Proverbs 24
24
1Do not envy evil people
or wish you were with them,
2because their minds plot violence,
and their lips talk trouble.
3With wisdom a house is built.
With understanding it is established.
4With knowledge its rooms are filled
with every kind of riches, both precious and pleasant.
5A strong man knows how to use his strength,
but a person with knowledge is even more powerful.
6After all, with the right strategy you can wage war,
and with many advisers there is victory.
7Matters of wisdom are beyond the grasp of a stubborn fool.
At the city gate he does not open his mouth.
8Whoever plans to do evil will be known as a schemer.
9Foolish scheming is sinful,
and a mocker is disgusting to everyone.
10If you faint in a crisis, you are weak.
11Rescue captives condemned to death,
and spare those staggering toward their slaughter.
12When you say, “We didn’t know this,”
won’t the one who weighs hearts take note of it?
Won’t the one who guards your soul know it?
Won’t he pay back people for what they do?
13Eat honey, my son, because it is good.
Honey that flows from the honeycomb tastes sweet.
14The knowledge of wisdom is like that for your soul.
If you find it, then there is a future,
and your hope will never be cut off.
15You wicked one,
do not lie in ambush at the home of a righteous person.
Do not rob his house.
16A righteous person may fall seven times, but he gets up again.
However, in a disaster wicked people fall.
17Do not be happy when your enemy falls,
and do not feel glad when he stumbles.
18The Lord will see it, he won’t like it,
and he will turn his anger away from that person.
19Do not get overly upset with evildoers.
Do not envy wicked people,
20because an evil person has no future,
and the lamps of wicked people will be snuffed out.
21Fear the Lord, my son.
Fear the king as well.
Do not associate with those who always insist upon change,
22because disaster will come to them suddenly.
Who knows what misery both may bring?
Learning from Wise People
23These also are the sayings of wise people:
Showing partiality as a judge is not good.
24Whoever says to a guilty person, “You are innocent,”
will be cursed by people and condemned by nations.
25But people will be pleased with those who convict a guilty person,
and a great blessing will come to them.
26Giving a straight answer is ⌞like⌟ a kiss on the lips.
27Prepare your work outside,
and get things ready for yourself in the field.
Afterwards, build your house.
28Do not testify against your neighbor without a reason,
and do not deceive with your lips.
29Do not say,
“I’ll treat him as he treated me.
I’ll pay him back for what he has done to me.”
30I passed by a lazy person’s field,
the vineyard belonging to a person without sense.
31I saw that it was all overgrown with thistles.
The ground was covered with weeds,
and its stone fence was torn down.
32When I observed ⌞this⌟, I took it to heart.
I saw it and learned my lesson.
33“Just a little sleep,
just a little slumber,
just a little nap.”
34Then your poverty will come like a drifter,
and your need will come like a bandit.
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
Proverbs 24
24
1Seek not to be like evil men, neither desire to be with them:
2Because their mind studieth robberies, and their lips speak deceits.
3By wisdom the house shall be built, and by prudence it shall be strengthened.
4By instruction the storerooms shall be filled with all precious and most beautiful wealth.
5A wise man is strong: and a knowing man, stout and valiant.
6Because war is managed by due ordering: and there shall be safety where there are many counsels.
7Wisdom is too high for a fool, in the gate he shall not open his mouth.
8He that deviseth to do evils, shall be called a fool.
9The thought of a fool is sin: and the detracter is the abomination of men.
10If thou lose hope being weary in the day of distress, thy strength shall be diminished.
11Deliver them that are led to death: and those that are drawn to death forbear not to deliver.
12If thou say: I have not strength enough: he that seeth into the heart, he understandeth, and nothing deceiveth the keeper of thy soul, end he shall render to a man according to his works.
13Fat honey, my son, because it is good, and the honeycomb most sweet to thy throat:
14So also is the doctrine of wisdom to thy soul: which when thou hast found, thou shalt have hope in the end, and thy hope shall not perish.
15Lie not in wait, nor seek after wickedness in the house of the just, nor spoil his rest.
16For a just man shall fall seven times and shall rise again: but the wicked shall fall down into evil.
17When thy enemy shall fall, be not glad, and in his ruin let not thy heart rejoice:
18Lest the Lord see, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.
19Contend not with the wicked, nor seek to be like the ungodly:
20For evil men have no hope of things to come, and the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.
21My son, fear the Lord and the king: and have nothing to do with detracters.
22For their destruction shall rise suddenly: and who knoweth the ruin of both?
23These things also to the wise: It is not good to have respect to persons in judgment.
24They that say to the wicked man: Thou art just: shall be cursed by the people, and the tribes shall abhor them.
25They that rebuke him, shall be praised: and a blessing shall come upon them.
26He shall kiss the lips, who answereth right words.
27Prepare thy work without, and diligently till thy ground: that afterward thou mayst build thy house.
28Be not witness without cause against thy neighbour: and deceive not any man with thy lips.
29Say not: I will do to him as he hath done to me: I will render to every one according to his work.
30I passed by the field of the slothful man, and by the vineyard of the foolish man:
31And behold it was all filled with nettles, and thorns had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall was broken down.
32Which when I had seen, I laid it up in my heart, and by the example I received instruction.
33Thou wilt sleep a little, said I, thou wilt slumber a little, thou wilt fold thy hands a little to rest:
34And poverty shall come to thee as a runner, and beggary as an armed man.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.