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PRO EN_UST en_English_ltr Mon Sep 25 2023 14:35:18 GMT-0700 (Pacific Daylight Time) tc
Proverbs
1 These are the wise sayings said by Solomon. He was David’s son and Israel’s king.
2 These wise sayings are for knowing what is wise and instructive.
They are for understanding insightful things that people say.
3 These wise sayings are for instructing someone in what is insightful,
righteous, just, and honest.
4 They are for making naive people prudent,
and for making young men knowledgeable and discreet.
5 (Wise people will listen to these wise sayings and learn more.
Indeed, understanding people will know what to do because these sayings will guide them.)
6 These wise sayings are for understanding wise sayings and parables.
Indeed, they are for understanding what wise people say and the riddles they tell.
7 Reverently fearing Yahweh is necessary for being knowledgeable.
But foolish people detest what is wise or instructive.
8 My son, listen carefully to what I, your father, am teaching you.
Indeed, obey the rules that your mother has commanded.
9 Obey your parents’ teaching because it will make you respectable, as if it were an attractive wreath on your head,
or beautiful necklaces around your neck.
10 My son, if sinful people tempt you to sin with them,
refuse to do so.
11 Those sinful people may say, “Join us!
We will hide in wait in order to kill someone who walks by.
Indeed, we will hide ourselves in order to suddenly attack an innocent person for no good reason.
12 We will kill living people completely, as if we were death itself.
We will even kill healthy people, as if they could not escape dying.
13 We will discover many valuable treasures!
We will fill our houses with what we steal!
14 Join our gang!
We will share all the loot between us.”
15 My son, do not associate with those sinful people!
Prevent yourself from doing anything they do!
16 Avoid those sinners because they are eager to do wicked things.
They even rush to murder people.
17 It is useless for a hunter to put out a net to trap a bird
while the bird is watching because the bird will avoid the net.
18 However, these sinful people are more foolish than birds. They actually hide in wait, so that they kill themselves.
Indeed, they hide themselves to suddenly attack, so that they die.
19 That is what happens to anyone who gains wealth in an unjust manner.
What they gained unjustly will kill them.
20 Wisdom is like a woman who calls out to everyone in public.
Indeed, wisdom is like a woman who shouts to people in the crowded places.
21 Indeed, at the place where busy streets intersect she cries out.
Indeed, at the crowded entrance of the city gates she speaks.
22 She cries, “You naive people have loved being naive for too long!
You people who ridicule have enjoyed ridiculing to benefit yourselves for too long!
You stupid people have hated what you should know for too long!
23 Turn around and listen to me when I correct you!
Pay attention! I will tell you all that I am thinking.
Indeed, I will help you understand what I am saying to you.
24 I cried out to you, but you refused to listen.
Indeed, I invited you to come to me,
but no one paid any attention to me.
25 You ignored everything I advised you to do.
Indeed, you rejected what I said to correct you.
26 Therefore, as for me, I will laugh at you when disastrous things happen to you.
Indeed, I will ridicule you when you are terrified.
27 When you are terrified, as if a violent storm has arrived,
when disastrous things happen to you violently,
when you become distressed and anguished, I will ridicule you!
28 At that time, those foolish people will cry out to me to help them,
but I will not reply to them.
Indeed, they will desperately try to find me,
but they will not be able to.
29 Those foolish people will not find me because they refuse to be knowledgeable.
They have also decided not to reverently fear Yahweh.
30 Those foolish people rejected what I advised them to do.
Indeed, they detested everything I said to correct them.
31 Those foolish people will suffer rightly for what they have done.
Indeed, they will suffer fully for what they have planned.
32 Ultimately, naive people will die because they refuse to be wise.
Indeed, being complacent will destroy stupid people.
33 By contrast, people who listen attentively to what I say will live safely.
They will not fear that something evil might happen to them.”
2 My son, accept what I say.
Consider what I command you to be precious.
2 Do this by listening attentively to what is wise,
and by thinking seriously about what you should understand.
3 Yes, cry out to learn what you should understand.
Cry loudly to learn what you should perceive!
4 Try to find what is wise, like you would try to find silver.
Indeed, look eagerly for it, like you would look for a treasure that someone has hidden.
5 If you do those things, then you will understand how to reverently fear Yahweh.
You will even succeed in knowing God.
6 This is because Yahweh provides people with what is wise.
He tells them what they should know and understand.
7 He gives what is truly wise to upright people.
He protects people who behave honestly.
8 He does these things in order to guard those people who live justly,
Indeed, he keeps safe those people who are faithful to him.
9 If you listen to me, then you will understand what is righteous, just, and honest,
even the best way to behave.
10 This is because you will truly know what is wise,
and knowing what you should know will please you.
11 Being discreet will make you safe.
Indeed, being insightful will make you secure.
12 Being like this will protect you in order to save you from people who behave wickedly,
and to save you from people who speak perversely.
13 Those people refuse to behave righteously in order to behave wickedly.
14 They gladly do evil things.
They enjoy evil and perverse acts.
15 They behave deceptively.
Indeed, they act deviously.
16 Being discreet and insightful will protect you also in order to save you from adulterous women,
and to save you from immoral women who speak to you seductively.
17 Those women left the husbands they married when they were young.
They even forgot the promise they made to God when they married.
18 Being discreet and insightful will rescue you because going to her house will result in you dying.
Indeed, going with her will result in you going to the place where the spirits of dead people are.
19 No one who has sex with her will live again.
They will never become alive again!
20 Therefore, behave like a good person.
Indeed, conduct yourself like a righteous person.
21 Ultimately, people who live uprightly will live in our land,
Indeed, people whom Yahweh does not blame for acting wickedly will stay in this land for a long time.
22 By contrast, people who act wickedly will be removed from our land.
Even people who act treacherously will be completely removed from this land!
3 My son, remember the rules I have taught you!
Always be mindful to obey what I have commanded you!
2 Do this because obeying what I have commanded you will help you live for a long time with many fulfilling and peaceful years.
3 Always be faithful and trustworthy.
Let everyone see how faithful and trustworthy you are, as if they were a necklace you are wearing.
Remember to be faithful and trustworthy at all times.
4 As a result of doing so, both God and people will approve of you and think well of you.
5 Trust Yahweh completely,
and do not rely on what you understand.
6 Remember Yahweh whenever you do anything.
As a result of doing so, he will show you what you should do.
7 Do not think that you are wise.
Instead, reverently fear Yahweh and refuse to do what is evil.
8 Doing so will make your body healthy.
Indeed, doing so will refresh you.
9 Revere Yahweh by giving to him some of your riches,
even by giving to him some of the first crops from everything that you harvest.
10 Doing so will result in your places for storing crops becoming abundantly full of crops.
Even your containers for wine will overflow with fresh wine.
11 My son, do not refuse to listen when Yahweh corrects you.
Do not be resentful even when he rebukes you.
12 Do not do so because Yahweh only reproves the people whom he loves.
He is similar to a father who reproves the son whom he likes.
13 People who gain what is wise are happy.
Indeed, people who gain what they should understand are truly happy.
14 This is because being wise profits people more than silver could profit them.
Indeed, being wise benefits people more than gold could benefit them.
15 Being wise is more valuable than precious jewels.
There is nothing you desire that is worth as much as being wise.
16 Being wise will help you live for a long time.
Being wise will help you become wealthy and honorable.
17 Being wise will make you live pleasantly.
Indeed, in every way being wise will make you live peacefully.
18 What is wise is like a tree with fruit that keeps alive people who hold on to it,
People who are consistently wise live happily.
19 Yahweh made the world by using what is wise.
He made the sky by using what he understands.
20 According to what Yahweh understands, water flowed forth from deep below the earth and water fell from the clouds above.
21 My son, always remember to do what is prudent and discreet.
Always be mindful to do those things.
22 Doing so will help you live for a long time
and will make you respectable, as if you had an attractive necklace around your neck.
23 Doing so will also cause you to live safely.
You will not even get hurt.
24 When you lie down to sleep, you will not fear anything.
You will even lie down to sleep and sleep peacefully.
25 Do not worry about something terrible happening to you suddenly,
or about what will happen when God destroys wicked people.
26 Do not worry because Yahweh will make you confident.
He will not allow people to harm you.
27 Do not refrain from giving what is good to people who deserve it
when you are able to do so.
28 When you have something that your neighbor needs, do not tell that person,
“Go away and come back later. I will give it to you then.”
29 Do not plan to harm anyone, even someone who lives nearby and trusts you.
30 Do not argue needlessly with someone who has not harmed you.
31 Do not envy violent people.
Do not imitate anything they do.
32 Do not do so because Yahweh detests such people who act wickedly,
but he converses like a friend with people who act uprightly.
33 Yahweh causes bad things to happen to the families of wicked people,
but he causes good things to happen to the families of righteous people.
34 Yahweh is the one who ridicules people who ridicule others,
but he approves of people who are humble.
35 People will honor wise people,
but will shame foolish people.
4 Children, listen carefully to what I, your father, am teaching you.
Pay attention in order to learn what you should understand.
2 Do this because what I am teaching you is good.
So remember the rules that I am teaching you.
3 I was once my father’s boy,
and my mother considered me to be her delicate, only son.
4 During that time, my father taught me. He told me,
“Remember what I have told you!
Do what I have commanded you, so that you will keep on living!
5 Obtain what is wise and what you should understand!
Always remember what I have spoken to you!
6 Remember what is wise, so that it will be like a woman who keeps you safe.
Love what is wise, so that it will be like a woman who protects you.
7 Being wise is the most important thing! So obtain what is wise!
Even if it costs you everything that you own, obtain what you should understand!
8 Prize what is wise, so that you will become great.
People will honor you when you value what is wise.
9 Being wise will make you respectable, as if it put an attractive wreath on your head.
Indeed, being wise will make you honorable, as if it gave you a magnificent crown.”
10 My son, listen attentively and accept what I say.
Doing so will increase the number of years that you live.
11 I instructed you in how to act wisely.
I directed you in how to act uprightly. 12 When you do something, nothing will prevent you from succeeding.
Indeed, if you do anything, you will succeed.
13 Consistently remember the things I have instructed you;
keep remembering them!
Always be mindful of them, because they will keep you alive.
14 Do not do what wicked people do.
Indeed, do not act like evil people act.
15 Shun doing what is evil. Do not even consider doing it!
Refuse to act wickedly and do something else.
16 Do not act wickedly because it is as if evil people cannot even sleep unless they do something evil;
it is as if they cannot rest unless they hurt someone.
17 Do not act wickedly because evil people do wicked things as if they were eating food;
they violently hurt others as if they were drinking wine.
18 As for righteous people, they will live wisely and safely like the light of the sun at dawn.
They will live more and more wisely and safely as the sun shines brighter and brighter until the brightest time of day.
