Proverbs / Sayings of the Wise: Practical Moral Instruction

Sayings of the Wise: Practical Moral Instruction

Proverbs 22:17-24:34

Chapter 22

¹⁷ Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, and set your heart to my knowledge. ¹⁸ For pleasant—for if you keep them in your belly, they will be fitting together on your lips. ¹⁹ I have made known to you today that your trust is to be in the LORD, even you. ²⁰ Have I not written for you three times in counsel and knowledge? ²¹ to make you know the truth of words of faithfulness, to return words of faithfulness truth, to send you ²² Do not rob the poor because he is poor, and do not crush the oppressed at the gate. ²³ for the LORD will contend for their contention and will shatter their souls. ²⁴ Do not associate with a master of anger, and do not come with a man of wrath. ²⁵ lest you learn his ways and take a snare for your nephesh. ²⁶ Do not be among hand-strikers in the evenings of burden-oracles. ²⁷ If you have nothing with which to pay, why will he take your bed from under you? ²⁸ Do not move the ancient boundary that your fathers set. ²⁹ Have you seen a man swift in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.

Chapter 23

¹ For when you sit to eat with a ruler, you will consider what is before you. ² And you shall put a knife to your throat if you are a master of your nephesh. ³ Do not desire his delicacies, for it is bread of lies. ⁴ Do not labor to make rich from your wisdom; cease. ⁵ Will your eyes fly upon it and it is not? For it will make—it will make for itself wings like an eagle; it will fly to the heavens. ⁶ Do not eat the bread of an evil eye, and do not desire his delicacies. ⁷ For just as he reckons in his nephesh, so he is. "Eat and drink," he says to you, but his heart is not with you. ⁸ The bread you eat, you will vomit up, and you will waste your pleasant words. ⁹ Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise your wisdom. ¹⁰ Do not remove an ancient boundary, and do not enter the fields of orphans. ¹¹ For their Redeemer is strong; he will contend for their judicial controversy with you. ¹² Apply your heart and your ear to discipline, to the words of knowledge. ¹³ Do not withhold discipline from a boy. For if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. ¹⁴ You—with a staff—strike him, and his soul from Sheol you deliver. ¹⁵ My son, if your heart is wise, my heart will rejoice—even I. ¹⁶ And my kidneys will rejoice in the words of your lips, upright ones. ¹⁷ Let not your heart envy sinners, but be in the fear of the LORD all the day. ¹⁸ For there is an end, and your hope will not be cut off. ¹⁹ Hear, you, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way. ²⁰ Do not be among wine drunkards, flesh gluttons for them. ²¹ For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty; you will be clothed with rags. ²² Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother because she grows old. ²³ Buy truth, and do not sell wisdom, discipline, and understanding. ²⁴ The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and one who begets a wise one will rejoice in him. ²⁵ May your father and your mother rejoice, and may she who bore you rejoice. ²⁶ Give me your heart, my son, and let your eyes delight in my ways. ²⁷ For a deep pit is a prostitute, and a narrow well is a foreign woman. ²⁸ Indeed, she is like a rapacious predator—she lies in wait, and you add traitors among humanity. ²⁹ To whom woe? To whom woe? To whom sorrows? To whom strife? To whom wounds for nothing? To whom redness of eyes? ³⁰ to those who linger over the wine, to those who come to investigate from the bowl. ³¹ Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. ³² Its latter end is like a serpent that bites, and like vipers it spreads out. ³³ Your eyes will see foreign things, and your heart will speak perversities. ³⁴ You will be like one lying in the heart of the sea, like one lying on the top of the mast. ³⁵ "They have beaten me—they have established me—though I have not been cultically unclean; they have beaten me—though I have not known. When will I awake? I will add, I will seek it still."

Chapter 24

¹ Do not envy men of moral evil, and do not desire to be with them. ² for their heart will mutter in their breast and their lips will speak toil. ³ By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established. ⁴ And by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant wealth. ⁵ A wise man is strong, and a man of knowledge strengthens strength. ⁶ For by strategic counsels you shall make warfare for yourself, and salvation is in an abundance of counsel. ⁷ Wisdom is too high for a fool; he does not open his mouth in the gate for wisdom. ⁸ They will call him a plotter, the one who does moral evil for himself, the owner of moral outrages. ⁹ The plotting of folly is sin and an abomination to Adam, a mocker. ¹⁰ If you let your hand grow slack on a day of distress, your strength is narrow. ¹¹ Deliver those taken to death and those stumbling to slaughter if you grow dark. ¹² If you say, "Behold, we did not know this"—does not he who weighs hearts understand it? And he who guards your nephesh—he knows; and he returns to man according to his deed. ¹³ Eat honey, my son, for it is good, and the dripping honeycomb is sweet to your wisdom. ¹⁴ So know wisdom for your soul; if you find it, then there is an end, and your hope will not be cut off. ¹⁵ Do not lie in wait, wicked one, for the dwelling of the righteous; do not plunder his lying place. ¹⁶ For a righteous man falls seven times and rises, and the wicked stumble in evil. ¹⁷ Do not rejoice in your enemy's falling, and do not let your heart exult in his stumbling. ¹⁸ lest the LORD see it and it be evil in his eyes, and he turn back his anger from upon him. ¹⁹ Do not fret over evildoers; do not envy the wicked. ²⁰ For there will not be an end for the evil; the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished. ²¹ Fear the LORD, my son and king; do not mix in with changers. ²² For suddenly their disaster will arise and their ruin, both of them—who knows? ²³ Also these things to the wise: Recognize faces in legal judgment—this is not good. ²⁴ He says to the wicked, "You are righteous." Peoples will spurn him; peoples will be indignant at him. ²⁵ And it will be pleasant to those who rebuke it, and a blessing of good will will come on them. ²⁶ He kisses the lips that return established words. ²⁷ Prepare your outside work and make it fit for the field; afterward, build your house. ²⁸ Do not be a witness without cause against your neighbor, and do not deceive with your lips. ²⁹ Do not say, "As he did to me, so I will do to him; I will repay the man according to his deed." ³⁰ I passed by the field of a lazy man and by the vineyard of a man lacking heart. ³¹ And behold, it had all grown up with weeds. Thorns covered it, and its stone boundary wall was broken down. ³² And I had a prophetic vision; I set my heart to it. I saw and took discipline. ³³ A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to lie down. ³⁴ and your poverty will come walking about and your need like a man shield.