Proverbs 20
20
1Wine and beer make people loud and uncontrolled;
it is not wise to get drunk on them.
2An angry king is like a roaring lion.
Making him angry may cost you your life.
3Foolish people are always fighting,
but avoiding quarrels will bring you honor.
4Lazy farmers don’t plow when they should;
they expect a harvest, but there is none.
5People’s thoughts can be like a deep well,
but someone with understanding can find the wisdom there.
6Many people claim to be loyal,
but it is hard to find a trustworthy person.
7The good people who live honest lives
will be a blessing to their children.
8When a king sits on his throne to judge,
he knows evil when he sees it.
9No one can say, “I am innocent;
I have never done anything wrong.”
10The Lord hates both these things:
dishonest weights and dishonest measures.
11Even children are known by their behavior;
their actions show if they are innocent and good.
12The Lord has made both these things:
ears to hear and eyes to see.
13If you love to sleep, you will be poor.
If you stay awake, you will have plenty of food.
14Buyers say, “This is bad. It’s no good.”
Then they go away and brag about what they bought.
15There is gold and plenty of rubies,
but only a few people speak with knowledge.
16Take the coat of someone who promises to pay a stranger’s debts,
and keep it until he pays what the stranger owes.
17Stolen food may taste sweet at first,
but later it will feel like a mouth full of gravel.
18Get advice if you want your plans to work.
If you go to war, get the advice of others.
19Gossips can’t keep secrets,
so avoid people who talk too much.
20Those who curse their father or mother
will be like a light going out in darkness.
21Wealth inherited quickly in the beginning
will do you no good in the end.
22Don’t say, “I’ll pay you back for the wrong you did.”
Wait for the Lord, and he will make things right.
23The Lord hates dishonest weights,
and dishonest scales do not please him.
24The Lord decides what a person will do;
no one understands what his life is all about.
25It’s dangerous to promise something to God too quickly.
After you’ve thought about it, it may be too late.
26A wise king sorts out the evil people,
and he punishes them as they deserve.
27The Lord looks deep inside people
and searches through their thoughts.
28Loyalty and truth keep a king in power;
he continues to rule if he is loyal.
29The young glory in their strength,
and the old are honored for their gray hair.
30Hard punishment will get rid of evil,
and whippings can change an evil heart.
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Proverbs 20: NCV
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The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Proverbs 20
20
1 WINE IS a mocker, strong drink a riotous brawler; and whoever errs or reels because of it is not wise. [Prov. 23:29, 30; Isa. 28:7; Hos. 4:11.]
2 The terror of a king is as the roaring of a lion; whoever provokes him to anger or angers himself against him sins against his own life.
3 It is an honor for a man to cease from strife and keep aloof from it, but every fool will quarrel.
4 The sluggard does not plow when winter sets in; therefore he begs in harvest and has nothing.
5 Counsel in the heart of man is like water in a deep well, but a man of understanding draws it out. [Prov. 18:4.]
6 Many a man proclaims his own loving-kindness and goodness, but a faithful man who can find?
7 The righteous man walks in his integrity; blessed (happy, fortunate, enviable) are his children after him.
8 A king who sits on the throne of judgment winnows out all evil [like chaff] with his eyes.
9 Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin? [I Kings 8:46; II Chron. 6:36; Job 9:30; 14:4; Ps. 51:5; I John 1:8.]
10 Diverse weights [one for buying and another for selling] and diverse measures–both of them are exceedingly offensive and abhorrent to the Lord. [Deut. 25:13; Mic. 6:10, 11.]
11 Even a child is known by his acts, whether [or not] what he does is pure and right.
12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye–the Lord has made both of them.
13 Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes and you will be satisfied with bread.
14 It is worthless, it is worthless! says the buyer; but when he goes his way, then he boasts [about his bargain].
15 There is gold, and a multitude of pearls, but the lips of knowledge are a vase of preciousness [the most precious of all]. [Job 28:12, 16-19; Prov. 3:15; 8:11.]
16 [The judge tells the creditor] Take the garment of one who is security for a stranger; and hold him in pledge when he is security for foreigners.
17 Food gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.
18 Purposes and plans are established by counsel; and [only] with good advice make or carry on war.
19 He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets; therefore associate not with him who talks too freely. [Rom. 16:17, 18.]
20 Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in complete darkness.
21 An inheritance hastily gotten [by greedy, unjust means] at the beginning, in the end it will not be blessed. [Prov. 28:20; Hab. 2:6.]
22 Do not say, I will repay evil; wait [expectantly] for the Lord, and He will rescue you. [II Sam. 16:12; Rom. 12:17-19; I Thess. 5:15; I Pet. 3:9.]
23 Diverse and deceitful weights are shamefully vile and abhorrent to the Lord, and false scales are not good.
24 Man's steps are ordered by the Lord. How then can a man understand his way?
25 It is a snare to a man to utter a vow [of consecration] rashly and [not until] afterward inquire [whether he can fulfill it].
26 A wise king winnows out the wicked [from among the good] and brings the threshing wheel over them [to separate the chaff from the grain].
27 The spirit of man [that factor in human personality which proceeds immediately from God] is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts. [I Cor. 2:11.]
28 Loving-kindness and mercy, truth and faithfulness, preserve the king, and his throne is upheld by [the people's] loyalty.
29 The glory of young men is their strength, and the beauty of old men is their gray head [suggesting wisdom and experience].
30 Blows that wound cleanse away evil, and strokes [for correction] reach to the innermost parts.
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