19 But wicked people will live dangerously like people who walk in total darkness.
They do not know what hurts them as people walking in darkness do not know what they trip over.
20 My son, pay attention to what I am saying to you!
Listen carefully to what I say!
21 Always remember what I say!
Fully commit yourself to remembering them!
22 Do this because those who do so will live for a long time,
even their whole bodies will be healthy.
23 Be extremely careful about what you think,
because what you think will control how you live.
24 Do not say anything that deceives people.
Indeed, never say anything that misleads people.
25 Focus on doing what is right, like someone who is always looking straight ahead.
Indeed, act like someone who is looking straight in front of himself.
26 Carefully consider what you do.
As a result of doing so, you will succeed in everything that you do.
27 Do not do anything other than what is right.
Prevent yourself from doing what is evil.
5 My son, pay attention to the wise things that I tell you!
Listen carefully to what I say you should understand!
2 Do this so that you may remain discreet,
and you may preserve what you know when you speak.
3 Do this because what an adulterous woman says seems delightful like honey
and more pleasing than olive oil.
4 However, being with her will result in you being miserable, as if you had eaten a bitter plant.
You will suffer like a person whom someone has cut with a sharp, double-edged sword.
5 Being with her will result in both of you dying as if she were leading you to where dead people are.
Indeed, what she does will cause you both to die.
6 She does not want to do what will cause her to live for a long time.
She does not realize that she lives precariously like someone who is walking on an uneven path.
7 So now, children, pay attention to what I say!
Always remember what I have spoken to you!
8 Stay far away from an adulterous woman!
Do not even go near the door of the place where she dwells!
9 If you go to her, people will weaken you,
and a merciless person will take away what you have gained in the best time of your life.
10 If you go to her, people you do not know will satisfy themselves with what you gained when you were strong,
and a foreign person will fill his house with what you labored to gain.
11 Then you will groan when you are about to die
and have worn out your whole body.
12 Then you will say, “I hated it extremely when people corrected me!
Indeed, I scorned people when they rebuked me!
13 I did not obey the people who taught me.
Indeed, I did not listen carefully to the people who instructed me.
14 I almost utterly disgraced myself in public.”
15 So be like someone who only drinks water from his own well;
have sex with your wife only.
16 Do not be like someone who lets his water run out into the streets;
never have sex with other women!
17 Only have sex with your own wife!
Do not have sex with other women!
18 Be happy with your wife;
rejoice with the woman whom you married when you were young.
19 She is as beautiful as a loving deer and as graceful as a mountain goat.
Let her beauty always satisfy you.
Constantly be exhilarated by how she loves you.
20 My son, you should never be exhilarated by an adulterous woman!
You should never passionately caress an immoral woman!
21 Never do that] because Yahweh fully knows what people do.
Indeed, he knows everything that people do.
22 The wicked things that wicked people do are like traps that catch them;
the sinful things they do are like] ropes that tie them down.
23 Those wicked people will die because they did not discipline themselves.
They will do what kills them because they are extremely foolish.
6 My son, if you guarantee to pay a loan for someone you know,
or if you agree to pay a loan for someone you do not know,
2 or if you have troubled yourself by promising something,
and you cannot fulfill what you promised,
3 then, my son, do this in order to save yourself from what you have troubled yourself with:
humbly go to that person you know and beg him to cancel what you have promised because he controls you.
4 Do not sleep,
do not even rest until you go and talk to him.
5 Save yourself immediately,
as if you were a deer fleeing from a hunter
or a bird fleeing from a trapper.
6 You lazy person, go watch ants!
Consider what ants do so that you can be wise.
7 Absolutely no one tells ants what to do.
8 Nevertheless, during the right time they store their food to eat during the winter.
Indeed, when people harvest crops the ants collect what they will eat later.
9 But you lazy person, stop sleeping!
Wake up!
10 You say to yourself, “Let me sleep just a little more!
Let me lay my hands across my chest in order to rest comfortably for a little while longer!”
11 Being so lazy will result in you suddenly becoming poor and needy,
as if a thief has attacked you.
12 Worthless people who act sinfully constantly deceive people by what they say.
13 They gesture with their bodies to deceive people.
14 They are always thinking perversely while planning how to do evil things.
They cause people to argue with each other.
15 Because of this, disastrous things will suddenly happen to those people.
Someone will destroy them instantly and they will not be able to recover.
16 Yahweh absolutely hates six, no, seven things:
17 being proud, speaking falsely,
someone who murders a person who has not done anything wrong,
18 someone who plans ways to act sinfully,
someone who is eager to act wickedly,
19 someone who easily lies when testifying,
and someone who causes members of the same family to argue.
20 My son, be mindful to obey what I, your father, have commanded you.
Indeed, obey the rules that your mother has commanded.
21 Remember what we have taught you as if it were always a part of you.
Indeed, remember these lessons as if you wore them like a necklace.
22 What we have taught you will cause you to know what you should do each day.
It will cause you to be safe when you sleep.
It will even be instructive for you when you wake up in the morning.
23 This is so because what I have commanded you is like a lamp for you.
Indeed, the rules we taught you are like a light to guide you.
When we rebuke you while instructing you, we do that so that you can do what will keep you alive.
24 We taught you these lessons in order to prevent you from going to wicked women,
and to prevent you from believing what immoral women say seductively.
25 Do not think lustfully about her beautiful body.
Do not let her seduce you by the flirtatious way she looks at you.
26 Do not do so because, although having sex with a prostitute only costs you the price of a cheap meal,
an adulterous married woman will cause you to die.
27 Fire will surely burn people who put it on their chests!
28 Burning coals will surely burn the feet of people who step on them!
29 It is similar with anyone who acts adulterously with a married woman.
People will certainly punish anyone who does that.
30 Nobody hates people who steal if they steal food in order to feed themselves when they are hungry.
31 Nevertheless, if people catch thieves, those thieves must pay back seven times as much as they stole to those whom they stole from.
They must give everything that they have in order to repay what they stole.
32 By contrast, a man who acts adulterously with a woman does not think wisely.
What he does will kill him!
33 Someone will injure and disgrace him,
and he will always be ashamed.
34 This is so because the jealous husband will become furious.
He will act mercilessly when he revenges himself on the man who acted adulterously with his wife.
35 That jealous husband will not accept any money to stop being furious,
no matter how much money you offer him.
7 My son, obey what I have told you.
Sincerely consider what I have commanded you to be precious.
2 Do what I have commanded you, so that you will keep on living.
Consider the rules I have taught you to be the most precious things you possess.
3 Always remember what I have commanded you as if it were tied around your fingers.
Remember it at all times!
4 Love what is wise as if it were your sister.
Indeed, love what you should understand as if it were a close relative.
5 Do this so that you will be able to stay away from adulterous women,
and stay away from immoral women who speak to you seductively.
6 I was once standing near the window in my house,
and I looked down from above the street through the shutters on the window.
7 Then I observed someone among the naive people.
I noticed among the youths a young man who does not think wisely.
8 He walked down the street near the corner of the road where the adulterous woman dwells.
Then he walked toward the place where she dwelled.
9 (It was the time of day when night begins, and then it became dark.)
10 Suddenly an adulterous woman approached the young man.
She was wearing a prostitute’s clothing and intended to deceive the young man.
11 (That woman spoke loudly and acted rebelliously.
She never stayed at home.
12 She often walked around the streets and public places.
At the corner of any road she waited for someone whom she could seduce.)
13 When she saw the young man, she firmly took hold of him and kissed him.
She shamelessly told him,
14 “Today I have meat in my house, because I sacrificed an animal in the temple to promise friendship with Yahweh.
In this way I did what I had vowed to do.
15 So I have come out here to meet you.
I have come out to look everywhere for you, and now I have found you!
16 I have covered my bed with luxurious Egyptian fabric.
17 I have put pleasant-smelling perfumes on my bed:
myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come with me! Let us satisfy ourselves sexually all night!
Let us enjoy ourselves sexually!
19 Come with me because my husband is not at home.
He has gone away on a long journey.
20 He filled a bag with money and took it with him.
He will not return home until the middle of the month.”
21 Thus that adulterous woman persuaded the young man by speaking so persuasively;
by speaking seductively she allured him into doing what she wanted to do.
22 He quickly followed her to her home.
He unknowingly went to die like an ox going to the place where its owner will kill it.
He went to die inevitably like a foolish person who goes in fetters to be punished
23 until someone kills him by shooting an arrow into his entrails.
He went to die quickly like a bird that flies into a trap.
He did not realize that going with the adulterous woman would cause him to die.
24 So now, children, pay attention to what I say!
Pay careful attention to what I have spoken to you!
25 Do not decide to do what adulterous women do.
Indeed, never act like them!
26 Do not do so because they have killed many men who are now slain.
They have slain so many men!
27 Going to an adulterous woman’s house is doing something that will result in that person dying.
Doing that will result in that person going to the place where the spirits of dead people are.
8 What is wise is surely like a woman who calls out to everyone.
Indeed, what people should understand is surely like a woman who shouts to people.
2 What is wise is like a woman who stands at the highest place along the crowded streets where everyone can hear her.
3 What is wise is like a woman who cries out next to the gates at the entrance to a city.
4 She proclaims: “I am calling out to all of you!
I am speaking to all people!
5 You naive people must comprehend what is prudent.
You stupid people comprehend how to be discerning.
6 Listen to what I say, because I will tell you some excellent things.
I will speak to you about what is right.
7 Listen to what I say because I speak what is true.
I detest speaking what is evil.
8 Everything that I say is righteous.
I do not say anything that is false or deceptive.
9 Everything that I say is plain for people who understand.
Everything that I say is right to people who have become knowledgeable.
10 Choose what I instruct you instead of silver.
Indeed, choose to learn what you should know instead of the finest gold.
11 Do this because I am more valuable than precious jewels.
I am more valuable than anything you can desire.
12 I am what is wise. I am related to what is prudent.
I enable someone to know what is discreet.
13 Everyone who reverently fears Yahweh hates what is evil.
I hate it when people are proud or arrogant.
I hate it when people act wickedly and when people speak perversely.
14 I advise people and enable them to be truly wise.
I am the wise things that you need to understand.
I strengthen people.
15 I enable kings to rule well.
I enable rulers to make righteous laws.
16 I enable princes to govern;
and I enable to govern every royal official who judges righteously.
17 I am what is wise, and I benefit anyone who loves me.
Anyone who earnestly tries to become wise will succeed.
18 I enable people to become rich and I cause people to honor those people.
I enable people to have riches that will last and I enable people to become righteous.
19 What I can give people is more valuable than even the purest gold and the best silver.
20 I always do what is righteous and just
21 in order to give wealth to people who love me.
I will fill up the places where they store valuable items.
