Proverbs 17:1-28
17 * Better a dry morsel and a quiet life by itthan a house full of dinner from ill-will sacrifices.
2 A capable slave will have control over a worthless sonand will share inheritance among brothers.
3 Crucible for silver and furnace for gold,but he who assays hearts is Jehovah.
4 * He is a malefactor who listens eagerly to a villainous lip;it is falsehood that gives ear to a malignant tongue.
5 One who jeers at a poor man is insulting him who made him;one who is glad at calamity will not be held innocent.
6 Grandchildren are old men’s coronet;but sons’ adornment is their fathers.
7 * A grandiloquent lip is not becoming to a rascal;much less a falsifying lip to a noble.
8 * A bribe shows itself to its user as a favor-charm:whatever he faces toward, he succeeds.
9 One who is looking for love covers up an offense;but one who harps on a matter alienates a bosom friend.
10 A rebuke sinks deeper into a man of sensethan a hundred cuts with a stick into a fool.
11 * A bad man seeks merely insubordination,and will have a cruel messenger let loose on him.
12 Let a man encounter a bear that has lost her cubsbut not a fool in his ignorance.
13 * One who returns bad for goodwill never have his house without bad.
14 The beginning of a quarrel is somebody letting a trickle start,so give up your side of the dispute before anybody gets into a rage.
15 One who declares a man right when he is wrong and one who declareshim wrong when he is rightare both of them things that Jehovah detests.
16 Why should a fool have in his hands a feeto buy wisdom when he has no brains?
17 * The friend loves at every time,but a brother is born for distress.
18 A brainless man strikes hands,pledges a security before another.
19 ** One who loves a squabble loves a bruise;one who makes his doorway tall is asking for a crash.
20 * A man with a crooked heart will come to no good,and a man with a reversible tongue will fall into disaster.
21 To one who begets a fool it becomes a sorrow,and a rascal’s father will not be glad.
22 * A glad heart gives good healing,but a broken-down spirit dries out a bone.
23 A bribe is taken out of a rogue’s pocketto warp the courses of justice.
24 Wisdom is face to face with a man of sense,but a fool’s eyes are at earth’s end.
25 A foolish son is a vexation to his fatherand a bitterness to her who gave him birth.
26 * Even fining an honest man is not good,giving beatings to noble men for uprightness.
27 * One who restrains his speech knows what is what,and one with a cool spirit is a man of intelligence.
28 Even an ignoramus holding his tongue will be thought wise;one who stops up his lips is sensible.
Footnotes
^ 17:1 Lit. strife-sacrifices The term welfare-sacrifices, much used in the historical books, may with apparent correctness be translated peace-sacrifices
^ 17:4 (falsehood) Susp.
^ 17:7 (grandiloquent) Unc.
^ 17:8 Lit. favor-stone
^ 17:11 In Hebrew this is a pun as if we said seeks rankly riotous aims and will have a rightly rancorous
^ 17:13 Lit. bad will not budge from his house
^ 17:17 Or and a brother
^ 17:19 Codd. One who loves crime
^ 17:19 Lit. hunting for a crash
^ 17:20 Or by disaster
^ 17:22 Or bones
^ 17:26 Susp.
^ 17:27 Lit. knows knowledge
