19¹ Better is the poor man whose ways are upright, than the man of wealth whose ways are twisted.

² Further, without knowledge desire is not good; and he who is over-quick in acting goes out of the right way.

³ By his foolish behaviour a man's ways are turned upside down, and his heart is bitter against the Lord.

⁴ Wealth makes a great number of friends; but the poor man is parted from his friend.

⁵ A false witness will not go without punishment, and the breather out of deceit will not go free.

⁶ Great numbers will make attempts to get the approval of a ruler: and every man is the special friend of him who has something to give. ⁷ All the brothers of the poor man are against him: how much more do his friends go far from him! ...

⁸ He who gets wisdom has love for his soul: he who keeps good sense will get what is truly good.

⁹ A false witness will not go without punishment, and the breather out of deceit will be cut off.

¹⁰ Material comfort is not good for the foolish; much less for a servant to be put over rulers.

¹¹ A man's good sense makes him slow to wrath, and the overlooking of wrongdoing is his glory.

¹² The king's wrath is like the loud cry of a lion, but his approval is like dew on the grass.

¹³ A foolish son is the destruction of his father; and the bitter arguments of a wife are like drops of rain falling without end.

¹⁴ House and wealth are a heritage from fathers, but a wife with good sense is from the Lord.

¹⁵ Hate of work sends deep sleep on a man: and he who has no industry will go without food.

¹⁶ He who keeps the law keeps his soul; but death will be the fate of him who takes no note of the word.

¹⁷ He who has pity on the poor gives to the Lord, and the Lord will give him his reward.

¹⁸ Give your son training while there is hope; let not your heart be purposing his death.

¹⁹ A man of great wrath will have to take his punishment: for if you get him out of trouble you will have to do it again.

²⁰ Let your ear be open to suggestion and take teaching, so that at the end you may be wise.

²¹ A man's heart may be full of designs, but the purpose of the Lord is unchanging.

²² The ornament of a man is his mercy, and a poor man is better than one who is false.

²³ The fear of the Lord gives life: and he who has it will have need of nothing; no evil will come his way.

²⁴ The hater of work puts his hand deep into the basin, and will not even take it to his mouth again.

²⁵ When blows overtake the man of pride, the simple will get sense; say sharp words to the wise, and knowledge will be made clear to him.

²⁶ He who is violent to his father, driving away his mother, is a son causing shame and a bad name.

²⁷ A son who no longer gives attention to teaching is turned away from the words of knowledge.

²⁸ A good-for-nothing witness makes sport of the judge's decision: and the mouth of evil-doers sends out evil like a stream.

²⁹ Rods are being made ready for the man of pride, and blows for the back of the foolish.

20¹ Wine makes men foolish, and strong drink makes men come to blows; and whoever comes into error through these is not wise.

² The wrath of a king is like the loud cry of a lion: he who makes him angry does wrong against himself.

³ It is an honour for a man to keep from fighting, but the foolish are ever at war.

⁴ The hater of work will not do his ploughing because of the winter; so at the time of grain-cutting he will be requesting food and will get nothing.

⁵ The purpose in the heart of a man is like deep water, but a man of good sense will get it out.

⁶ Most men make no secret of their kind acts: but where is a man of good faith to be seen?

⁷ An upright man goes on in his righteousness: happy are his children after him!

⁸ A king on the seat of judging puts to flight all evil with his eyes.

⁹ Who is able to say, I have made my heart clean, I am free from my sin?

¹⁰ Unequal weights and unequal measures, they are all disgusting to the Lord.

¹¹ Even a child may be judged by his doings, if his work is free from sin and if it is right.

¹² The hearing ear and the seeing eye are equally the Lord's work.

¹³ Do not be a lover of sleep, or you will become poor: keep your eyes open, and you will have bread enough.

¹⁴ A poor thing, a poor thing, says he who is giving money for goods: but when he has gone on his way, then he makes clear his pride in what he has got.

¹⁵ There is gold and a store of corals: but the lips of knowledge are a jewel of great price.

¹⁶ Take a man's clothing if he makes himself responsible for a strange man, and get an undertaking from him who gives his word for strange men.

¹⁷ Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but after, his mouth will be full of sand.

¹⁸ Every purpose is put into effect by wise help: and by wise guiding make war.

¹⁹ He who goes about talking of the business of others gives away secrets: so have nothing to do with him whose lips are open wide.

²⁰ If anyone puts a curse on his father or his mother, his light will be put out in the blackest night.

²¹ A heritage may be got quickly at first, but the end of it will not be a blessing.

²² Do not say, I will give punishment for evil: go on waiting for the Lord, and he will be your saviour.

²³ Unequal weights are disgusting to the Lord, and false scales are not good.

²⁴ A man's steps are of the Lord; how then may a man have knowledge of his way?

²⁵ It is a danger to a man to say without thought, It is holy, and, after taking his oaths, to be questioning if it is necessary to keep them.

²⁶ A wise king puts evil-doers to flight, and makes their evil-doing come back on them.

²⁷ The Lord keeps watch over the spirit of man, searching all the deepest parts of the body.

