A Good Name

22 A good name is more desirable than great riches;

favor is better than silver and gold.

2 The rich and the poor have this in common:

The LORD is Maker of them all.

3 The prudent see danger and take cover,

but the simple keep going and suffer the consequences.

4 The rewards of humility and the fear of the LORD

are wealth and honor and life.

5 Thorns and snares lie on the path of the perverse;

he who guards his soul stays 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 rule over the poor,

and the borrower is slave to the lender.

8 He who sows injustice will reap disaster,

and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.[fn]

9 A generous man [fn] will be blessed,

for he shares his bread with the poor.

10 Drive out the mocker, and conflict will depart;

even quarreling and insults will cease.

11 He who loves a pure heart and gracious lips

will have the king for a friend.

12 The LORD’s eyes keep watch over knowledge,

but He frustrates the words of the faithless.

13 The slacker says, “There is a lion outside!

I will be slain in the streets!”

14 The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit;

he who is under the wrath of the LORD will fall into it.

15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child,

but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

16 Oppressing the poor to enrich oneself or giving gifts to the rich

will surely lead to poverty.