22 Yahweh had me, what is wise, when he began to create everything.
Indeed, he had me before he started doing that.
23 Yahweh established me a very long time ago—at the very beginning before the world existed.
24 I began to exist before the oceans existed
and before there were springs abounding with water.
25 I began to exist before Yahweh made the mountains and before the hills existed.
26 I began to exist before Yahweh made the land or the fields or the first particles of dirt on the earth.
27 I existed when Yahweh made the sky
and when he made the boundary between the sky and the ocean’s surface.
28 I existed when Yahweh made the clouds above the earth,
and when he made the springs flow at the bottom of the ocean.
29 I existed when Yahweh set boundaries for the seas,
so that the water in the seas would not go past those boundaries.
I existed when Yahweh made the boundaries of the land.
30 At that time I was like someone beside Yahweh who helped him create everything.
I made him happy every day.
I was always rejoicing when I was with him.
31 I was rejoicing in the whole world that Yahweh had made.
I was also happy with the people he had made.
32 So now, children, pay attention to what I say!
Do this because anyone who behaves wisely will be happy.
33 Listen to what I teach you, so that you will become wise.
Accept what I teach you!
34 People who listen to me will be happy,
They are eager to listen to me like people who wait for me at the door of my house every day.
They are like people who diligently wait for me at my doorway.
35 This is true because people who learn to be wise will live a long time,
and Yahweh will approve of them.
36 But those who refuse to be wise hurt themselves.
All those who hate to be wise are like people who love death.”
9 What is wise is like a woman who has built her own spacious house
and made seven pillars to support its roof.
2 What is wise is like a woman who has prepared a meal for guests.
She has prepared the meat to eat and wine to drink.
She has fully prepared her table for a meal.
3 What is wise is like a woman who sends out her maids to invite her dinner guests.
What is wise is like a woman who cries out at the highest place in the city where everyone can hear her.
4 She tells those who are not wise,
“Come into my house, all you naive people!
5 “Come to me! Eat the food that I have prepared,
and drink the wine that I have prepared.
6 Stop acting naively so that you can live for a long time.
Do what will cause you to learn what you should understand.
7 If you try to teach someone who ridicules other people, that person will ridicule you.
If you correct an evil person, that person will hurt you.
8 So do not correct a person who ridicules other people. If you do so, then that person will hate you.
However, if you correct a wise person, that person will love you for doing so.
9 If you instruct a wise person, then that person will become even wiser.
If you teach a righteous person, then that person will learn even more.
10 Reverently fearing Yahweh is necessary for being wise,
and knowing what is holy is what you should understand.
11 Surely being wise will cause you to live for many days,
and it will cause you to live for many years.
12 Any wise person benefits from being wise.
But anyone who ridicules other people will suffer alone for doing so.”
13 Stupid women speak loudly,
act naively, and are very ignorant.
14 They sit at the doors of the places where they dwell.
They sit on seats at the highest place in the city where everyone can hear them.
15 They sit there in order to cry out to the people who are walking past them.
They cry out to those walking down the road, who are only concerned about where they are going.
16 They tell those who are not wise,
“Come into my house, all you naive people!
17 Come to me because having sex with someone to whom you are not married is as sweet as water that you have stolen.
Indeed, it is as delicious as food that you eat all by yourself.”
18 But men who go to the houses of such women are not aware that those men who have gone there before have died.
They are not aware that the guests of such women are now in the deepest parts of the place where dead people are.
10 These are the wise sayings said by Solomon:
Wise children make their fathers happy;
but stupid children make their mothers sad.
2 Riches that people acquire by acting wickedly will not benefit them;
but people who act righteously prevent themselves from dying too soon.
3 Yahweh prevents righteous people from starving,
but he prevents wicked people from getting what they want.
4 People who are too lazy to work become poor;
but people who work hard become rich.
5 A son who collects crops at the right time is insightful;
but a son who sleeps during the time to harvest crops is shameful.
6 God blesses righteous people;
but what wicked people say prevents others from knowing about the violent acts that they do.
7 People will be happy when they remember righteous people;
but people will forget wicked people like something that decays and disappears.
8 People who think wisely obey what people command them to do that is good,
but people who speak foolishly destroy themselves.
9 People who behave honestly will live safely;
but God will catch people who behave deceitfully.
10 People who gesture with their eyes to deceive people hurt people,
and people who speak foolishly destroy themselves.
11 What righteous people say is like a spring that enables people to live for a long time;
but what wicked people say prevents others from knowing about the violent acts that they do.
12 When people are hateful, they cause people to argue;
but when people are loving, they forgive people who wrong them.
13 Discerning people say what is wise,
but someone must punish people who do not think wisely.
14 Wise people sincerely consider what they should know,
but people who speak foolishly are destructive.
15 What rich people own keeps them safe like a wall keeps a city safe,
but being poor destroys poor people.
16 God rewards righteous people by allowing them to live for a long time,
but God recompenses wicked people by punishing them for sinning.
17 People who heed what is instructive will live for a long time;
but people who do not let others correct them do what will destroy them.
18 People who do not admit that they hate someone speak falsely.
People who slander others are stupid.
19 People who talk a lot sin a lot;
but people who refrain from speaking unnecessarily are wise.
20 What righteous people say is as valuable as the best silver;
but what wicked people think is worthless.
21 What righteous people say benefits many people,
but foolish people die because they do not think wisely.
22 When people become wealthy, it is because Yahweh has blessed them,
and he does not make them suffer for it.
23 Stupid people enjoy doing the wicked things that they planned to do,
but understanding people enjoy what is wise.
24 Wicked people will experience what frightens them;
but righteous people will receive what they want.
25 When something disastrous happens, it destroys wicked people,
but righteous people are like a foundation that lasts forever.
26 Lazy people irritate people who send them to do something for them,
like vinegar irritates teeth and smoke irritates eyes.
27 Reverently fearing Yahweh will cause a person to live for a long time;
but wicked people will not live for a long time.
28 What righteous people hope for leads to being joyful,
but what wicked people hope for will not happen.
29 What Yahweh does protects honest people like a fortress;
but what he does destroys people who act sinfully.
30 Righteous people will always be safe,
but wicked people will never live in our land.
31 Righteous people say what is wise,
but Yahweh will stop people who speak perversely from speaking.
32 What righteous people say is favorable,
but what wicked people say is perverse.
11 Yahweh detests people using weighing instruments in order to deceive others,
but people who use correct weights on their weighing instruments please him.
2 When people act proudly, they will soon disgrace themselves,
but humble people are wise.
3 Being honest will cause people who act uprightly to know what they should do,
but being deceitful will ruin people who act treacherously.
4 What people own will not help them when Yahweh judges the world,
but acting righteously will prevent people from dying.
5 Being righteous will cause people whom Yahweh does not blame for acting wickedly to know what they should do,
but being wicked will ruin those who act wickedly.
6 Being righteous will cause people who act uprightly to escape,
but what people who act treacherously want will cause someone to trap them.
7 When wicked people die, what they hoped for never happens,
what people who rely on how strong they are hoped for also never happens.
8 Yahweh prevents righteous people from becoming distressed;
but wicked people will become distressed instead.
9 What people who reject God say ruins people they know,
but what righteous people know will cause them to escape.
10 People in a city rejoice when the righteous people there prosper,
and they shout joyously when wicked people die.
11 A city becomes great when people who act uprightly bless the people there,
but what people who act wickedly say destroys that city.
12 People who openly detest someone they know are not thinking wisely;
but understanding people say nothing.
13 People who gossip walk around telling others what is secret,
but trustworthy people will not do so.
14 Not having anyone to guide a people group will ruin that group,
but having many people advise a people group will rescue that group.
15 People who guarantee to pay a loan for someone they do not know will surely suffer,
but people who hate agreeing to pay a loan for someone will be safe.
16 People honor a gracious woman,
but cruel people only gain wealth.
17 People who are faithfully kind benefit themselves,
but cruel people hurt themselves.
18 People who act wickedly do not really gain anything,
but God truly rewards people who do what is righteous.
19 People who truly act righteously will live for a long time,
but people who eagerly do what is evil will die.
20 Yahweh detests people who think deceitfully,
but people who act blamelessly please him.
21 Yahweh will certainly punish wicked people.
but he will not punish the offspring of righteous people.
22 Attractive women who refuse to act discreetly
are as ridiculous as a gold ring in a pig’s snout.
23 What righteous people want only results in what is good,
but what wicked people hope for results in Yahweh being angry.
24 People who generously share what they have with others will receive even more,
but people who keep more of what they have than they should will only lose it.
25 People who generously bless others will prosper;
and people who generously give others something to drink will also receive something to drink.
26 People will curse people who selfishly hoard food instead of selling it,
but they will bless people who sell it when they need it.
27 Yahweh and others approve of people who earnestly try to do what is good,
but evil things happen to people who try to do what is evil.
28 People who depend on their money are those who will ruin themselves,
but righteous people will thrive like a green plant.
29 People who trouble their families will not inherit anything,
and people who act foolishly will serve people who think wisely.
30 What righteous people do is like a tree with fruit that keeps people alive,
and people who persuade others are wise.
31 Pay attention! Righteous people on the earth will get what they deserve;
but even more so, wicked people and sinful people will also get what they deserve!
12 People who love other people correcting them also love learning what they should know.
But people who hate other people correcting them are stupid.
2 Yahweh approves of people who are good,
but he condemns people who plan to do what is evil.
3 People cannot live stably by acting wickedly,
but righteous people are as stable as a tree with immovable roots.
4 A virtuous wife causes people to praise her husband,
but a disgraceful wife destroys her husband like a disease that destroys his bones.
5 What righteous people plan is just,
but what wicked people advise is deceitful.
6 What wicked people say causes people to die like someone who hides in wait in order to kill someone who walks by;
but what upright people say will enable them to escape.
7 Yahweh destroys wicked people and they will cease to exist,
but the families of righteous people will continue to exist.
8 People will praise someone according to how insightful that person is,
but people will despise someone who thinks perversely.
9 People whom others disrespect yet have servants are better
than people who think they are important yet have no food.
10 Righteous people take care of their animals,
but even when wicked people try to act compassionately, they act cruelly.
11 People who work hard will have enough food to eat,
but people who waste time doing worthless things do not think wisely.
12 Wicked people want what evil people steal,
but righteous people benefit others like a tree with deep roots.
13 What wicked people sinfully say will destroy them,
but righteous people will not become distressed.
14 What people say will satisfy them with what is good;
what people work hard to accomplish will benefit them.
15 Foolish people think that what they are doing is always right;
but wise people listen to what other people advise them to do.
16 People know immediately when foolish people are angry;
but clever people ignore it when someone disrespects them.
17 People who easily speak truthfully speak righteously,
but witnesses who speak falsely speak deceitfully.
