22¹ A good name is to be more desired than great wealth , Favor is better than silver and gold .

² The rich and the poor have a common bond , The Lord is the maker of them all .

³ The prudent sees the evil and hides himself, But the naive go on, and are punished for it.

⁴ The reward of humility and the fear of the Lord Are riches , honor and life .

⁵ Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse ; He who guards himself will be far from them.

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

⁷ The rich rules over the poor , And the borrower becomes the lender's slave .

⁸ He who sows iniquity will reap vanity , And the rod of his fury will perish .

⁹ He who is generous e will be blessed , For he gives some of his food to the poor .

¹⁰ Drive out the scoffer , and contention will go out, Even strife and dishonor will cease .

¹¹ He who loves purity of heart And whose speech is gracious , the king is his friend .

¹² The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge , But He overthrows the words of the treacherous man.

¹³ The sluggard says , "There is a lion outside ; I will be killed in the streets !"

¹⁴ The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit ; He who is cursed of the Lord will fall into it.

¹⁵ Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child ; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him.

¹⁶ He who oppresses the poor to make more for himself Or who gives to the rich , will only come to poverty .

Precepts and Warnings

¹⁷ Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise , And apply your mind to my knowledge ; ¹⁸ For it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, That they may be ready on your lips . ¹⁹ So that your trust may be in the Lord , I have taught you today , even you. ²⁰ Have I not written to you excellent things Of counsels and knowledge , ²¹ To make you know the certainty of the words of truth That you may correctly answer him who sent you?

²² Do not rob the poor because he is poor , Or crush the afflicted at the gate ; ²³ For the Lord will plead their case And take the life of those who rob them.

²⁴ Do not associate with a man given to anger ; Or go with a hot-tempered man , ²⁵ Or you will learn his ways And find a snare for yourself .

²⁶ Do not be among those who give e pledges e , Among those who become guarantors for debts . ²⁷ If you have nothing with which to pay , Why should he take your bed from under you?

²⁸ Do not move the ancient boundary Which your fathers have set .

²⁹ Do you see a man skilled in his work ? He will stand before kings ; He will not stand before obscure men .

23¹ When you sit down to dine with a ruler , Consider carefully what is before you, ² And put a knife to your throat If you are a man of great appetite . ³ Do not desire his delicacies , For it is deceptive food .

⁴ Do not weary yourself to gain wealth , Cease from your consideration of it ⁵ When you set your eyes on it, it is gone . For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens .

⁶ Do not eat the bread of a selfish e man , Or desire his delicacies ; ⁷ For as he thinks within himself , so he is. He says to you, "Eat and drink !" But his heart is not with you. ⁸ You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten , And waste your compliments .

⁹ Do not speak in the hearing of a fool , For he will despise the wisdom of your words .

¹⁰ Do not move the ancient boundary Or go into the fields of the fatherless , ¹¹ For their Redeemer is strong ; He will plead their case against you.

¹² Apply your heart to discipline And your ears to words of knowledge . ¹³ Do not hold back discipline from the child , although you strike him with the rod , he will not die . ¹⁴ You shall strike him with the rod and rescue his soul from Sheol ¹⁵ My son , if your heart is wise , My own heart also will be glad ; ¹⁶ And my inmost being will rejoice When your lips speak what is right .

¹⁷ Do not let your heart envy sinners , But live in the fear of the Lord always e . ¹⁸ Surely e there is a future , And your hope will not be cut off .

¹⁹ Listen , my son , and be wise , And direct your heart in the way ²⁰ Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine , Or with gluttonous eaters of meat ; ²¹ For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty , And drowsiness will clothe one with rags ²² Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old . ²³ Buy truth , and do not sell it, Get wisdom and instruction and understanding . ²⁴ The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice , And he who sires a wise son will be glad in him. ²⁵ Let your father and your mother be glad , And let her rejoice who gave birth to you. ²⁶ Give me your heart , my son , And let your eyes delight in my ways . ²⁷ For a harlot is a deep pit And an adulterous woman is a narrow well . ²⁸ Surely she lurks as a robber , And increases the faithless among men .

²⁹ Who has woe ? Who has sorrow ? Who has contentions ? Who has complaining ? Who has wounds without cause ? Who has redness of eyes ? ³⁰ Those who linger long over wine , Those who go to taste mixed wine . ³¹ Do not look on the wine when it is red , When it sparkles e in the cup , When it goes down smoothly ; ³² At the last it bites like a serpent And stings like a viper . ³³ Your eyes will see strange things And your mind will utter perverse things . ³⁴ And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea , Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast . ³⁵ "They struck me, but I did not become ill ; They beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake ? I will seek another e drink."

24¹ Do not be envious of evil men , Nor desire to be with them; ² For their minds devise violence , And their lips talk of trouble .

