17 When you're kind to others, you help yourself; when you're cruel to others, you hurt yourself.
18 Bad work gets paid with a bad check; good work gets solid pay.
19 Take your stand with God's loyal community and live, or chase after phantoms of evil and die.
20 God can't stand deceivers, but oh how he relishes integrity.
21 Count on this: The wicked won't get off scot-free, and God's loyal people will triumph.
22 Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful face on an empty head.
23 The desires of good people lead straight to the best, but wicked ambition ends in angry frustration.
24 The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.
25 The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped.
26 Curses on those who drive a hard bargain! Blessings on all who play fair and square!
27 The one who seeks good finds delight; the student of evil becomes evil.
28 A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump; a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree.
29 Exploit or abuse your family, and end up with a fistful of air; common sense tells you it's a stupid way to live.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Proverbs 11:17-29
Commentary on Proverbs 11:17
(Read Proverbs 11:17)
A cruel, froward, ill-natured man, is vexatious to those that are, and should be to him as his own flesh, and punishes himself.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:18
(Read Proverbs 11:18)
He that makes it his business to do good, shall have a reward, as sure to him as eternal truth can make it.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:19
(Read Proverbs 11:19)
True holiness is true happiness. The more violent a man is in sinful pursuits, the more he hastens his own destruction.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:20
(Read Proverbs 11:20)
Nothing is more hateful to God, than hypocrisy and double dealing, which are here signified. God delights in such as aim and act with uprightness.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:21
(Read Proverbs 11:21)
Joining together in sin shall not protect the sinners.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:22
(Read Proverbs 11:22)
Beauty is abused by those who have not discretion or modesty with it. This is true of all bodily endowments.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:23
(Read Proverbs 11:23)
The wicked desire mischief to others, but it shall return upon themselves.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:24
(Read Proverbs 11:24)
A man may grow poor by not paying just debts, not relieving the poor, not allowing needful expenses. Let men be ever so saving of what they have, if God appoints, it comes to nothing.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:25
(Read Proverbs 11:25)
Both in temporal and spiritual things, God commonly deals with his people according to the measure by which they deal with their brethren.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:26
(Read Proverbs 11:26)
We must not hoard up the gifts of God's bounty, merely for our own advantage.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:27
(Read Proverbs 11:27)
Seeking mischief is here set against seeking good; for those that are not doing good are doing hurt, even to themselves.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:28
(Read Proverbs 11:28)
The true believer is a branch of the living Vine. When those that take root in the world wither, those who are grafted into Christ shall be fruitful.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:29
(Read Proverbs 11:29)
He that brings trouble upon himself and his family, by carelessness, or by wickedness, shall be unable to keep and enjoy what he gets, as a man is unable to hold the wind, or to satisfy himself with it.