More sayings from wise people

23 Here are more things that wise people have said:

It is wrong for judges to decide matters unfairly [IDM].

24 If they say to people who are guilty, “You ◄are innocent/have not done something that is wrong►,”

even people in other nations will curse and despise them,

25 but if judges say that guilty people must be punished,

things will go well for those judges, and ◄they will receive blessings/God will bless them►.

26 Those who answer others honestly show that they are truly their friends [IDM].

27 First, do the work that needs to be done outside your house,

and prepare your fields, and then plant things,

and after you finish doing that, build your house.

28 In the courtroom do not testify against someone when you have no reason to do that,

and do not try to deceive people by what you say [MTY].

29 Do not say, “I will do to him what he did to me;

I will pay him back for the bad things that he did to me.”

30 One day I walked by the vineyards of a lazy man,

a man who did not have good sense.

31 I was surprised to see that the fields were full of all kinds of thorny bushes,

and the stone wall around the garden had ◄collapsed/fallen down►.

32 When I saw that, I thought about it, and I learned this:

33 If you spend a lot of time sleeping and napping and folding your hands while you rest,

34 soon you will become poor;

it will be as though [PRS, SIM] a bandit who had a weapon in his hand attacked you and stole all that you had.