22¹ A [good] name is rather to be chosen than great riches, [And] loving favor rather than silver and gold.

² The rich and the poor meet together: Jehovah is the maker of them all.

³ A prudent man seeth the evil, and hideth himself; But the simple pass on, and suffer for it.

⁴ The reward of humility [and] the fear of Jehovah [Is] riches, and honor, and life.

⁵ Thorns [and] snares are in the way of the perverse: He that keepeth his soul shall be far from them.

⁶ Train up a child in the way he should go, And even when he is old he will not depart from it.

⁷ The rich ruleth over the poor; And the borrower is servant to the lender.

⁸ He that soweth iniquity shall reap calamity; And the rod of his wrath shall fail.

⁹ He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; For he giveth of his bread to the poor.

¹⁰ Cast out the scoffer, and contention will go out; Yea, strife and ignominy will cease.

¹¹ He that loveth pureness of heart, [For] the grace of his lips the king will be his friend.

¹² The eyes of Jehovah preserve [him that hath] knowledge; But he overthroweth the words of the treacherous man.

¹³ The sluggard saith, There is a lion without: I shall be slain in the streets.

¹⁴ The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: He that is abhorred of Jehovah shall fall therein.

¹⁵ Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; [But] the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

¹⁶ He that oppresseth the poor to increase his [gain], [And] he that giveth to the rich, [shall come] only to want.

Precepts and Warnings

¹⁷ Incline thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, And apply thy heart unto my knowledge. ¹⁸ For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee, If they be established together upon thy lips. ¹⁹ That thy trust may be in Jehovah, I have made [them] known to thee this day, even to thee. ²⁰ Have not I written unto thee excellent things Of counsels and knowledge, ²¹ To make thee know the certainty of the words of truth, That thou mayest carry back words of truth to them that send thee?

²² Rob not the poor, because he is poor; Neither oppress the afflicted in the gate: ²³ For Jehovah will plead their cause, And despoil of life those that despoil them.

²⁴ Make no friendship with a man that is given to anger; And with a wrathful man thou shalt not go: ²⁵ Lest thou learn this ways, And get a snare to thy soul.

²⁶ Be thou not one of them that strike hands, [Or] of them that are sureties for debts. ²⁷ If thou hast not wherewith to pay, Why should he take away thy bed from under thee?

²⁸ Remove not the ancient landmark, Which thy fathers have set.

²⁹ Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; He shall not stand before mean men.

23¹ When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, Consider diligently him that is before thee; ² And put a knife to thy throat, If thou be a man given to appetite. ³ Be not desirous of his dainties; Seeing they are deceitful food.

⁴ Weary not thyself to be rich; Cease from thine own wisdom. ⁵ Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For [riches] certainly make themselves wings, Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven.

⁶ Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, Neither desire thou his dainties: ⁷ For as he thinketh within himself, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; But his heart is not with thee. ⁸ The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, And lose thy sweet words.

⁹ Speak not in the hearing of a fool; For he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

¹⁰ Remove not the ancient landmark; And enter not into the fields of the fatherless: ¹¹ For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their cause against thee.

¹² Apply thy heart unto instruction, And thine ears to the words of knowledge. ¹³ Withhold not correction from the child; [For] if thou beat him with the rod, he will not die. ¹⁴ Thou shalt beat him with the rod, And shalt deliver his soul from Sheol. ¹⁵ My son, if thy heart be wise, My heart will be glad, even mine: ¹⁶ Yea, my heart will rejoice, When thy lips speak right things.

¹⁷ Let not thy heart envy sinners; But [be thou] in the fear of Jehovah all the day long: ¹⁸ For surely there is a reward; And thy hope shall not be cut off.

¹⁹ Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And guide thy heart in the way. ²⁰ Be not among winebibbers, Among gluttonous eaters of flesh: ²¹ For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; And drowsiness will clothe [a man] with rags. ²² Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, And despise not thy mother when she is old. ²³ Buy the truth, and sell it not; [Yea], wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. ²⁴ The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; And he that begetteth a wise child will have joy of him. ²⁵ Let thy father and thy mother be glad, And let her that bare thee rejoice. ²⁶ My son, give me thy heart; And let thine eyes delight in my ways. ²⁷ For a harlot is a deep ditch; And a foreign woman is a narrow pit. ²⁸ Yea, she lieth in wait as a robber, And increaseth the treacherous among men.

²⁹ Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? Who hath complaining? who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? ³⁰ They that tarry long at the wine; They that go to seek out mixed wine. ³¹ Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, When it sparkleth in the cup, When it goeth down smoothly: ³² At the last it biteth like a serpent, And stingeth like an adder. ³³ Thine eyes shall behold strange things, And thy heart shall utter perverse things. ³⁴ Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, Or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. ³⁵ They have stricken me, [shalt thou say], and I was not hurt; They have beaten me, and I felt it not: When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.

24¹ Be not thou envious against evil men; Neither desire to be with them: ² For their heart studieth oppression, And their lips talk of mischief.

