A Good Name

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] 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.

17