18 When people speak without thinking, they hurt others like someone who stabs people with a sword;
but what wise people say helps people heal.
19 What people say truthfully will last forever,
but what people say falsely will only last for a moment.
20 People who plan to act evilly think deceitfully,
but people who advise others to act peacefully will be joyful.
21 Bad things do not happen to righteous people,
but wicked people will experience many bad things.
22 Yahweh detests people who speak falsely,
but people who act faithfully please him.
23 Clever people conceal what they know,
but stupid people shout out foolish things.
24 People who work hard will reign over others,
but lazy people will become slaves.
25 When people worry, they feel sad,
but when someone says what is good, those people feel happy.
26 Righteous people will guide the people they know,
but what wicked people do causes them to do what will destroy them.
27 Lazy people do not even cook the animal they caught,
but people who work hard acquire valuable riches.
28 People who do what is righteous will live for a long time.
Indeed, people who do so will not die too soon.
13 Wise sons pay attention when their fathers instruct them,
but people who ridicule other people do not pay attention when people correct them.
2 What people say will enable them to eat good food,
but people who act treacherously only want to act violently.
3 People who are careful about what they say enable themselves to stay alive,
but people who speak carelessly destroy themselves.
4 Lazy people always want something but never receive it,
but people who work hard will receive more than what they want.
5 Righteous people detest speaking falsely,
but wicked people are disgusting and disgraceful.
6 Acting righteously enables people who act blamelessly to be safe,
but acting wickedly causes sinful people to do what will destroy them.
7 Some people act as if they are wealthy while they are actually poor.
Other people act as if they are poor while they are actually wealthy.
8 Rich people might have to pay money to someone who threatens them in order to stay alive,
but poor people do not even listen when someone threatens them.
9 Righteous people live joyfully like a light that shines brightly,
but wicked people will merely die like an oil lamp that stops burning oil.
10 People acting proudly only causes people to argue,
but people whom others advise are wise.
11 Riches that people gain effortlessly will diminish;
but people who gain riches by working hard will increase their riches.
12 People despair when they do not receive what they hope to receive,
but receiving what people want to receive is like a tree with fruit that keeps those people alive.
13 People who detest what others try to teach them will suffer for doing so,
but God will reward those very people who reverently fear what he has commanded.
14 What wise people teach is like a spring that enables people to live for a long time.
It enables people to avoid what could kill them.
15 People approve of people who are very insightful,
but how treacherous people live is harsh.
16 All clever people act according to what they know,
but stupid people show how foolish they are by how they act.
17 Bad things happen to messengers who are not reliable,
but reliable messengers help people heal.
18 People who do not let other people correct them will be poor and ashamed,
but people will respect those people who let other people rebuke them.
19 People feel pleasant when they get what they want,
but stupid people detest refusing to do what is evil.
20 People who associate with wise people will become wise themselves,
but people who are companions of stupid people will agonize.
21 Bad things happen to sinful people,
but good things happen to righteous people.
22 Good people will leave riches for their grandchildren when they die,
but righteous people will receive the riches that sinful people have saved.
23 Poor people have fields that can produce a lot of food,
but unjust people take it all away from them.
24 Parents who do not physically punish their children act as if they hate their children,
but parents who truly love their children are careful to discipline them.
25 Righteous people eat enough food to satisfy themselves,
but wicked people are always hungry.
14 The wisest women help their families thrive,
but foolish women ruin their families by what they do.
2 People who behave uprightly reverently fear Yahweh,
but people who behave deceptively detest Yahweh.
3 What foolish people say causes someone to punish them for being proud,
but what wise people say keeps them alive.
4 Where there are not any oxen to feed in the barn, the feeding container is clean;
but oxen work to produce a lot of crops.
5 Honest witnesses do not lie,
but dishonest witnesses lie easily.
6 People who ridicule other people try to become wise and fail to do so,
but understanding people can easily learn what they should know.
7 Stay away from stupid people
because you will not learn anything from what they say.
8 Clever people know what to do because they are wise,
but stupid people deceive themselves because they are foolish.
9 Foolish people scorn making amends with God after sinning,
but Yahweh approves of upright people.
10 Only miserable people know how miserable they are,
and joyful people cannot share what they feel with someone they do not know.
11 The families of wicked people will die out,
but the families of upright people will thrive.
12 People think they know the right way to behave,
but people who behave that way will ultimately die.
13 People who are laughing may still be suffering,
and people who feel joyful may ultimately feel sad.
14 People who refuse to live righteously will receive from Yahweh what they deserve;
and good people will also receive from Yahweh what they deserve.
15 Naive people believe whatever people say,
but clever people think carefully about what they do.
16 Wise people are afraid of doing what is evil and refuse to do what is evil,
but foolish people make themselves angry and are overconfident.
17 People who quickly become angry act foolishly,
and people hate people who plan to do what is evil.
18 Naive people will act foolishly,
but clever people will learn what they should know.
19 Evil people will respectfully bow in front of good people,
and wicked people will bow at the doors of the houses where righteous people dwell.
20 Even the people whom poor people know hate them,
but many people love rich people.
21 Sinful people scorn the people they know,
but people who are kind to suffering people are happy.
22 People who plan to act evilly certainly act deceptively,
but people are faithful and trustworthy to people who plan to do what is good.
23 Whenever people work hard, they will earn money,
but when people only talk, they will only remain poor.
24 Wise people will acquire wealth,
but stupid people only act more foolishly because they are foolish.
25 Truthful witnesses save people from dying,
but people who lie easily are deceptive.
26 Strong people are confident because they reverently fear Yahweh.
Those people will protect their children.
27 Reverently fearing Yahweh is like a spring that enables people to live for a long time.
It enables people to avoid what could kill them.
28 Kings who rule over many people are glorious,
but rulers who have no people to rule over have nothing.
29 People who do not become angry quickly understand a lot,
but people who quickly become angry show everyone how foolish they are.
30 Feeling peaceful makes a person’s body healthy,
but envying others makes a person’s body unhealthy, like something that rots a person’s bones.
31 People who make poor people suffer despise Yahweh, who made them,
but people who are kind to needy people respect Yahweh.
32 Wicked people destroy themselves by doing evil things,
but righteous people feel safe even when they die.
33 Understanding people think wisely,
and even foolish people know about what is wise.
34 Acting righteously makes a country great,
but acting sinfully disgraces a people group.
35 Insightful servants please their kings,
but kings are furious with disgraceful people.
15 Replying gently to angry people will calm them,
but speaking harshly will make them angrier.
2 What wise people say makes others appreciate what they should know,
but stupid people constantly say what is foolish.
3 Yahweh sees everything that is happening;
he observes both evil people and good people.
4 What people say soothingly is like a tree with fruit that keeps people alive,
but what people say deceitfully makes people despair.
5 Foolish people detest what their fathers say to correct them,
but people who let others rebuke them are clever.
6 Righteous people have houses that contain a lot of riches,
but what wicked people gain troubles them.
7 What wise people say informs others of what they should know,
but what foolish people think does not do that.
8 Yahweh detests what wicked people offer to him,
but he is pleased with what upright people pray.
9 Yahweh detests what wicked people do,
but he loves people who diligently try to act righteously.
10 Yahweh will severely punish people who refuse to live righteously,
and people who hate other people correcting them will perish.
11 Yahweh knows everything about the place where dead people are.
So he surely knows everything that everyone thinks!
12 People who ridicule others despise anyone who corrects them;
they avoid wise people.
13 People smile when they are happy,
but feeling sad can make people despair.
14 Understanding people try to learn what they should know,
but stupid people satisfy themselves with what is foolish.
15 What happens every day that suffering people live makes them wretched,
but cheerful people live like people who are always feasting.
16 It is better for someone to have a few things while reverently fearing Yahweh,
than for someone to have a lot of riches while worrying.
17 It is better for someone to have a small meal where people love each other,
than to have a large meal where people hate each other.
18 People who easily become angry cause people to argue,
but people who do not become angry quickly will stop people from arguing.
19 Lazy people live unproductively like people that have a thorny plant blocking their paths,
but upright people live productively like people who are walking on a road that is easy to walk on.
20 Wise children make their fathers happy,
but stupid children detest their mothers.
21 People who are not wise enjoy acting foolishly,
but understanding people act rightly.
22 What people plan fails when no one advises them,
but what people plan succeeds when many people advise them.
23 People rejoice when they answer someone aptly.
It is so good to say something at the right time!
24 How insightful people live causes them to live for a long time
in order for them to avoid going to the place where dead people are.
25 Yahweh will destroy what proud people own,
but he protects the few things that widows own.
26 Yahweh detests the evil things that people think,
but the pleasing things that people say are pure.
27 People who gain wealth in an unjust manner trouble their families,
but people who refuse bribes will live for a long time.
28 Righteous people think carefully about how to reply to people,
but wicked people constantly say what is evil.
29 Yahweh does not listen to wicked people,
but he listens to what righteous people pray.
30 People feel happy when they see someone smile,
and people feel healthy when they hear something good.
31 People who listen when others rebuke them in a way that will keep them alive will become wise.
32 People who refuse to let others correct them act as if they despise themselves,
but people who listen when others rebuke them think wisely.
33 Reverently fearing Yahweh makes people wise,
and people must be humble before other people respect them.
16 People plan what they want to say,
but Yahweh determines how they will reply.
2 People think that everything they do is right,
but Yahweh rightly evaluates what they think.
3 Entrust what you do to Yahweh,
and he will make what you plan to do succeed.
4 When Yahweh made everything, he planned what would happen to each thing.
He has even made wicked people for the time when he will punish them.
5 Yahweh detests all proud people.
Yahweh will certainly punish them.
6 People can atone for acting sinfully by being faithful and trustworthy.
People who reverently fear Yahweh will avoid doing what is evil.
7 When Yahweh likes what people do,
he even causes their enemies to be peaceful with them.
8 It is better for someone to have a few things while being righteous,
than for someone to have a lot of crops while being unjust.
9 People plan what they want to do,
but Yahweh determines what they will actually do.
10 Ideally, what kings say is from God,
and when kings judge, they surely speak justly.
11 Yahweh made weighing instruments for us to use honestly.
Indeed, he made all the stones people carry in bags to use for weighing things.
12 Ideally, kings detest people acting wickedly
because acting righteously causes kings to rule securely.
13 Ideally, kings enjoy when people speak righteously.
Indeed, they love people who speak uprightly.
14 When kings are angry, they cause people to die;
so wise people will appease them.
15 When kings are happy, they let people live;
when they approve of people, it is as refreshing as rain in springtime.
16 Becoming wise is better than having gold.
Indeed, it is better to choose to become understanding than to have silver.
17 Upright people act in a way that avoids doing what is evil;
people who want to stay alive are careful about what they do.