³ By wisdom a house is built , And by understanding it is established ; ⁴ And by knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches . ⁵ A wise man is strong , And a man of knowledge increases power . ⁶ For by wise guidance you will wage war , And in abundance of counselors there is victory .

⁷ Wisdom is too exalted for a fool , He does not open his mouth in the gate . ⁸ One who plans to do evil , Men will call a schemer e . ⁹ The devising of folly is sin , And the scoffer is an abomination to men .

¹⁰ If you are slack in the day of distress , Your strength is limited .

¹¹ Deliver those who are being taken away to death , And those who are staggering to slaughter , Oh hold them back . ¹² If you say , "See , we did not know this ," Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts ? And does He not know it who keeps your soul ? And will He not render to man according to his work ?

¹³ My son , eat honey , for it is good , Yes, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste ; ¹⁴ Know that wisdom is thus for your soul ; If you find it, then there will be a future , And your hope will not be cut off .

¹⁵ Do not lie in wait , O wicked man , against the dwelling of the righteous ; Do not destroy his resting place ; ¹⁶ For a righteous man falls seven times , and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of calamity .

¹⁷ Do not rejoice when your enemy falls , And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles ; ¹⁸ Or the Lord will see it and be displeased e , And turn His anger away from him.

¹⁹ Do not fret because of evildoers Or be envious of the wicked ; ²⁰ For there will be no future for the evil man ; The lamp of the wicked will be put out.

²¹ My son , fear the Lord and the king ; Do not associate with those who are given to change , ²² For their calamity will rise suddenly , And who knows the ruin that comes from both of them?

²³ These also are sayings of the wise . To show partiality e in judgment is not good . ²⁴ He who says to the wicked , "You are righteous ," Peoples will curse him, nations will abhor him; ²⁵ But to those who rebuke the wicked will be delight , And a good blessing will come upon them. ²⁶ He kisses the lips Who gives a right answer .

²⁷ Prepare your work outside And make it ready for yourself in the field ; Afterwards , then, build your house .

²⁸ Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause , And do not deceive with your lips . ²⁹ Do not say , "Thus I shall do to him as he has done to me; I will render to the man according to his work ."

³⁰ I passed by the field of the sluggard And by the vineyard of the man lacking sense , ³¹ And behold , it was completely overgrown with thistles ; Its surface was covered with nettles , And its stone wall was broken down . ³² When I saw , I reflected e upon it; I looked , and received instruction . ³³ " A little sleep , a little slumber , A little folding of the hands to rest ," ³⁴ Then your poverty will come as a robber And your want like an armed man .

The Offering for the Saints

8¹ Now , brethren , we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia , ² that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality . ³ For I testify that according to their ability , and beyond their ability , they gave of their own accord , ⁴ begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints , ⁵ and this, not as we had expected , but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God . ⁶ So we urged Titus that as he had previously made a beginning , so he would also complete in you this gracious work as well .

⁷ But just as you abound in everything , in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also . ⁸ I am not speaking this as a command , but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also . ⁹ For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ , that though He was rich , yet for your sake He became poor , so that you through His poverty might become rich . ¹⁰ I give my opinion in this matter, for this is to your advantage , who were the first to begin a year ago not only to do this, but also to desire to do it. ¹¹ But now finish doing it also , so that just as there was the readiness to desire it, so there may be also the completion of it by your ability . ¹² For if the readiness is present , it is acceptable according to what a person has , not according to what he does not have . ¹³ For this is not for the ease of others and for your affliction , but by way of equality - ¹⁴ at this present time your abundance being a supply for their need , so that their abundance also may become a supply for your need , that there may be equality ; ¹⁵ as it is written , " HE WHO gathered MUCH DID NOT HAVE TOO MUCH , AND HE WHO gathered LITTLE HAD NO LACK ."

¹⁶ But thanks be to God who puts the same earnestness on your behalf in the heart of Titus . ¹⁷ For he not only accepted our appeal , but being himself very earnest , he has gone to you of his own accord . ¹⁸ We have sent along with him the brother whose fame in the things of the gospel has spread through all the churches ; ¹⁹ and not only this, but he has also been appointed by the churches to travel with us in this gracious work , which is being administered by us for the glory of the Lord Himself , and to show our readiness , ²⁰ taking precaution so that no one will discredit us in our administration of this generous gift ; ²¹ for we have regard for what is honorable , not only in the sight of the Lord , but also in the sight of men . ²² We have sent with them our brother , whom we have often tested and found diligent in many things , but now even more diligent because of his great confidence in you. ²³ As for Titus , he is my partner and fellow worker among you; as for our brethren , they are messengers of the churches , a glory to Christ . ²⁴ Therefore openly before e the churches , show them the proof of your love and of our reason for boasting about you.