Words of the Wise

• 17 Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise; you shall apply your heart[fn] to my teaching.
• 18 For it is pleasant if you guard them within you ;[fn] together they will be ready upon your lips.
• 19 In order for your trust to be in Yahweh, I have made them known to you today[fn]—even[fn] you.
• 20 Have I not written for you thirty sayings with admonitions and knowledge?
• 21 In order to show you what is right—sayings of truth— in order to return a true saying to him who sent you.
• 22 Do not rob the poor because he is poor, and do not crush the afflicted at the gate;
• 23 For Yahweh will plead their case and despoil those who despoil them of life.[fn]
• 24 Do not befriend an owner[fn] of anger ,[fn] and with a man of wrath you shall not associate;
• 25 lest you learn his way and become entangled in a snare to yourself.[fn]
• 26 Do not be with those who give a pledge[fn] by becoming[fn] surety.
• 27 If there is nothing for you to pay,[fn] why will he take your bed from under you?
• 28 Do not remove an ancient boundary marker which your ancestors[fn] made.
• 29 A man who is skillful in his work, you shall see: before kings, he will serve;
• he will not serve before the commoners.


• you shall surely observe what is before you,
• 2 and you shall put a knife to your throat if you have a big appetite .[fn]
• 3 Do not desire his delicacies, for[fn] it is food of deception.
• 4 Do not tire in order to become rich; out of your understanding, may you desist.
• 5 Your eyes will alight[fn] on it, but there is nothing to it, for suddenly it will make for itself wings
• like an eagle and it will be exhausted in the heavens.
• 6 Do not eat the bread of the stingy ,[fn] and do not desire his delicacies.
• 7 For, like hair in his throat ,[fn] so it is.[fn] “Eat and drink!” he will say to you,
• but his heart will not be with you.
• 8 Your morsel you have eaten, you will vomit it up, and you will waste your pleasant words.
• 9 In the ears of a fool do not speak, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
• 10 Do not remove an ancient boundary marker, and on the fields of orphans do not encroach;
• 11 For their redeemer is strong, he himself will plead their cause against you.
• 12 Apply your heart[fn] to instruction, and your ear to sayings of knowledge.
• 13 Do not withhold discipline from a child, if you will beat him with the rod, he will not die.
• 14 As for you, with the rod you shall beat him, and his life[fn] you will save from Sheol.[fn]
• 15 My child, if your heart[fn] is wise, my heart will be glad—even me!
• 16 And my insides[fn] will rejoice when your lips speak what is upright.
• 17 May your heart[fn] not envy the sinners, but live in fear of Yahweh all day .[fn]
• 18 Surely[fn] there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
• 19 You, my child, hear and be wise, and direct your heart[fn] on the road.
• 20 Do not be among drinkers of wine, among gluttonous eaters of their meat .[fn]
• 21 For the drunkard and gluttonous, they will become poor, and with rags, drowsiness will clothe them.
• 22 Listen to your father—he who gave you life ,[fn] and do not despise your mother when[fn] she is old.
• 23 Buy truth and do not sell it, wisdom and instruction and understanding.
• 24 The father of the righteous will surely rejoice; he who bears a wise person will be happy with him.
• 25 May your father and your mother be glad, and may she who bore you rejoice.
• 26 My child, may you give your heart[fn] to me, and may your eyes delight in my ways.
• 27 For a deep pit is a prostitute,[fn] and a narrow well is an adulteress .[fn]
• 28 She is also like a robber lying in wait, and the faithless among mankind she increases.
• 29 To whom is woe? To whom is sorrow? To whom are quarrels? To whom is complaint? To whom are wounds without cause? To whom is redness of the eyes?
• 30 To those who linger over wine, to those who come to try mixed wine.
• 31 Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles[fn] on the cup,
• going down smoothly.
• 32 In the end ,[fn] it will bite like a serpent, and it will sting like an adder.
• 33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart[fn] will speak perverse things.
• 34 And you will be like him who lies down in the heart of the sea, and like him who lies down on top of a mast.
• 35 “They struck me; I was not hurt. They beat me; I did not know it. When I will awake, I will continue; I will seek it again.”


• and do not desire to be with them.
• 2 For their minds will devise violence, and their lips will speak mischief.
• 3 By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established.
• 4 And by knowledge, rooms are filled with all riches, precious and pleasant.
• 5 The warrior of wisdom is in strength, and a man of knowledge is strong in power.
• 6 For with wise guidance you shall make war for yourself, and victory is in an abundance of counsel.
• 7 Wisdom is too high for fools; at the gate he will not open his mouth.
• 8 He who plans to do evil for[fn] himself, they will call him “master[fn] of mischief.”
• 9 Devising folly is a sin, and an abomination to humankind is a scoffer.
• 10 If you faint on the day of adversity, little is your strength.
• 11 Rescue those who are led away to the death and those who stagger to the slaughter. If you hold back,
• 12 if you say, “Look, we do not know this,” does not he who weighs hearts perceive it?
• And he who keeps your soul,[fn]
• he knows and will repay humankind according to his deeds.
• 13 My child, eat honey, for it is good, and the dripping of the honeycomb is sweet to your taste.
• 14 Thus know wisdom for the sake of your soul,[fn] if you find it, then there is a future,
• and your hope will not be cut off.
• 15 Do not lie in wait like an outlaw against the home of the righteous; do not do violence to his dwelling place.
• 16 For seven times the righteous will fall, but he will rise, but the wicked will be overthrown by calamity.
• 17 While your enemies are falling, do not rejoice; when he trips himself, may your heart[fn] not be glad
• 18 lest Yahweh see and it be evil in his eyes, and turn his anger away from him.
• 19 Do not fret because of the evildoers; do not envy the wicked.
• 20 For there will not be a future for the evil; the lamp of the wicked will die out.
• 21 Fear Yahweh, my son, and the king; with those who change, do not associate.
• 22 For suddenly their disaster will come, and the ruin of both of them ,[fn] who knows?
• 23 These sayings are also for the wise: Partiality[fn] in judgment is not good.
• 24 Whoever says to the guilty, “You are righteous,” the people will curse him; the nations will abhor him.
• 25 But they who rebuke will have delight, and upon them blessings of goodness will come.
• 26 He will kiss the lips, he who gives an honest answer.
• 27 Prepare your work in the street and get it ready for yourself in the field; afterward, then[fn] you shall build your house.
• 28 Do not be a witness without cause against your neighbor nor deceive with your lips.
• 29 Do not say, “Just as he has done to me, so shall I do to him; I will pay back the man according to his deed.”
• 30 I passed by the field of a lazy person, and over the vineyard of a person lacking sense ;[fn]
• 31 and behold, it was overgrown—all of it was covered with thorns, its surface with nettles, and its stone wall[fn] was broken down.
• 32 Then I myself saw and my heart[fn] considered; I looked, and I took hold of instruction:
• 33 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands for rest,
• 34 and your poverty will come running, and your lack like an armed warrior.