18 If people are proud, then something will destroy them.
Indeed, if people are arrogant, then something will ruin them.
19 It is better to live humbly among poor people
than to live proudly and receive some of what proud people have taken from others.
20 People who act prudently in a matter will succeed,
and people who trust in Yahweh are happy.
21 People will call those who think wisely, “understanding ones,”
and pleasant things that people say cause others to learn.
22 Being insightful is like a spring that enables insightful people to live for a long time,
but being foolish results in other people punishing foolish people.
23 What wise people think causes them to speak insightfully,
and what those people say causes others to learn.
24 The pleasing things that people say are like a honeycomb:
they cause people to feel pleasant and healthy.
25 People think they know the right way to behave,
but people who behave that way will ultimately die.
26 Being hungry helps working people work
because wanting to eat motivates people to keep on working.
27 Worthless people plot how to hurt others;
the evil things they say harm others like fire burns people.
28 Perverse people cause other people to argue with each other;
and people who gossip about others cause friends to stop being friends.
29 Violent people tempt people whom they know to sin,
and they guide them to behave wickedly.
30 People who use their eyes to signal to others are planning to do something perverse;
people who use their lips to signal to others are about to do the evil thing that they had planned to do.
31 Living for a long time is honorable, like a magnificent crown on someone’s head;
people are able to live for a long time by living righteously.
32 It is better to be someone who does not become angry quickly than to be powerful.
It is better to control oneself than to be as powerful as someone who conquers a city.
33 People throw lots in order to decide what to do,
but Yahweh decides whatever happens.
17 It is better for someone to have a little stale food to eat while living peacefully
than for someone to live in a house where people frequently eat large meals while arguing with each other.
2 An insightful slave will rule over his master’s disgraceful son.
People will consider that slave to be one of his master’s sons,
and he will inherit some of what his master’s sons inherit.
3 People use crucibles and furnaces to test and refine silver and gold.
Yahweh tests what people are thinking in a similar manner.
4 People who act evilly listen carefully when people speak what is sinful;
people who lie pay attention when people speak what destroys others.
5 People who ridicule poor people despise Yahweh, who made them;
Yahweh will certainly punish people who rejoice when other people experience disastrous things.
6 Old people are proud of their grandchildren,
and children are proud of their parents.
7 It is not fitting for worthless people to speak eloquently.
It is even less fitting for royal officials to speak falsely!
8 People who pay bribes think that bribes are magical;
they think that everything they do will be successful.
9 People who want to love forgive people who wrong them,
but people who repeatedly mention how someone wronged them cause friends to stop being friends.
10 Rebuking causes understanding people to learn
more than beating stupid people a hundred times with a stick causes them to learn.
11 Evil people only want to rebel,
so a merciless messenger will come and punish them.
12 It would be better to meet a female bear that is furious because someone stole her cubs
than to meet stupid people while they are acting foolishly!
13 If people react to experiencing what is good by doing what is evil,
then what is evil will continually affect their families.
14 When people start arguing with each other, it is as difficult to stop as it is to stop water that is leaking out of something,
so prevent yourself from arguing before you start to argue.
15 There are people who acquit guilty people,
and there are people who condemn innocent people;
Yahweh detests both types of people.
16 How useless it is for stupid people to try to pay money in order to become wise
when they are unable to think!
17 A friend loves you all the time,
and relatives exist in order to help other relatives when disastrous things happen.
18 People who do not think wisely agree to pay someone else’s loan
and even guarantee to pay the loan in front of people whom they know.
19 People who love to sin also love to cause people to argue;
people who brag a lot cause others to destroy them.
20 People who think deceitfully will never experience any good things,
and bad things will happen to people who speak deceitfully.
21 Stupid people grieve their parents.
Indeed, worthless people will not cause their fathers to be joyful.
22 People who feel happy will heal,
but depressed people will be unhealthy.
23 People secretly bribe wicked judges
so that they judge unjustly.
24 Understanding people concentrate on what is wise,
but stupid people cannot concentrate on anything.
25 Stupid children grieve their fathers
and make their mothers miserable.
26 Punishing innocent people is surely wrong,
and beating royal officials is also wrong.
27 People who refrain from speaking unnecessarily are knowledgeable,
and people who remain calm are understanding people.
28 People will think even foolish people are wise if they do not speak.
Indeed, people who refrain from speaking are understanding people.
18 People who avoid other people only care about doing what they want to do.
They refuse to do anything that is wise.
2 Stupid people hate learning what they should understand.
Instead, they only like to tell others what they think.
3 People treat wicked people contemptuously,
and people scold people who act shamefully.
4 What wise people say is as profound as a deep ocean.
Wise people are like a fountain or brook that flows abundantly with what is wise.
5 It is very evil for judges to favor guilty people
in order to prevent judging innocent people justly.
6 What stupid people say makes people argue,
and it makes people want to beat them.
7 What stupid people say will ruin them.
Indeed, what they say will trouble them like a trap troubles an animal.
8 People are eager to listen to what people who gossip say,
and what they say deeply affects those who hear it.
9 People who are lazy when they work
are like people who destroy things.
10 Yahweh is like a strong tower
that righteous people run into and are safe.
11 What rich people own keeps them safe like walls keep cities safe;
they think what they own protects them as well as a high wall.
12 If people think proudly, then something will destroy them;
people must be humble before other people respect them.
13 It is foolish and shameful
for someone to reply to what a person has said before hearing it.
14 How people feel can enable them to endure being sick.
However, it is very difficult to make a depressed person feel better!
15 Understanding people learn what they should know.
Indeed, wise people try to learn what they should know.
16 Giving something to someone can benefit the one who gives it;
doing so can enable that person to meet important people.
17 People who state their cases first seem to be right
until people whom they know arrive and question them.
18 Throwing lots in order to decide something can make people stop arguing,
it can also decide who is right between powerful people.
19 It is more difficult to reconcile with a relative whom you have offended than to conquer a fortified city;
and when people argue, they avoid each other as if a castle’s strong gate were between them.
20 What people say will satisfy them when they are hungry.
Indeed, what people say will satisfy them.
21 What people say can cause people to die or remain alive.
And people who love to talk will experience the consequences for what they say.
22 Men who marry get what is good
and Yahweh approves of them.
23 Poor people plead for others to be merciful to them, but rich people reply to them rudely.
24 Having unreliable friends will destroy a person,
but loving friends exist who are more loyal than brothers.
19 It is better to be poor and behave honestly,
than to speak deceitfully and be stupid.
2 Furthermore, it is very bad for people to not know what they should know;
people sin who act hastily.
3 People who act foolishly destroy themselves,
yet they become furious with Yahweh and blame him.
4 Wealthy people easily make many friends,
but poor people lose even the friends they have.
5 Someone will surely punish lying witnesses.
Indeed, someone will surely punish people who lie easily.
6 A lot of people want royal officials to favor them,
and it seems like everyone wants to be friends with generous people.
7 All the relatives of poor people despise them;
but even more so, their friends avoid them!
Although they call out to them for help, they do not respond.
8 People who think wisely benefit themselves;
people who remember what they should understand will surely succeed.
9 Someone will surely punish lying witnesses.
Indeed, people who lie easily will die.
10 It is wrong for foolish people to live luxuriously,
and it is even worse for slaves to reign over princes!
11 Insightful people do not get angry quickly,
and people show how honorable they are by forgiving people who sin against them.
12 When kings are furious, they frighten people like the roaring of young lions frightens people,
but when they approve of people, it is as refreshing as dew on plants.
13 Foolish children destroy their fathers,
and when wives argue with their husbands, it is as annoying as constantly dripping water.
14 People inherit houses and riches from their fathers,
but Yahweh alone gives men insightful wives.
15 Lazy people sleep well,
but such idle people are always hungry.
16 People who obey what others command them enable themselves to stay alive,
but people who do not care about what they do will die.
17 Being kind to poor people is like loaning money to Yahweh;
he will reward anyone who does so.
18 Correct your children while you still can;
and do not allow yourself to kill them.
19 Very angry people will pay for being angry;
if you rescue them from what they must pay, you will have to do so again and again.
20 Pay attention to what people advise you to do and let people teach you
in order to become wise when you are about to die.
21 People plan to do many things,
but only what Yahweh advises will succeed.
22 People want others to be faithful,
and poor people are better than people who lie.
23 Reverently fearing Yahweh causes people to live for a long time;
such people rest contently,
nothing will harm them.
24 Lazy people put their hands in a dish of food;
but are so lazy that they will not lift the food to their mouths.
25 If you punish people who ridicule others,
then naive people who see you do that will become sensible.
If you correct understanding people,
then they will learn what they should know.
26 Children who act violently toward their fathers and chase away their mothers
are disgraceful and embarrassing.
27 My son, if you stop listening to what people teach you,
then you will reject what you already know that people told you.
28 Worthless witnesses scorn what is just,
and wicked people enjoy acting sinfully as if they were gulping down delicious food.
29 Yahweh is ready to condemn people who ridicule others,
and he is ready to beat fools on their backs.
20 People who drink too much alcohol ridicule and fight others;
all people who cannot walk properly because they drank too much alcohol are very foolish.
2 When kings are terrifyingly angry, they frighten people like the roaring of young lions frightens people;
people who make kings angry cause themselves to die.
3 It is honorable to cease arguing with other people,
but all foolish people are eager to argue with others.
4 Lazy farmers do not plow their fields when they should,
so when it is time to harvest crops, he looks for crops in his fields, but there are none.
5 Discerning what people are thinking about advising others is as difficult as drawing water out of a deep well,
but understanding people are able to do so.
6 Many people claim to be faithful,
but very few people act faithfully!
7 Righteous people behave honestly
God will bless their children.
8 Ideally, kings who sit on their thrones in order to judge people
discern anything that is evil and remove it from their lands.
9 No one can truthfully say, “I do not think sinfully anymore; I do not sin anymore.”
10 Yahweh detests people dishonestly using differing weights and measurements to benefit themselves.
11 Even young people show people who they are by what they do;
how they act shows whether they are innocent and right.
12 Yahweh has made both ears with which to hear and eyes with which to see.
13 If you sleep a lot, you will become poor;
but if you stay awake and work, you will have plenty of food.
14 Buyers claim that something is not good at all when they are bargaining with you about its price.
But after they buy it, they go and boast to their friends about the good price they bought it for.
15 Gold and precious jewels are plentiful,
but the knowledgeable things that people say are extremely precious.
16 Take the coats of people who promise to pay a loan for someone whom they do not know.
Indeed, hold onto the coats of people who do so for a foreigner.
17 Food people get by deceiving others may taste sweet to them,
but what eventually happens to them will be as unpleasant as having a mouth full of stones.
18 What people plan succeeds when others advise them,
so let others advise you before you start fighting a war.
