Proverbs, 11
1. A false balance the Lord hates; nothing but full weight will content him.
2. Pride is neighbour to disesteem; humility to wisdom.
3. The innocence of the upright guides them safely; the treacherous by their own plots are destroyed.
4. When the time for reckoning comes, little shall wealth avail; right living is death’s avoiding.
5. An honest purpose clears a man’s path; the wicked are entangled by their own scheming.
6. For his honesty, the upright man shall go free; not so the wrong-doer, caught in the meshes of his own net.
7. No hope follows the godless to the grave; nothing left, now, of all their anxious longing.
8. Honesty shall yet go free, and a knave be heir to its troubles.
9. False speech the hypocrite will use to ruin his neighbour; true knowledge is the saving of the just.
10. Thrive honest men, come ruin on knaves, there is huzza’ing all through the city;
11. how should a city stand or fall, but by good words from the one, ill counsel from the other?
12. He mocks loud, who lacks wit; discernment holds her tongue.
13. Who bears ill tales, keeps no secrets; trust none with thy confidence but a loyal friend.
14. Ill fares the people, that guidance has none; safety reigns where counsel abounds.
15. He who goes bail for a stranger has great harm of it; that snare avoid, and sleep sound.
16. Gracious ways may win a woman renown; man never grew rich but by hardiness.✻
17. A kindly man is the friend of his own well-being; cruelty will not spare its own flesh and blood.
18. Precarious livelihood the godless man wins; wouldst thou be sure of thy revenue, let honest doings be thy crop;
19. mercy breeds life, evil ambitions death.
20. A false heart the Lord cannot endure; nothing but honest dealing will content him.
21. Depend upon it, the sinner shall never be held guiltless; the race of the just shall find acquittal.
22. A woman fair and fond, a sow ringed with gold.
23. In the desires of the just only good dwells; the hopes of the wicked only lead to ruin.
24. One spends what he has, and yet has more to spare; another sets his heart on what is none of his, and is a poor man still;
25. give and thou shalt thrive; he shall have abundance, that bestows abundantly.
26. Corn hoarded shall win thee a curse, corn sold freely a blessing, from the lips of a whole people.
27. Plan thou good, thou canst not be afoot too early; plan thou evil, on thy own head it shall recoil.
28. Fall he must, that relies on riches; never shall the just fade or fail.
29. He shall feed on air, that misrules his own household; the fool will be slave and the wise man master in the end.
30. Where right living bears its fruit, a tree of life grows up; the wise man’s reward is living souls.✻
31. Even honest men cannot go through the world unpunished; what, then, of the godless, what, then, of the sinner?
