24
📚Do not be envious of evil men, or desire to be with them.
2 📚For their heart plots violence,
and their lips talk of trouble.
3 📚Through wisdom a house is built,
and by understanding it is established,
4 📚And by knowledge its rooms
will be filled with all precious
and pleasant treasures.
5 📚A wise man is strong;
yes, a man of knowledge
increases strength.
6 📚For by wise counsel you should wage war,
and in many counsellors there is safety.
7 📚Wisdom is too high for a fool.
He does not open his mouth in the gate.
24:7 Judges and city officials met for business at the main gates of cities (Gen 19:1; 23:10; Deut 22:15; Josh 20:4; Ruth 4:11).⚜
8 📚He who plots to do evil
will be called a schemer.
9 📚The thought of foolishness is sin,
and the scorner is
an abomination to men.
24:8-9 In Proverbs foolishness is not lack of sense, it is lack of moral sense; everything that flows from it is sinful.⚜
10 📚If you faint in the day
of adversity,
your strength is small.
11 📚If you refrain from rescuing those who are
being led away to death and
those who are about to be killed,
12 📚If you say, “Look,
we didn’t know it”, does not he
who weighs the heart consider it?
And he who keeps your soul,
does he not know it?
And will he not repay every
man in accordance with his deeds?
24:11-12 Ps 82:4; Isa 58:6-7. For men to profess ignorance of injustice and oppression will not work with God. Nor is it enough merely to feel compassion for those in trouble, the poor, the needy, or the innocent falsely condemned. God will judge us, not according to what we feel, but according to what we actually do or do not do (Matt 25:31-46; Rom 2:6; Jam 4:17).⚜
13 📚My son, eat honey,
because it is good,
and the honeycomb,
which is sweet to your taste;
14 📚So will the knowledge of wisdom
be to your soul.
When you have found it,
then there will be a reward,
and your hope will not be cut off.
24:13-14 Prov 16:24; Ps 119:103. The sweetness of honey remains in the mouth but a moment, but the sweetness of true wisdom will remain in the mind forever.⚜
15 📚Do not lie in wait, O wicked man,
at the house of the righteous;
do not plunder his resting place;
16 📚For a righteous person falls seven times
and rises again,
but the wicked will fall into trouble.
17 📚Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
and do let not your heart be glad when
he stumbles,
18 📚Or the LORD will see it,
and it will displease him,
and he will turn his wrath away from him.
19 📚Do not fret because of evil people
or be envious of the wicked,
20 📚For there will be no future for the evil person;
the lamp of the wicked will be put out.
24:19-20 Verses 1,2. This is often repeated in the Bible because envy is a great danger to the spiritual life (Ps 73:2-3). In any case, how foolish to envy those who have no future hope!⚜
21 📚My son, fear the LORD and the king,
and do not associate with those
who are changeable,
22 📚For their calamity will rise suddenly;
and who knows the ruin of both of them?
23 📚These also are sayings of the wise:
It is not good to show partiality
in judgment.
24 📚He who says to the wicked,
“You are righteous”,
him the people will curse, him nations will abhor;
25 📚But to those who rebuke him
will be delight,
and a good blessing will come on them.
26 📚Giving a right answer is like a kiss
on the lips.
24:26 Prov 16:13. To speak the truth to people is to show them love. Lips which flatter and deceive are hateful.⚜
27 📚Prepare your outside work,
and make it ready for yourself in the field,
and after that build your house.
24:27 In other words, put first things first and plan carefully.⚜
28 📚Do not be a witness against your neighbour
without cause,
and do not deceive with your lips.
29 📚Do not say, “I will do the same to him
as he has done to me.
I will repay the man in accordance
with his deed”.
24:28-29 Prov 3:30; 6:19; 20:22; Matt 5:38-41; Rom 12:17. It is not our business to seek revenge on others for what they have done. God will see to that in His own time and way.⚜
30 📚I went by the field of the lazy,
and by the vineyard of the man lacking
understanding,
31 📚And, look,
it was all overgrown with thorns,
and nettles had covered its surface,
and its stone wall was broken down.
32 📚Then I gazed and considered it well;
I looked at it and received instruction:
33 📚Yet a little sleep,
a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to sleep,
34 📚Just so your poverty will come like
a highway robber,
and your scarcity like an armed man.
24:23-34 An addition of five sayings to the thirty sayings in the previous section. There is no reason to think Solomon did not collect these.⚜
24:30-34 Note at 6:6-11. Laziness or carelessness in spiritual things too has disastrous consequences (Matt 25:14-15, 24-26, 30).⚜