19 People who walk around gossiping tell others what is secret,
so avoid people who speak carelessly.
20 People who curse their parents
will die like an oil lamp that stops burning oil in a totally dark place.
21 What people inherit hastily before the proper time
will ultimately not result in Yahweh blessing them.
22 Do not say that you will harm someone who has harmed you.
Rather, wait for Yahweh to resolve the matter, so that he may vindicate you.
23 Yahweh detests people dishonestly using differing weights to benefit themselves.
Indeed, using weighing instruments in order to deceive others is very bad.
24 Yahweh directs what happens to powerful people.
So then, people surely cannot comprehend what will happen to them!
25 It is dangerous for people to declare thoughtlessly that something is holy to Yahweh,
and then think about what they have done after they have done so.
26 Wise kings remove wicked people from their lands,
and they punish them like farmers crush grain under a threshing wheel.
27 People’s spirits are like lamps that Yahweh has given them;
they help people discern everything that deeply affects them.
28 Being faithful and trustworthy makes kings safe.
Indeed, being faithful enables them to rule securely.
29 People admire young men because they are strong,
but people admire old men because they are wise.
30 Severely beating people may stop them from acting evilly,
and hitting people may change what deeply affects them.
21 Yahweh directs what kings think like a farmer directs streams
to bring water anywhere he wants it to go.
2 People think that everything they do is right,
but Yahweh rightly evaluates what they think.
3 Acting righteously and justly is more important to Yahweh
than sacrificing animals to him.
4 Being proud and arrogant guide what wicked people do like a lamp shows people where to go;
both are sinful.
5 What diligent people plan will certainly profit them,
but all those who act too hastily will certainly become poor.
6 When people gain wealth by speaking falsely,
that wealth quickly vanishes like mist and what they do will kill them.
7 When wicked people act violently, they destroy themselves
because they refuse to act justly.
8 Guilty people act perversely,
but innocent people act uprightly.
9 It is better to live alone in a corner of a housetop
than to live inside a house with a wife who always argues with you.
10 Wicked people strongly desire to act evilly,
they will not be merciful to the people they know.
11 If you punish people who ridicule others, then naive people who see you do that will become wise,
and if you teach wise people, they will become even more knowledgeable.
12 Yahweh, the Righteous One, knows the families of wicked people,
he destroys them.
13 People who refuse to listen to poor people when they cry out for help,
will also cry out for help themselves, but no one will help them.
14 Secretly giving something to an angry person will stop them from being angry.
Indeed, secretly bribing a furious person will calm them down.
15 Righteous people enjoy acting justly,
but acting justly terrifies people who act sinfully.
16 People who stop behaving insightfully
will end up in the place where the spirits of dead people are together.
17 People who love what is pleasurable will be poor.
Indeed, people who love luxuries like wine and olive oil will never be rich.
18 Wicked people will suffer instead of righteous people,
and treacherous people will suffer in place of upright people.
19 It is better to live alone in a deserted land
than to live with an argumentative and vexing wife.
20 Wise people have precious riches and olive oil,
but foolish people waste everything that they have.
21 People who diligently try to be righteous and faithful
will live for a long time, will be righteous, and people will respect them.
22 Wise people conquer cities that mighty warriors are defending;
they pull down the walls that people in those cities believe will protect them.
23 People who are careful about anything they say
avoid becoming distressed.
24 People who ridicule others act presumptuously and arrogantly;
they behave furiously and presumptuously.
25 Lazy people want what will kill them
because they refuse to work.
26 Lazy people always want more things for themselves,
but righteous people generously give what they have to others.
27 What wicked people offer to Yahweh is detestable;
it is even more detestable when they offering something to Yahweh while intending to act wickedly!
28 Witnesses who lie will die,
but when people who listen carefully speak, others will always remember what they said.
29 Wicked people show how stubborn they are,
but upright people think about what they do.
30 There is absolutely nothing that is wise, understanding, and advisable, but is also opposite of what Yahweh wants.
31 Soldiers prepare to fight,
but Yahweh determines who wins that fight.
22 Being someone whom people respect is more important than being very wealthy.
Indeed, being someone whom others approve of is better than having silver and gold.
2 Rich people and poor people have at least one thing in common:
Yahweh made both of them.
3 Sensible people observe something dangerous happening and avoid it,
but naive people ignorantly do not avoid it and suffer for doing so.
4 People who are humble, who reverently fear Yahweh,
will become rich, people will respect them, and they will live for a long time.
5 Deceptive people live dangerously, as if they were walking down a road covered with thorns and traps;
but people who want to stay alive avoid living that way.
6 Teach children how to behave properly,
so that when they become old, they will still continue to do so.
7 Rich people reign over poor people,
and people who borrow money from others are slaves to the people who loaned them money.
8 People who act unjustly will suffer for doing so,
and they will no longer be able to furiously oppress other people.
9 Yahweh will bless generous people
because they give their own food to poor people.
10 If you banish people who ridicule others, then people will stop arguing with each other,
quarreling with each other, and shaming each other.
11 People who love thinking purely
speak graciously and are companions of kings.
12 Yahweh preserves what people should know,
but he makes what treacherous people say fail.
13 Lazy people do nothing because they claim that there is a lion outside that will kill them in the street if they go outside.
14 What adulterous women say is as dangerous as a deep hole;
those whom Yahweh is angry with will fall into it.
15 Children inherently think foolishly,
but physically disciplining them will teach them to stop being foolish.
16 People who oppress poor people in order to make more money for themselves,
or who gives things to rich people in order to become rich, will only become poor.
17 Listen carefully to what wise people have said;
consider carefully what I am teaching you!
18 Do this because if you remember these sayings
and are always ready to repeat them to others, then you will be glad.
19 I am teaching these sayings to you—yes, you—right now
so that you will trust Yahweh.
20 I am indeed writing these 30 sayings
to advise and teach you.
21 I am writing them in order to teach you what is true in trustworthy sayings,
and in order to answer those who sent you with trustworthy sayings.
22 Do not steal from poor people just because they are poor;
and do not oppress suffering people in court.
23 Do not do these things because Yahweh will defend those poor people when you dispute with them,
and he will kill the people who stole from them.
24 Do not become friends with angry people.
Indeed, do not associate with people who easily become angry.
25 If you do so, then you will act like them,
and you will endanger yourself like an animal caught in a trap.
26 Stay away from those people who agree to pay loans for others.
Indeed, stay away from those people who guarantee to pay the loans of others.
27 For if you cannot pay back the loan,
then the person to whom you owe money will surely take away even your own bed in order to pay back the loan.
28 Do not cheat people by moving the stones that their ancestors placed long ago
to mark the boundaries of their land.
29 Consider this: people who work skillfully will serve kings
rather than serving unknown people.
23 When you sit down to eat a meal with someone who rules over others,
pay attention to the food that is in front of you.
2 Restrain yourself from eating too much
if you like eating a lot of food.
3 Do not crave the expensive food that the ruler has
because that ruler is using that food to deceive you.
4 Do not work so much that you exhaust yourself in order to become rich.
Be understanding enough to stop doing so.
5 As soon as you look at that wealth, it will surely be gone!
This is because wealth certainly disappears quickly as if it had wings
and flew off into the sky like a fast bird.
6 Do not eat food that stingy people give you.
Do not crave the expensive food that they have,
7 because stingy people are always thinking about how much the food costs them.
They will tell you to eat and drink,
but they do not mean what they say.
8 When you realize this, you will want to vomit what little food you ate.
You will have wasted the kind things you said to them.
9 Do not directly address foolish people
because they will only despise the insightful things that you say.
10 Do not cheat people by moving the old stones that mark the boundaries of their land.
Do not claim the land that belongs to defenseless orphans,
11 because Yahweh is the one who redeems them (and he is powerful.
He is the one who will defend them when they dispute with you.
12 Consider carefully what people say when they correct you.
Indeed, listen carefully to what people teach you.
13 Do not refuse to discipline your children.
If you physically punish them, they will not die.
14 Physically punish your children,
so that you may prevent them from dying.
15 My child, if you are wise,
then surely I myself will be very happy,
16 and I will sincerely rejoice
when you say what is right.
17 Do not envy sinful people;
instead always reverently fear Yahweh.
18 If you do so, then you will surely have a good future,
and what you hope will happen will indeed occur!
19 My child, listen to me so that you can become wise.
Make yourself think about behaving rightly.
20 Stay away from drunkards and gluttons,
21 because drunkards and gluttons will become poor.
They sleep so much that they will only have rags to wear.
22 Pay attention to your father, who enabled you to exist;
and do not scorn your mother when she becomes old.
23 Learn what is true and remember it.
Learn what is wise and instructive and what you should understand.
24 Fathers of righteous people are very joyful.
Indeed, those who father wise people are happy because of them.
25 So do what will make your parents happy!
Do what will make your mother joyful!
26 My son, pay close attention to me!
Carefully observe what I do!
27 Do this because prostitutes are as dangerous as a deep hole.
Indeed, adulterous women are as dangerous as a well you cannot escape from.
28 These very women certainly wait for men to seduce like robbers wait for people to rob.
They cause many men to become unfaithful.
29 These are the kind of people who are woeful, sorrowful, and quarrelsome,
who lament, get hurt for no reason,
and have red eyes:
30 those people who drink too much wine
and are always looking around for wine to drink that someone has prepared.
31 Do not even look with pleasure at wine, even though it is beautifully red, glistens in the cup,
and goes down your throat smoothly.
32 Afterward the wine only harms you as if a poisonous snake had bitten you.
33 When you are drunk, you will hallucinate,
and you will speak perversely.
34 You will feel dizzy as if you were trying to sleep on a ship that the sea was tossing back and forth.
Indeed, you will feel as if you were trying to sleep while swaying at the top of a ship’s sails.
35 You will say, “People hit me, but it did not hurt.
People beat me, but I did not feel it.
I wish I could be sober
so that I could find even more wine to drink again!”
24 Do not envy evil people;
do not want to associate with them,
2 because they plan to act violently,
and they talk about troubling people.
3 People build houses by acting wisely,
they make houses stable by acting understandably.
4 By acting knowledgeably, people fill the rooms of those houses
with all kinds of valuable and delightful riches.
5 Wise people are strong,
and knowledgeable people make themselves more powerful,
6 because letting people advise you will make you fight your war successfully,
and letting many people counsel you will rescue you from losing the war.
7 Foolish people cannot understand what is wise;
they have nothing to say in court.
8 Some people are always planning to act evilly;
other people refer to them as schemers.
9 Foolish plans are sinful,
and people detest people who ridicule others.
10 If you fail during distressful times,
then you are weak.
11 Save people whom others are unjustly leading away to kill;
prevent them from staggering to the place where people will unjustly slaughter them!
