Proverbs 22:17–24:22

¹⁷Incline thine ear, and hear the words of the wise,

And apply thy heart unto my knowledge.

¹⁸For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee,

If they be established together upon thy lips.

¹⁹That thy trust may be in Jehovah,

I have made them known to thee this day, even to thee.

²⁰Have not I written unto thee excellent things

Of counsels and knowledge,

²¹To make thee know the certainty of the words of truth,

That thou mayest carry back words of truth to them that send thee?

²²Rob not the poor, because he is poor;

Neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:

²³For Jehovah will plead their cause,

And despoil of life those that despoil them.

²⁴Make no friendship with a man that is given to anger;

And with a wrathful man thou shalt not go:

²⁵Lest thou learn his ways,

And get a snare to thy soul.

²⁶Be thou not one of them that strike hands,

Or of them that are sureties for debts.

²⁷If thou hast not wherewith to pay,

Why should he take away thy bed from under thee?

²⁸Remove not the ancient landmark,

Which thy fathers have set.

²⁹Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings;

He shall not stand before mean men.

23When thou sittest to eat with a ruler,

Consider diligently him that is before thee;

²And put a knife to thy throat,

If thou be a man given to appetite.

³Be not desirous of his dainties;

Seeing they are deceitful food.

⁴Weary not thyself to be rich;

Cease from thine own wisdom.

⁵Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?

For riches certainly make themselves wings,

Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven.

⁶Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye,

Neither desire thou his dainties:

⁷For as he thinketh within himself, so is he:

Eat and drink, saith he to thee;

But his heart is not with thee.

⁸The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up,

And lose thy sweet words.

⁹Speak not in the hearing of a fool;

For he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

¹⁰Remove not the ancient landmark;

And enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

¹¹For their Redeemer is strong;

He will plead their cause against thee.

¹²Apply thy heart unto instruction,

And thine ears to the words of knowledge.

¹³Withhold not correction from the child;

For if thou beat him with the rod, he will not die.

¹⁴Thou shalt beat him with the rod,

And shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵My son, if thy heart be wise,

My heart will be glad, even mine:

¹⁶Yea, my heart will rejoice,

When thy lips speak right things.

¹⁷Let not thy heart envy sinners;

But be thou in the fear of Jehovah all the day long:

¹⁸For surely there is a reward;

And thy hope shall not be cut off.

¹⁹Hear thou, my son, and be wise,

And guide thy heart in the way.

²⁰Be not among winebibbers,

Among gluttonous eaters of flesh:

²¹For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty;

And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.

²²Hearken unto thy father that begat thee,

And despise not thy mother when she is old.

²³Buy the truth, and sell it not;

Yea, wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

²⁴The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;

And he that begetteth a wise child will have joy of him.

²⁵Let thy father and thy mother be glad,

And let her that bare thee rejoice.

²⁶My son, give me thy heart;

And let thine eyes delight in my ways.

²⁷For a harlot is a deep ditch;

And a foreign woman is a narrow pit.

²⁸Yea, she lieth in wait as a robber,

And increaseth the treacherous among men.

²⁹Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions?

Who hath complaining? who hath wounds without cause?

Who hath redness of eyes?

³⁰They that tarry long at the wine;

They that go to seek out mixed wine.

³¹Look not thou upon the wine when it is red,

When it sparkleth in the cup,

When it goeth down smoothly:

³²At the last it biteth like a serpent,

And stingeth like an adder.

³³Thine eyes shall behold strange things,

And thy heart shall utter perverse things.

³⁴Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea,

Or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.

³⁵They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not hurt;

They have beaten me, and I felt it not:

When shall I awake?

I will seek it yet again.

24Be not thou envious against evil men;

Neither desire to be with them:

²For their heart studieth oppression,

And their lips talk of mischief.

³Through wisdom is a house builded;

And by understanding it is established;

⁴And by knowledge are the chambers filled

With all precious and pleasant riches.

⁵A wise man is strong;

Yea, a man of knowledge increaseth might.

⁶For by wise guidance thou shalt make thy war;

And in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

⁷Wisdom is too high for a fool:

He openeth not his mouth in the gate.

⁸He that deviseth to do evil,

Men shall call him a mischief-maker.

⁹The thought of foolishness is sin;

And the scoffer is an abomination to men.

¹⁰If thou faint in the day of adversity,

Thy strength is small.

¹¹Deliver them that are carried away unto death,

And those that are ready to be slain see that thou hold back.

¹²If thou sayest, Behold, we knew not this;

Doth not he that weigheth the hearts consider it?

And he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it?

And shall not he render to every man according to his work?

¹³My son, eat thou honey, for it is good;

And the droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to thy taste:

¹⁴So shalt thou know wisdom to be unto thy soul;

If thou hast found it, then shall there be a reward,

And thy hope shall not be cut off.

¹⁵Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the habitation of the righteous;

Destroy not his resting-place:

¹⁶For a righteous man falleth seven times, and riseth up again;

But the wicked are overthrown by calamity.

¹⁷Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth,

And let not thy heart be glad when he is overthrown;

¹⁸Lest Jehovah see it, and it displease him,

And he turn away his wrath from him.

¹⁹Fret not thyself because of evil-doers;

Neither be thou envious at the wicked:

²⁰For there shall be no reward to the evil man;

The lamp of the wicked shall be put out.

²¹My son, fear thou Jehovah and the king;

And company not with them that are given to change:

²²For their calamity shall rise suddenly;

And the destruction from them both, who knoweth it?