not join those who drink too much wine
    or gorge themselves on meat,
²¹for drunkards and gluttons become poor,
    and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

Saying 17

²²Listen to your father, who gave you life,
    and do not despise your mother when she is old.
²³Buy the truth and do not sell it—
    wisdom, instruction and insight as well.
²⁴The father of a righteous child has great joy;
    a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him.
²⁵May your father and mother rejoice;
    may she who gave you birth be joyful!

Saying 18

²⁶My son, give me your heart
    and let your eyes delight in my ways,
²⁷for an adulterous woman is a deep pit,
    and a wayward wife is a narrow well.
²⁸Like a bandit she lies in wait
    and multiplies the unfaithful among men.

Saying 19

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
    Who has strife? Who has complaints?
    Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?
³⁰Those who linger over wine,
    who go to sample bowls of mixed wine.
³¹Do not gaze at wine when it is red,
    when it sparkles in the cup,
    when it goes down smoothly!
³²In the end it bites like a snake
    and poisons like a viper.
³³Your eyes will see strange sights,
    and your mind will imagine confusing things.
³⁴You will be like one sleeping on the high seas,
    lying on top of the rigging.
³⁵“They hit me,” you will say, “but I’m not hurt!
    They beat me, but I don’t feel it!
When will I wake up
    so I can find another drink?”

Footnotes:

Proverbs 23:1 Or who
Proverbs 23:7 Or for as he thinks within himself, / so he is; or for as he puts on a feast, / so he is

New International Version (NIV)

Proverbs 24

Proverbs 23 Proverbs 25

Proverbs 24New International Version (NIV)

Saying 20

24 Do not envy the wicked,
do not desire their company;
²for their hearts plot violence,
and their lips talk about making trouble.

Saying 21

³By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
⁴through knowledge its rooms are filled
with rare and beautiful treasures.

Saying 22

⁵The wise prevail through great power,
and those who have knowledge muster their strength.
⁶Surely you need guidance to wage war,
and victory is won through many advisers.

Saying 23

⁷Wisdom is too high for fools;
in the assembly at the gate they must not open their mouths.

Saying 24

⁸Whoever plots evil
will be known as a schemer.
⁹The schemes of folly are sin,
and people detest a mocker.

Saying 25

¹⁰If you falter in a time of trouble,
    how small is your strength!
¹¹Rescue those being led away to death;
    hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
¹²If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,”
    does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
    Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?

Saying 26

¹³Eat honey, my son, for it is good;
    honey from the comb is sweet to your taste.
¹⁴Know also that wisdom is like honey for you:
    If you find it, there is a future hope for you,
    and your hope will not be cut off.

Saying 27

¹⁵Do not lurk like a thief near the house of the righteous,
do not plunder their dwelling place;
¹⁶for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again,
but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.

Saying 28

¹⁷Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice,
¹⁸or the Lord will see and disapprove
and turn his wrath away from them.

Saying 29

¹⁹Do not fret because of evildoers
or be envious of the wicked,
²⁰for the evildoer has no future hope,
and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.

Saying 30

²¹Fear the Lord and the king, my son,
and do not join with rebellious officials,
²²for those two will send sudden destruction on them,
and who knows what calamities they can bring?

Further Sayings of the Wise

²³These also are sayings of the wise:

To show partiality in judging is not good:
²⁴Whoever says to the guilty, “You are innocent,”
will be cursed by peoples and denounced by nations.
²⁵But it will go well with those who convict the guilty,
and rich blessing will come on them.

²⁶An honest answer
is like a kiss on the lips.

²⁷Put your outdoor work in order
and get your fields ready;
after that, build your house.

²⁸Do not testify against your neighbor without cause—
would you use your lips to mislead?
²⁹Do not say, “I’ll do to them as they have done to me;
I’ll pay them back for what they did.”

³⁰I went past the field of a sluggard,
    past the vineyard of someone who has no sense;
³¹thorns had come up everywhere,
    the ground was covered with weeds,
    and the stone wall was in ruins.
³²I applied my heart to what I observed
    and learned a lesson from what I saw:
³³A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest—
³⁴and poverty will come on you like a thief
    and scarcity like an armed man.

New International Version (NIV)

Romans 14

Romans 13 Romans 15

Romans 14New International Version (NIV)

The Weak and the Strong

14 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. ²One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. ³The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. ⁴Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

⁵One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. ⁶Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. ⁷For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. ⁸If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. ⁹For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

¹⁰You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister^[a]? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. ¹¹It is written:

“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”^[b]

¹²So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

¹³Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. ¹⁴I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. ¹⁵If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. ¹⁶Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. ¹⁷For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, ¹⁸because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.

¹⁹Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. ²⁰Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. ²¹It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

²²So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. ²³But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.^[c]

Footnotes:

Romans 14:10 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family; also in verses 13, 15 and 21.
Romans 14:11 Isaiah 45:23
Romans 14:23 Some manuscripts place 16:25-27 here; others after 15:33.