12 If you falsely claim that you did not know that those people were dying unjustly, then think about this:
Yahweh discerns what people think and surely understands!
He keeps you alive and surely knows!
He will surely make people receive what they deserve for what they have done!
13 My child, eat honey because it tastes good,
and honey dripping from the comb tastes sweet.
14 Be aware that what is wise is like honey for you.
If you become wise, then you will have a good future,
and what you hope will happen will indeed occur!
15 Do not be like wicked people and hide in wait in order to attack the places where righteous people dwell.
Do not devastate the places where righteous people rest!
16 Do not do so because righteous people can recover many times when disastrous things happen to them,
but disastrous things will destroy wicked people.
17 Do not be happy when something disastrous happens to your adversaries.
Indeed, do not rejoice when that happens!
18 If you do, then Yahweh will notice and disapprove,
so that he stops being angry with your enemies.
19 Do not worry about people who do what is evil.
Do not be jealous of wicked people.
20 Do not do so because evil people will not have good futures,
but wicked people will merely die like an oil lamp that stops burning oil.
21 My child, reverently fear Yahweh and kings.
Avoid people who rebel against either Yahweh or the king,
22 because disastrous things will happen quickly to those people,
and no one knows how terribly both Yahweh and kings can destroy others! 23 Here are more things that wise people have said:
It is very evil to favor someone when you judge.
24 Many people will curse, and people groups will hate,
anyone who declares that any guilty person is innocent.
25 However, people who condemn guilty people will prosper,
and Yahweh will bless them well.
26 People who answer honestly show that they are true friends.
27 Do the work you must do outside and prepare your fields
before you build your house.
28 Do not testify against someone you know if you do not have a good reason to do so.
Do not speak deceitfully!
29 Do not say, “I will do to him that same bad thing he did to me;
I will pay him back for what he did to me!”
30 I walked by the land of a lazy person,
and past the vineyard of someone who does not think wisely.
31 And I saw that thistles and weeds were everywhere in that field and vineyard. Even the stone wall surrounding them had fallen down.
32 When I saw that, I considered carefully what I was seeing. When I observed that, I learned this:
33 You say to yourself, “Let me sleep just a little more!
Let me lay my hands across my chest in order to rest comfortably for a little while longer!”
34 Being so lazy will result in you suddenly becoming poor and needy,
as if a thief has attacked you.
25 Here are more wise sayings said by Solomon that the scribes who served Hezekiah, the king of Judah, copied from a scroll that Solomon had written.
2 God shows how glorious he is when he makes something difficult for people to understand.
But kings show how glorious they are when they explain something that is difficult for people to understand.
3 As people cannot fully understand how high the sky is or how deep the earth is,
so they cannot fully understand what kings think.
4 People who make things from metal must remove scum from silver
before they can make that silver into something.
5 In the same way, people must remove wicked advisers from in front of kings
before acting righteously causes kings to rule securely.
6 Do not promote yourself in front of kings,
and do not pretend to be great.
7 Do not do so because it is better if someone invites you to come closer to a king,
than for someone to embarrass you in front of a royal official whom you have seen by telling you to move away from a king.
8 Do not plead your case too quickly against someone you know.
If you do, then you will not know what to do when that person wins the case and embarrasses you!
9 If you do indeed plead your case against someone you know,
then do not tell others what is secret about that person.
10 If do you, then people may hear you and disgrace you,
and people will continue to speak badly about you.
11 What someone says aptly
is as delightful as golden apples that someone has set in silver.
12 When someone wisely rebukes someone who is willing to listen,
it is as valuable as a gold ring or jewelry made from the best gold.
13 Reliable messengers are as refreshing to those who sent them as cold snow at the time when people harvest crops;
they refresh the people whom they serve.
14 People who brag about giving something that they never gave
are as disappointing as clouds and wind that do not bring rain.
15 People can persuade officers by acting patiently,
and by speaking gently people can convince those who oppose them to agree with them.
16 If you discover some wild honey, do not eat too much of it.
If you do, then you will become sick and vomit.
17 In the same way, do not visit too often the houses of people you know.
If you do, then they may become weary of you or even hate you.
18 People who lie when they testify against people they know
are deadly, like a club, sword, or piercing arrow.
19 Trusting treacherous people during distressful times
is as useless as having a rotten tooth or a crippled foot.
20 Singing to someone who is sad
is as unhelpful as taking a coat off of someone in cold weather
or pouring vinegar on soda.
21 Feed your enemies if they are hungry;
give them something to drink if they are thirsty.
22 Do so because by doing so you will shame them, as if you are pouring burning coals on top of them,
and Yahweh will reward you for doing so.
23 When wind blows from the north, rain will fall.
In the same way, when people tell the secrets of others, people get angry.
24 It is better to live alone in a corner of a housetop
than to live inside a house with a wife who always argues with you.
25 When people hear something good from a far away place,
it is as refreshing as drinking cold water when you are thirsty.
26 When righteous people yield to wicked people,
it is as bad as a spring that people have made murky by walking in it or as bad as a polluted fountain.
27 As it is very bad to eat too much honey;
so is it dishonorable to try to make people honor you.
28 People who cannot control themselves
are as defenseless as a city that an army has broken into and knocked down its walls.
26 Honoring stupid people is just as inappropriate
as snow falling in hot summer and rain falling during the time to harvest crops.
2 When someone curses innocent people,
it is like birds that fly around and do not land on those innocent people.
3 As people must whip horses and bridle donkeys in order to guide them,
so people must physically punish stupid people in order to guide them.
4 Sometimes, do not reply to foolish people according to their foolish way of thinking.
If you do, then you also will be foolish.
5 Sometimes, reply to foolish people according to their foolish way of thinking.
If you do not, then they may think that they are wise.
6 People who send stupid people to tell someone else something on their behalf
harm themselves like someone who cuts off his own feet or drinks what is harmful.
7 As the legs of people who cannot walk are useless,
so are the sayings that stupid people say.
8 Honoring stupid people is just as useless
as a harmless weapon.
9 As a thistle that pierces the hand of a drunk person hurts that person,
so are the sayings that stupid people say.
10 People who employ stupid people or random strangers are as dangerous
as someone who injures all the people near him by shooting arrows at them.
11 Stupid people who do the same foolish thing over and over again
are like dogs that eat what they have vomited up.
12 Consider this: it is more likely that what stupid people hope for will occur
than what people who wrongly think they are wise hope for.
13 Lazy people do nothing because they claim that there is a lion in the path
or in the midst of the streets.
14 As doors swing on their hinges and do not go anywhere,
so lazy people turn back and forth in their beds.
15 Lazy people put their hands in a dish of food,
but they are so lazy that they will not lift the food to their mouths.
16 Lazy people wrongly think that they are wiser
than many people who answer discreetly.
17 People who make themselves angry because of something not concerning them that other people are arguing about
are as foolish as people who cause dogs to bite them by pulling their ears when they walk by.
18-19 18-19People who trick people they know
and say that they were just joking are as dangerous
as a crazy person who uses a bow to shoot flaming darks or deadly arrows at people.
20 Fires stop burning when they have nothing to burn.
In the same way, people stop arguing when no one is gossiping.
21 As charcoal keeps coals burning and wood keeps fires burning,
so people who always argue keep other people arguing.
22 People are eager to listen to what people who gossip say,
and what they say deeply affects those who hear it.
23 What people fervently say while thinking evilly is as deceptive as
a clay pot that someone has covered with a shiny coating.
24 People who hate you will use what they say to hide what they feel,
but they are really thinking about how to betray you.
25 Do not believe those people when they speak kindly to you,
because they are thinking many detestable things.
26 Although those people prevent others from knowing that they hate you by deceiving them,
everyone will realize how wicked they are.
27 People who dig pits to trap others will fall into those pits instead;
and people who try to crush others with stones will become crushed by those stones instead.
28 Liars hate the people whom they hurt,
and flatterers cause disastrous things to happen.
27 Do not brag about what you think will happen tomorrow,
because you do not know what will happen then.
2 Do not praise yourself; let someone else praise you.
Indeed, let someone who does not know you praise you, not yourself.
3 Stones and sand are heavy,
but how provocative fools are is like something that is heavier than both of them.
4 Angry people are cruel and furious people are destructive,
but no one can resist jealous people!
5 It is better to correct people openly, than to love them without them knowing that you do.
6 Friends will be faithful to you by hurting your feelings when necessary,
but enemies will deceive you by acting affectionally toward you.
7 When people who have full stomachs see on the ground honey dripping from the comb, they step on it because they are not hungry.
but even bitter things taste sweet to hungry people because they are so hungry.
8 People who stray from their homes
are like birds that stray from their nests.
9 Just as fragrant oil and perfume make people feel happy,
so when your friends advise you sincerely, they show how kind they are.
10 Do not abandon your friends or your father’s friends.
Do not go to the houses of your relatives when something disastrous happens to you.
Rather, it is better to go to a neighbor than to relatives who live far away.
11 My child, act wisely and make me happy,
so that I will be able to reply to anyone who argues against me.
12 Sensible people observe something dangerous happening and avoid it,
but naive people ignorantly do not avoid it and suffer for doing so.
13 Take the coats of people who promise to pay a loan for someone whom they do not know.
Indeed, hold onto the coats of people who do so for a foreigner.
14 People will think that someone they know is cursing them if that person speaks loudly to bless them early in the morning.
15 A wife who always argues with you is as annoying as
constantly dripping water on a rainy day.
16 It is as difficult to stop her from arguing as stopping the wind,
or catching oil in one hand.
17 Just as iron can sharpen an iron blade, so too people can help people they know improve how they think.
18 Just as people who take care of fruit trees will eat the fruit from those trees as a result,
so too will masters honor their servants who guard them.
19 When people look in water, the water reflects their faces.
In the same way, what people think reveals what kinds of people they are.
20 Just as the place where dead people go never becomes full;
so people never stop wanting something.
21 People use crucibles and furnaces to test and refine silver and gold.
In the same way, people test what kind of person someone is by saying good things about that person.
22 If you were to crush a fool the way you would crush grain,
you would still not be able to stop that person from acting foolishly.
23 Be fully aware of how your sheep are doing.
Indeed, consider carefully how your animals fare. 24 Do so because riches will not last forever.
Even a king’s family will not rule forever!
25 Harvest the grass and then you will see new grass.
Collect and store the plants that grow on the hillside.
26 If you do these things, then you will have lambs with wool that you can clothe yourself with. You will also have male goats that you can sell for enough money to buy a field.
27 You will even have female goats that produce enough milk for yourself, your family,
and your servant girls to drink.
28 Wicked people run away even though no one is chasing them,
but righteous people are as brave as lions.
2 When the people in a country sin, they have many leaders;
but when they have a truly knowledgeable ruler, they will last.
