Proverbs 20:1-30
20 Wine is a ridiculer,+ intoxicating liquor is boisterous,+ and everyone going astray by it is not wise.+
2 The frightfulness of a king is a growling like that of a maned young lion.+ Anyone drawing his fury against himself is sinning against his own soul.+
3 It is a glory for a man to desist from disputing,+ but everyone foolish will burst out [in it].+
4 Because of winter the lazy one will not plow;+ he will be begging in reaping time, but there will be nothing.+
5 Counsel in the heart of a man is as deep waters,+ but the man of discernment is one that will draw it up.+
6 A multitude of men* will proclaim each one his own loving-kindness,*+ but a faithful man* who can find?+
7 The righteous is walking in his integrity.+ Happy are his sons after him.+
8 The king is sitting upon the throne of judgment,*+ scattering all badness with his own eyes.+
9 Who can say: “I have cleansed my heart;+ I have become pure from my sin”?+
10 Two sorts of weights and two sorts of eʹphah measures+—they are both of them together something detestable to Jehovah.+
11 Even by his practices a boy makes himself recognized as to whether his activity is pure and upright.+
12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye—Jehovah himself has made even both of them.+
13 Do not love sleep, that you may not come to poverty.+ Open your eyes; be satisfied with bread.+
14 “It is bad, bad!” says the buyer, and he is going his way.+ Then it is that he boasts about himself.+
15 There exists gold, also an abundance of corals; but the lips of knowledge are precious vessels.+
16 Take one’s garment, in case one has gone surety for a stranger;+ and in the instance of a foreign woman, seize from him a pledge.+
17 Bread [gained by] falsehood is pleasurable to a man,+ but afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.+
18 By counsel plans themselves are firmly established,+ and by skillful direction carry on your war.+
19 He that is going about as a slanderer is uncovering confidential talk;+ and with one that is enticed* with his lips you must have no fellowship.+
20 As for anyone calling down evil upon his father and his mother,+ his lamp will be extinguished at the approach of darkness.+
21 An inheritance is being got by greed* at first,+ but its own future will not be blessed.+
22 Do not say: “I will pay back evil!”+ Hope in Jehovah,+ and he will save you.+
23 Two sorts of weights are something detestable to Jehovah,+ and a cheating pair of scales is not good.+
24 From Jehovah are the steppings of an able-bodied man.+ As regards earthling man, how can he discern his way?+
25 It is a snare when earthling man has rashly cried out, “Holy!”+ and after vows+ [he is disposed] to make examination.+
26 A wise king is scattering wicked people,+ and he turns around upon them a wheel.*+
27 The breath*+ of earthling man is the lamp of Jehovah, carefully searching all the innermost parts of the belly.+
28 Loving-kindness and trueness*—they safeguard the king;+ and by loving-kindness he has sustained his throne.+
29 The beauty of young men is their power,+ and the splendor of old men is their gray-headedness.+
30 Bruising wounds are what scours away the bad;+ and strokes, the innermost parts of the belly.+
Footnotes
^ Lit., “but a man of faithfulnesses.” Heb., weʼishʹ ʼemu·nimʹ.
^ Or, “loyal love.”
^ “A multitude of men.” Heb., rov-ʼa·dhamʹ.
^ “Judgment.” Heb., dhin; Lat., iu·diʹci·i.
^ “Is wide open,” by another derivation.
^ “Got by greed,” M; TSyVg, “got hastily.”
^ “A wheel,” M; by a slight correction, “their own hurtfulness.”
^ Or, “and truth.” Heb., we·ʼemethʹ.
