22
📚A good name is moreto be desired than great riches,
and loving favour rather
than silver and gold.
2 📚The rich and poor have this in common:
the LORD is the maker of them all.
3 📚An understanding man
foresees disaster and hides himself,
but the simple pass on, and are punished.
4 📚By humility and the fear✭
of the LORD are riches✭ and
honour and life.
5 📚✭Thorns and snares are
in the way of the perverse;
he who guards his soul will be far
from them.
6 📚✭Train a child in the way
he should go,
and when he is old,
he will not depart from it.
7 📚✭The rich rules over the poor,
and the borrower is
a servant to the lender.
8 📚He who sows wickedness
will reap trouble,
and the rod of his anger will fail.
9 📚✭He who is generous
will be blessed,
for he gives of his food to the poor.
10 📚Drive out the scorner,
and contention will go out,
yes, strife and insult will cease.
11 📚✭He who loves purity of heart
and whose speech is gracious,
will have the king as his friend.
12 📚The eyes of the LORD see
that knowledge is preserved,
and he overturns the words
of the transgressor.
13 📚✭The lazy person says,
“There is a lion outside;
I will be killed in the streets”.
14 📚The mouth of strange women
is a deep pit;
he who is abhorred by the LORD
will fall into it.
15 📚✭Foolishness is bound
in the heart of a child,
but the rod of correction
will drive it far from him.
16 📚✭He who oppresses the poor
to increase his riches,
and he who gives to the rich,
will surely come
to poverty.
17 📚✭Turn your ear and listen
to the words of the wise,
and apply your heart to my knowledge.
18 📚For it will be pleasant
if you keep them within you so that
they are ready for your lips.
19 📚So that your trust may be
in the LORD,
I have taught you today, even you.
20 📚Have I not written
to you excellent things,
words of counsel and knowledge,
21 📚So that I might cause you
to know the certainty
of the words of truth,
that you might give truthful words
in answer to those who send to you?
22 📚✭Do not rob the poor because
he is poor,
nor oppress the afflicted in the gate,
23 📚For the LORD will plead their cause,
and plunder the soul of those
who plunder them.
24 📚Make no friendship with an angry man,
and do not go with a hot-tempered man,
25 📚So that you do not learn his ways,
and get a snare to your soul.
26 📚Do not be one of those
who strike hands in pledge,
or who put up security for debts.
27 📚If you have nothing with which to pay,
why should he take away your bed
from under you?
28 📚Do not remove the ancient boundary stone
which your fathers have set.
29 📚✭Do you see a man diligent
in his work?
He will stand before kings;
he will not stand before obscure men.