Moff PROV Chapter 24

24 

Never envy evil men

never seek their company;

2 

for their one thought is plunder,

and mischief is their theme.

3 

What builds a house is skill,

it is erected by intelligence;

4 

and knowledge furnishes the rooms

with all that is rare and pleasant.

5 

Wise men are better than warriors,

brain is better than brawn;

6 

for you need policy in war:

what saves the state is many counsellors.

7 

Wisdom is beyond a fool’s reach

so he can say nothing in a council.

8 

A man who devises mischief

men call him a schemer.

9 

Now sin is folly’s scheme,

and men loathe mischief-makers.

10 

If you have been slack, then your means will be small

when adversity comes.

11 

Rescue men carried off to death

deliver any who go trembling to their doom.

12 

You say, “But I knew nothing of it”?

Yet he who reads the heart sees through you,

he knows, he who watches you--

will he not requite each man for what he did?

13 

My son, eat honey--it is good

and honeycombs are sweet

14 

so wisdom tastes.

15 

Villain, hands off the good man’s house!

ransack not his abode.

16 

A good man may fall seven times, but he rises

an evil man is crushed by a calamity.

17 

Rejoice not when your enemy falls,

never exult when he is overthrown;

18 

lest the Eternal see it and in displeasure

divert his wrath from him to you.

19 

Never fret over evildoers,

never envy wicked men;

20 

the bad man comes to no good end,

the lamp of a bad life will be put out.

21 

My son, stand in awe of the Eternal and of the king

anger not either

22 

aa they can crush you swiftly,

they can destroy you suddenly. * * *

23 

Further sayings of the sages

It is not fair to favour one side in a suit.

24 

He who tells a man in the wrong,

“You are right,” men will curse him, people will denounce him.

26 

He is a true friend

who is honest with you:

25 

those who reprove shall prosper,

good fortune shall be theirs.

27 

First work your farm

and till the soil--

then marry and set up house.

28 

Never give baseless evidence against your neighbour

never mislead men by what you say.

29 

Never think, “I will treat him as he treated me.

I will pay back the man for what he did.”

30 

I passed by the field of the slothful,

by the vineyard of the thriftless:

31 

and there it lay, all overgrown with thistles,

the surface covered with nettles,

the stone wall broken down.

32 

I thought upon it as I looked,

I learned a lesson from the sight:

33 

“Let me sleep for a little, a little

let me fold my hands for a little, to rest”?--

34 

yes, and poverty will pounce on you,

want will overpower you. * * *