20
1Wine ⚓is a mocker,
Strong drink is a brawler,
And whoever is led astray by it is not wise.
2The wrath of a king is like the roaring of a lion;
Whoever provokes him to anger sins against his own life.
3⚓It is honorable for a man to stop striving,
Since any fool can start a quarrel.
4⚓The lazy man will not plow because of winter;
⚓He will beg during harvest and have nothing.
5Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water,
But a man of understanding will draw it out.
6Most men will proclaim each his own goodness,
But who can find a faithful man?
7⚓The righteous man walks in his integrity;
⚓His children are blessed after him.
8A king who sits on the throne of judgment
Scatters all evil with his eyes.
9⚓Who can say, “I have made my heart clean,
I am pure from my sin”?
10⚓Diverse weights and diverse measures,
They are both alike, an abomination to the Lord.
11Even a child is ⚓known by his deeds,
Whether what he does is pure and right.
12⚓The hearing ear and the seeing eye,
The Lord has made them both.
13⚓Do not love sleep, lest you come to poverty;
Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with bread.
14“It is good for nothing,” cries the buyer;
But when he has gone his way, then he boasts.
15There is gold and a multitude of rubies,
But ⚓the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.
16⚓Take the garment of one who is surety for a stranger,
And hold it as a pledge when it is for a seductress.
17⚓Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man,
But afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.
18⚓Plans are established by counsel;
⚓By wise counsel wage war.
19⚓He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets;
Therefore do not associate with one ⚓who flatters with his lips.
20⚓Whoever curses his father or his mother,
⚓His lamp will be put out in deep darkness.
21⚓An inheritance gained hastily at the beginning
⚓Will not be blessed at the end.
22⚓Do not say, “I will recompense evil”;
⚓Wait for the Lord, and He will save you.
23Diverse weights are an abomination to the Lord,
And dishonest scales are not good.
24A man’s steps are of the Lord;
How then can a man understand his own way?
25It is a snare for a man to devote rashly something as holy,
And afterward to reconsider his vows.
26⚓A wise king sifts out the wicked,
And brings the threshing wheel over them.
27⚓The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord,
Searching all the inner depths of his heart.
28⚓Mercy and truth preserve the king,
And by lovingkindness he upholds his throne.
29The glory of young men is their strength,
And ⚓the splendor of old men is their gray head.
30Blows that hurt cleanse away evil,
As do stripes the inner depths of the heart.