²⁸ Mercy and good faith keep the king safe, and the seat of his power is based on upright acts.

²⁹ The glory of young men is their strength, and the honour of old men is their grey hairs.

³⁰ By the wounds of the rod evil is taken away, and blows make clean the deepest parts of the body.

21¹ The king's heart in the hands of the Lord is like the water streams, and by him it is turned in any direction at his pleasure.

² Every way of a man seems right to himself, but the Lord is the tester of hearts.

³ To do what is right and true is more pleasing to the Lord than an offering.

⁴ A high look and a heart of pride, *** of the evil-doer is sin.

⁵ The purposes of the man of industry have their outcome only in wealth; but one who is over-quick in acting will only come to be in need.

⁶ He who gets stores of wealth by a false tongue, is going after what is only breath, and searching for death.

⁷ By their violent acts the evil-doers will be pulled away, because they have no desire to do what is right.

⁸ Twisted is the way of him who is full of crime; but as for him whose heart is clean, his work is upright.

⁹ It is better to be living in an angle of the house-top, than with a bitter-tongued woman in a wide house.

¹⁰ The desire of the evil-doer is fixed on evil: he has no kind feeling for his neighbour.

¹¹ When the man of pride undergoes punishment, the simple man gets wisdom; and by watching the wise he gets knowledge.

¹² The Upright One, looking on the house of the evil-doer, lets sinners be overturned to their destruction.

¹³ He whose ears are stopped at the cry of the poor, will himself get no answer to his cry for help.

¹⁴ By a secret offering wrath is turned away, and the heat of angry feelings by money in the folds of the robe.

¹⁵ It is a joy to the good man to do right, but it is destruction to the workers of evil.

¹⁶ The wanderer from the way of knowledge will have his resting-place among the shades.

¹⁷ The lover of pleasure will be a poor man: the lover of wine and oil will not get wealth.

¹⁸ The evil-doer will be given as a price for the life of the good man, and the worker of deceit in the place of the upright.

¹⁹ It is better to be living in a waste land, than with a bitter-tongued and angry woman.

²⁰ There is a store of great value in the house of the wise, but it is wasted by the foolish man.

²¹ He who goes after righteousness and mercy will get life, righteousness, and honour.

²² A wise man goes up into the town of the strong ones, and overcomes its strength in which they put their faith.

²³ He who keeps watch over his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles.

²⁴ The man of pride, lifted up in soul, is named high-hearted; he is acting in an outburst of pride.

²⁵ The desire of the hater of work is death to him, for his hands will do no work. ²⁶ All the day the sinner goes after his desire: but the upright man gives freely, keeping nothing back.

²⁷ The offering of evil-doers is disgusting: how much more when they give it with an evil purpose!

²⁸ A false witness will be cut off, ...

²⁹ The evil-doer makes his face hard, but as for the upright, he gives thought to his way.

³⁰ Wisdom and knowledge and wise suggestions are of no use against the Lord. ³¹ The horse is made ready for the day of war, but power to overcome is from the Lord.

7¹ Because God, then, will give us such rewards, dear brothers, let us make ourselves clean from all evil of flesh and spirit, and become completely holy in the fear of God.

Paul's Joy at the Church's Repentance

² Let your hearts be open to us: we have done no man wrong, no man has been damaged by us, we have made no profit out of any man, ³ It is not with the purpose of judging you that I say this: for I have said before that you are in our hearts for life and death together. ⁴ My words to you are without fear, I am full of pride on account of you: I have great comfort and joy in all our troubles.

⁵ For even when we had come into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; there were fightings outside and fears inside. ⁶ But God who gives comfort to the poor in spirit gave us comfort by the coming of Titus; ⁷ And not by his coming only, but by the comfort which he had in you, while he gave us word of your desire, your sorrow, your care for me; so that I was still more glad. ⁸ For though my letter gave you pain, I have no regret for it now, though I had before; for I see that the letter gave you pain, but only for a time. ⁹ Now I am glad, not that you had sorrow, but that your sorrow was the cause of a change of heart; for yours was a holy sorrow so that you might undergo no loss by us in anything. ¹⁰ For the sorrow which God gives is the cause of salvation through a change of heart, in which there is no reason for grief: but the sorrow of the world is a cause of death. ¹¹ For you see what care was produced in you by this very sorrow of yours before God, what clearing of yourselves, what wrath against sin, what fear, what desire, what serious purpose, what punishment. In everything you have made it clear that you are free from sin in this business.

¹² So though I sent you a letter, it was not only because of the man who did the wrong, or because of him to whom the wrong was done, but so that your true care for us might be made clear in the eyes of God. ¹³ So we have been comforted: and we had the greater joy in our comfort because of the joy of Titus, for his spirit had been made glad by you all. ¹⁴ For I was not put to shame in anything in which I may have made clear to him my pride in you; but as we said nothing to you but what was true, so the good things which I said to Titus about you were seen by him to be true. ¹⁵ And his love to you is the more increased by his memory of you all, how you gave way to his authority, and how you took him to your hearts with fear and honour. ¹⁶ It gives me great joy to see you answering to my good opinion of you in every way.