3 Poor people who oppress other poor people
are as destructive as rain that destroys all the crops, so that there is nothing to eat.
4 People who reject Yahweh’s laws say good things about wicked people;
but people who obey those laws oppose such wicked people.
5 Evil people cannot comprehend what is just,
but people who desire to please Yahweh comprehend everything about it.
6 It is better to be poor and act honestly
than to act dishonestly and be rich.
7 People who obey Yahweh’s laws are discerning children;
but people who befriend gluttons disgrace their fathers.
8 People who become wealthy by charging an unreasonably large amount of interest from those to whom they loan money,
unknowingly collect that wealth to give it to people who are kind to poor people.
9 Yahweh detests what people pray
if those people refuse to even listen to his laws.
10 People who guide upright people to act evilly
will destroy themselves by what they do,
but people whom Yahweh does not blame for acting wickedly will receive what is good.
11 Rich people may wrongly think that they are wise,
but discerning poor people will prove that those people are not wise.
12 People celebrate when righteous people become powerful,
but people hide when wicked people become powerful.
13 Nothing will be successful for people who try to hide the sinful things that they do,
but Yahweh will be merciful to people who confess the sinful things that they have done and stop doing them.
14 People who always reverently fear Yahweh are happy,
but bad things happen to stubborn people.
15 Wicked people who rule over poor people are as dangerous
as a roaring lion or attacking bear.
16 Leaders who are not understanding severely oppress other people,
but people who despise gaining wealth unjustly will live for a long time.
17 People who murder others will keep running away from those who would punish them until they die.
Do not help them!
18 Yahweh will rescue people whom he does not blame for how they act;
but people who act dishonestly will suddenly ruin themselves.
19 People who work hard will have enough food to eat,
but people who waste time doing worthless things will only be poor.
20 Yahweh abundantly blesses faithful people,
but he will certainly punish people who are eager to be wealthy.
21 Although it is very evil to favor someone,
some people will sin by doing so to get as little as a scrap of food.
22 Although people who are eager to become rich are stingy,
they do not realize that they will become poor.
23 People will approve of people who correct them after they do so
more than people who speak flatteringly to them.
24 People who rob their parents and say that doing so is not wrong
are as bad as murderers.
25 Greedy people cause people to argue with each other,
but Yahweh will prosper people who trust him.
26 People who trust themselves are stupid,
but people who act wisely are the ones who will escape what is dangerous.
27 People who give poor people what they need will have all that they need,
but Yahweh abundantly curses people who ignore poor people.
28 People hide when wicked people become powerful,
but when those wicked people die, there will be more and more righteous people.
29 Some people become stubborn when other people correct them,
someone will destroy them instantly and they will not be able to recover.
2 People are joyful when righteous people become numerous,
but people are miserable when wicked people rule over them.
3 People who cherish what is wise make their fathers happy,
but people who have sex with prostitutes waste all their money.
4 Kings make the people in their land succeed by acting justly,
but leaders who take money dishonestly ruin the people in their land.
5 People who flatter people they know are deceptive,
they are like people who try to trap others.
6 Evil people endanger themselves by acting sinfully,
but righteous people sing joyfully and are happy.
7 Righteous people care about the rights of poor people,
but wicked people do not care about them at all.
8 People who mock others agitate people living in a city,
but wise people stop others from being angry.
9 If wise people sue foolish people,
the foolish people will rage and sneer and not resolve anything.
10 Murderers despise people whom Yahweh does not blame for acting wickedly,
but upright people try to protect those people.
11 Stupid people uncontrollably express everything that they feel,
but wise people control how they express what they feel.
12 Leaders who believe the false things that people tell them
have only wicked servants.
13 Poor people and the people who oppress them have at least one thing in common:
Yahweh is the one who caused them to live.
14 Kings who judge poor people according to what is true
will always rule securely.
15 If parents punish and correct their children, doing so can make those children wise;
but if parents let their children do whatever they want to do, then their children will disgrace them.
16 People sin more when wicked people become numerous,
but righteous people will witness Yahweh destroy those wicked people.
17 Discipline your children, so that they will make you feel peaceful
and will delight you.
18 When Yahweh does not reveal anything to his prophets, then people do not control themselves,
but people who obey Yahweh’s laws are happy.
19 You cannot correct servants by only speaking to them
because they will not respond to you, even if they understand what you say.
20 Consider this: it is more likely that what stupid people hope for will occur
than what people who speak thoughtlessly hope for.
21 If you give your servants everything they want when they are young,
then they will eventually be arrogant.
22 People who easily become angry cause people to argue.
Indeed, angry people cause people to sin.
23 Being proud will humiliate proud people;
but people will honor humble people.
24 People who help thieves only hurt themselves;
they hear that Yahweh will curse them for not speaking what is true, but they do not say anything.
25 Being anxious is as dangerous as a trap,
but people who trust Yahweh will be safe.
26 Many people want leaders to help them,
but Yahweh is the only one who does what is just for them.
27 Righteous people detest unjust people,
but wicked people detest people who act uprightly.
30 These are the sayings of Agur son of Jakeh, which Yahweh told him to say.
These are what Agur declared to Ithiel, even to Ithiel and Ucal.
2 I am certainly less intelligent than other people.
Indeed, I do not understand as much as everyone else understands!
3 I have never learned about what is wise,
nor do I know about Yahweh, the Holy One.
4 Certainly, no person has ever gone to heaven and returned to earth!
Certainly, no person has ever controlled the wind!
Certainly, no person has ever gathered the water for rain in the clouds!
Certainly, no person has ever formed the boundaries of the earth!
If such a person exists, then what is his name? And what is the name of his son?
Certainly, you do not know about such a person!
5 Everything that God says is true;
he is like a shield that protects people who trust him to protect them.
6 Never claim that God has said something other than what he has actually said.
If you do that, then he will correct you and he will prove that you lied about what he said.
7 I ask Yahweh for two things,
and ask that he give them to me before I die:
8 I ask that he prevent me from being dishonest or speaking what is not true.
I also ask that he not let me become too poor or too rich,
but just provide the proper amount of food for me. 9 If I become too rich, then I may reject Yahweh and claim that I do not know him.
Or if I become too poor, then I may rob other people,
so that I dishonor my God.
10 Never say bad things about servants to the people whom they serve.
If you do, then they will curse you, and people will hold you responsible for what you said.
11 Some people frequently curse their parents.
12 Some people think they are sinless,
but they are actually guilty like people who have not cleaned off their filth.
13 Some people are so extremely arrogant!
14 Some people harshly oppress poor people as if they were animals who remove poor people from the world
by eating them up with very sharp teeth.
15 Greedy people always want more, they are like animals that suck blood and have two daughters.
The names of both of them are Give Me Some!
There are three, no, four things that always want more:
16 the place where dead people are,
childless women,
soil that never receives enough water,
and fire, which always needs something to burn.
17 People who ridicule their fathers,
and refuse to obey their mothers
will die and wild birds will pluck out their eyes,
and young scavenging birds will eat them.
18 There are three, no, four things that are too amazing for me to comprehend:
19 how birds fly in the air,
how snakes slither over rocks,
how ships sail in the middle of the ocean,
and how young men act lovingly with young women.
20 Acting adulterously is as easy for adulterous women as
eating, wiping their mouths,
and claiming that they have not sinned at all.
21 There are three, no, four things that the people in the world cannot tolerate:
22 when slaves become rulers,
when fools have plenty of food to eat,
23 when women whom people hate marry someone,
and when maids replace the wives of their masters.
24 There are four creatures in the world that are small
but extremely wise:
25 Although ants are weak insects,
during the right time they store their food to eat during the winter.
26 Although hyraxes are weak animals,
they make their homes among the rocks on cliffs.
27 Although locusts do not have a king,
they move in groups like soldiers in an army.
28 Although lizards are small enough to hold in your hands,
you can find them inside kings’ palaces.
29 There are three, no, four things that look very impressive when they walk:
30 lions, which are the most powerful animals
and never flee from anything,
31 strutting male birds, male goats,
and kings whom people are afraid to rebel against.
32 If you have acted foolishly by bragging about yourself,
or if you were plotting to do what is evil,
then stop doing so immediately!
33 Stop doing so because doing so will cause bad things to happen, just as churning milking turns it into butter,
squeezing a nose will make it bleed,
and making people angry causes them to fight.
31 These are sayings of King Lemuel—an oracle his mother taught him.
2 She says: You are my son; I carried you in my womb;
you are the son, I made promises to Yahweh for you.
3 Do not give your strength to women;
and do not tell what your plans are, to the women who destroy kings.
4 Lemuel, kings should be careful about drinking wine;
and a king should never ask, “Where is the strong drink?”
5 They could drink but then they might forget that they made a decree of the king,
and tear down the rights of those who have been taken advantage of.
6 Give strong drink to those who are dying
and to those who are grieving their loss. 7 One who drinks will forget he is poor,
and he will not remember his trouble.
8 Speak for those who cannot speak for themselves,
speak for those who are approaching death.
9 Speak out and render judgment according to what is right;
and plead for justice to come in the cases of the poor and the needy.
10 Who can find a wife who is good at many things?
Her value is much more than the jewels she could wear.
11 Her husband completely trusts her,
and because of her, he will never be poor.
12 She does good things for him and not evil,
all the days of her life.
13 She finds wool and flax in the market,
and she enjoys spinning it to make yarn and fabric.
14 She is like the merchant ships
because she brings her food to her home from far away.
15 She gets up before dawn to prepare food for her family,
and she gives each servant girl her duties for the day.
16 She goes out and considers what field she will buy, and she buys it.
With the money she has made in other ventures,
she plants a vineyard.
17 She prepares herself with her strength,
and her arms are strong, able to do hard work.
18 She knows when she is getting a good profit from her business.
She keeps a lamp burning all night long.
19 She holds the spindle,
and then she spins the thread that she will use.
20 She gives an outstretched hand to help the poor.
21 She is not worried about the snow,
for everyone in her house have the best winter coats.
22 She makes covers for the beds.
She wears fine purple linen clothes—the color of royalty.
23 Her husband is well known at the city gates,
and there at the gates he sits with the other leaders of the town.
24 She makes linen garments and she sells them.
She sells sashes to shop owners.
25 She is strong in her character and respected,
and she laughs at what will happen in the future.
26 When she speaks, she says what is wise,
and she lives by the law of kindness.
27 She watches over everything that is done in her household,
and nothing in her actions would be anything like laziness.
28 Her children speak highly of her;
her husband also praises her.
29 He says to her, “There are many women who do admirable things,
but you surpass them all!”
30 Elegance can deceive
and make you think more highly of a person than you should;
and beauty has no lasting value.
But a woman who honors Yahweh will be praised for the person she is. 31 Give her what she has earned,
and her works will praise her among the leaders of the town.