Proverbs 22:17–24:22

¹⁷Incline thy ear, and hear the words of the wise: and apply thy heart to my doctrine:

¹⁸Which shall be beautiful for thee, if thou keep it in thy bowels, and it shall flow in thy lips:

¹⁹That thy trust may be in the Lord, wherefore I have also shewn it to thee this day.

²⁰Behold I have described it to thee three manner of ways, in thoughts and knowledge:

²¹That I might shew thee the certainty, and the words of truth, to answer out of these to them that sent thee.

²²Do no violence to the poor, because he is poor: and do not oppress the needy in the gate:

²³Because the Lord will judge his cause: and will afflict them that have afflicted his soul.

²⁴Be not a friend to an angry man, and do not walk with a furious man:

²⁵Lest perhaps thou learn his ways, and take scandal to thy soul.

²⁶Be not with them that fasten down their hands, and that offer themselves sureties for debts:

²⁷For if thou have not wherewith to restore, what cause is there that he should take the covering from thy bed?

²⁸Pass not beyond the ancient bounds which thy fathers have set.

²⁹Hast thou seen a man swift in his work? he shall stand before kings, and shall not be before those that are obscure.

Chapter 23

When thou shalt sit to eat with a prince, consider diligently what is set before thy face:

²And put a knife to thy throat, if it be so that thou have thy soul in thy own power.

³Be not desirous of his meats, in which is the bread of deceit.

⁴Labour not to be rich: but set bounds to thy prudence.

⁵Lift not up thy eyes to riches which thou canst not have: because they shall make themselves wings like those of an eagle, and shall fly towards heaven.

⁶Eat not with an envious man, and desire not his meats:

⁷Because, like a soothsayer, and diviner, he thinketh that which he knoweth not. Eat and drink, will he say to thee: and his mind is not with thee.

⁸The meats which thou hadst eaten, thou shalt vomit up: and shalt lose thy beautiful words.

⁹Speak not in the ears of fools: because they will despise the instruction of thy speech.

¹⁰Touch not the bounds of little ones: and enter not into the field of the fatherless:

¹¹For their near kinsman is strong: and he will judge their cause against thee.

¹²Let thy heart apply itself to instruction and thy ears to words of knowledge.

¹³Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die.

¹⁴Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell.

¹⁵My son, if thy mind be wise, my heart shall rejoice with thee:

¹⁶And my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips shall speak what is right.

¹⁷Let not thy heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long:

¹⁸Because thou shalt have hope in the latter end, and thy expectation shall not be taken away.

¹⁹Hear thou, my son, and be wise: and guide thy mind in the way.

²⁰Be not in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in their revellings, who contribute flesh to eat:

²¹Because they that give themselves to drinking, and that club together, shall be consumed: and drowsiness shall be clothed with rags.

²²Hearken to thy father, that begot thee: and despise not thy mother when she is old.

²³Buy truth, and do not sell wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

²⁴The father of the just rejoiceth greatly: he that hath begotten a wise son, shall have joy in him.

²⁵Let thy father and thy mother be joyful, and let her rejoice that bore thee.

²⁶My son, give me thy heart: and let thy eyes keep my ways.

²⁷For a harlot is a deep ditch: and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

²⁸She lieth in wait in the way as a robber, and him whom she shall see unwary, she will kill.

²⁹Who hath woe? whose father hath woe? who hath contentions? who falls into pits? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?

³⁰Surely they that pass their time in wine, and study to drink off their cups.

³¹Look not upon the wine when it is yellow, when the colour thereof shineth in the glass: it goeth in pleasantly,

³²But in the end, it will bite like a snake, and will spread abroad poison like a basilisk.

³³Thy eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.

³⁴And thou shalt be as one sleeping in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot fast asleep when the stern is lost.

³⁵And thou shalt say: They have beaten me, but I was not sensible of pain: they drew me, and I felt not: when shall I awake and find wine again?

Chapter 24

Seek not to be like evil men, neither desire to be with them:

²Because their mind studieth robberies, and their lips speak deceits.

³By wisdom the house shall be built, and by prudence it shall be strengthened.

⁴By instruction the storerooms shall be filled with all precious and most beautiful wealth.

⁵A wise man is strong: and a knowing man, stout and valiant.

⁶Because war is managed by due ordering: and there shall be safety where there are many counsels.

⁷Wisdom is too high for a fool; in the gate he shall not open his mouth.

⁸He that deviseth to do evils, shall be called a fool.

⁹The thought of a fool is sin: and the detractor is the abomination of men.

¹⁰If thou lose hope, being weary in the day of distress, thy strength shall be diminished.

¹¹Deliver them that are led to death: and those that are drawn to death, forbear not to deliver.

¹²If thou say: I have not strength enough: he that seeth into the heart, he understandeth, and nothing deceiveth the keeper of thy soul, and he shall render to a man according to his works.

¹³Eat honey, my son, because it is good, and the honeycomb most sweet to thy throat.

¹⁴So also is the doctrine of wisdom to thy soul: which when thou hast found, thou shalt have hope in the end, and thy hope shall not perish.

¹⁵Lie not in wait, nor seek after wickedness in the house of the just, nor spoil his rest.

¹⁶For a just man shall fall seven times, and shall rise again: but the wicked shall fall down into evil.

¹⁷When thy enemy shall fall, be not glad, and in his ruin let not thy heart rejoice:

¹⁸Lest the Lord see, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.

¹⁹Contend not with the wicked, nor seek to be like the ungodly.

²⁰For evil men have no hope of things to come, and the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.

²¹My son, fear the Lord, and the king: and have nothing to do with detractors.

²²For their destruction shall rise suddenly: and who knoweth the ruin of both?