Proverbs 21

God Examines Our Motives

¹21Good leadership is a channel of water controlled by God;

he directs it to whatever ends he chooses.

²We justify our actions by appearances;

God examines our motives.

³Clean living before God and justice with our neighbors

mean far more to God than religious performance.

⁴Arrogance and pride—distinguishing marks in the wicked—

are just plain sin.

⁵Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run;

hurry and scurry puts you further behind.

⁶Make it to the top by lying and cheating;

get paid with smoke and a promotion—to death!

⁷The wicked get buried alive by their loot

because they refuse to use it to help others.

⁸Mixed motives twist life into tangles;

pure motives take you straight down the road.

Do Your Best, Prepare for the Worst

⁹Better to live alone in a tumbledown shack

than share a mansion with a nagging spouse.

¹⁰Wicked souls love to make trouble;

they feel nothing for friends and neighbors.

¹¹Simpletons only learn the hard way,

but the wise learn by listening.

¹²A God-loyal person will see right through the wicked

and undo the evil they’ve planned.

¹³If you stop your ears to the cries of the poor,

your cries will go unheard, unanswered.

¹⁴A quietly given gift soothes an irritable person;

a heartfelt present cools a hot temper.

¹⁵Good people celebrate when justice triumphs,

but for the workers of evil it’s a bad day.

¹⁶Whoever wanders off the straight and narrow

ends up in a congregation of ghosts.

¹⁷You’re addicted to thrills? What an empty life!

The pursuit of pleasure is never satisfied.

¹⁸What a bad person plots against the good, boomerangs;

the plotter gets it in the end.

¹⁹Better to live in a tent in the wild

than with a cross and petulant spouse.

²⁰Valuables are safe in a wise person’s home;

fools put it all out for yard sales.

²¹Whoever goes hunting for what is right and kind

finds life itself—glorious life!

²²One sage entered a whole city of armed soldiers—

their trusted defenses fell to pieces!

²³Watch your words and hold your tongue;

you’ll save yourself a lot of grief.

²⁴You know their names—Brash, Impudent, Blasphemer—

intemperate hotheads, every one.

²⁵Lazy people finally die of hunger

because they won’t get up and go to work.

²⁶Sinners are always wanting what they don’t have;

the God-loyal are always giving what they do have.

²⁷Religious performance by the wicked stinks;

it’s even worse when they use it to get ahead.

²⁸A lying witness is unconvincing;

a person who speaks truth is respected.

²⁹Unscrupulous people fake it a lot;

honest people are sure of their steps.

³⁰Nothing clever, nothing conceived, nothing contrived,

can get the better of God.

³¹Do your best, prepare for the worst—

then trust God to bring victory.