³ Through wisdom is a house builded; And by understanding it is established; ⁴ And by knowledge are the chambers filled With all precious and pleasant riches. ⁵ A wise man is strong; Yea, a man of knowledge increaseth might. ⁶ For by wise guidance thou shalt make thy war; And in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

⁷ Wisdom is too high for a fool: He openeth not his mouth in the gate. ⁸ He that deviseth to do evil, Men shall call him a mischief-maker. ⁹ The thought of foolishness is sin; And the scoffer is an abomination to men.

¹⁰ If thou faint in the day of adversity, Thy strength is small.

¹¹ Deliver them that are carried away unto death, And those that are ready to be slain see that thou hold back. ¹² If thou sayest, Behold, we knew not this; Doth not he that weigheth the hearts consider it? And he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? And shall not he render to every man according to his work?

¹³ My son, eat thou honey, for it is good; And the droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to thy taste: ¹⁴ So shalt thou know wisdom to be unto thy soul; If thou hast found it, then shall there be a reward, And thy hope shall not be cut off.

¹⁵ Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the habitation of the righteous; Destroy not his resting-place: ¹⁶ For a righteous man falleth seven times, and riseth up again; But the wicked are overthrown by calamity.

¹⁷ Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, And let not thy heart be glad when he is overthrown; ¹⁸ Lest Jehovah see it, and it displease him, And he turn away his wrath from him.

¹⁹ Fret not thyself because of evil-doers; Neither be thou envious at the wicked: ²⁰ For there shall be no reward to the evil man; The lamp of the wicked shall be put out.

²¹ My son, fear thou Jehovah and the king; [And] company not with them that are given to change: ²² For their calamity shall rise suddenly; And the destruction from them both, who knoweth it?

²³ These also are [sayings] of the wise. To have respect of persons in judgment is not good. ²⁴ He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous; Peoples shall curse him, nations shall abhor him: ²⁵ But to them that rebuke [him] shall be delight, And a good blessing shall come upon them. ²⁶ He kisseth the lips Who giveth a right answer.

²⁷ Prepare thy work without, And make it ready for thee in the field; And afterwards build thy house.

²⁸ Be not a witness against thy neighbor without cause; And deceive not with thy lips. ²⁹ Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me; I will render to the man according to his work.

³⁰ I went by the field of the sluggard, And by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; ³¹ And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, The face thereof was covered with nettles, And the stone wall thereof was broken down. ³² Then I beheld, and considered well; I saw, and received instruction: ³³ [Yet] a little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep; ³⁴ So shall thy poverty come as a robber, And thy want as an armed man.

The Offering for the Saints

8¹ Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God which hath been given in the churches of Macedonia; ² how that in much proof of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. ³ For according to their power, I bear witness, yea and beyond their power, [they gave] of their own accord, ⁴ beseeching us with much entreaty in regard of this grace and the fellowship in the ministering to the saints: ⁵ and [this], not as we had hoped, but first they gave their own selves to the Lord, and to us through the will of God. ⁶ Insomuch that we exhorted Titus, that as he made a beginning before, so he would also complete in you this grace also.

⁷ But as ye abound in everything, [in] faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and [in] all earnestness, and [in] your love to us, [see] that ye abound in this grace also. ⁸ I speak not by way of commandment, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity also of your love. ⁹ For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich. ¹⁰ And herein I give [my] judgment: for this is expedient for you, who were the first to make a beginning a year ago, not only to do, but also to will. ¹¹ But now complete the doing also; that as [there was] the readiness to will, so [there may be] the completion also out of your ability. ¹² For if the readiness is there, [it is] acceptable according as [a man] hath, not according as [he] hath not. ¹³ For [I say] not [this] that others may be eased [and] ye distressed; ¹⁴ but by equality: your abundance [being a supply] at this present time for their want, that their abundance also may become [a supply] for your want; that there may be equality: ¹⁵ as it is written, He that [gathered] much had nothing over; and he that [gathered] little had no lack.

¹⁶ But thanks be to God, who putteth the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus. ¹⁷ For he accepted indeed our exhortation; but being himself very earnest, he went forth unto you of his own accord. ¹⁸ And we have sent together with him the brother whose praise in the gospel [is spread] through all the churches; ¹⁹ and not only so, but who was also appointed by the churches to travel with us in [the matter of] this grace, which is ministered by us to the glory of the Lord, and [to show] our readiness: ²⁰ Avoiding this, that any man should blame us in [the matter of] this bounty which is ministered by us: ²¹ for we take thought for things honorable, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. ²² and we have sent with them our brother, whom we have many times proved earnest in many things, but now much more earnest, by reason of the great confidence which [he hath] in you. ²³ Whether [any inquire] about Titus, [he is] my partner and [my] fellow-worker to you-ward, or our brethren, [they are] the messengers of the churches, [they are] the glory of Christ. ²⁴ Show ye therefore unto them in the face of the churches the proof of your love, and of our glorying on your behalf.