22¹ A [good] name is rather to be chosen than great riches; loving favour rather than silver and gold.

² The rich and 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 are punished.

⁴ The reward of humility [and] the fear of Jehovah is riches, and honour, and life.

⁵ Thorns [and] snares are in the way of the perverse: he that keepeth his soul holdeth himself far from them.

⁶ Train up the child according to the tenor of his way, and 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 unrighteousness shall reap iniquity, and the rod of his wrath shall have an end.

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

¹⁰ Cast out the scorner, and contention will depart, and strife and ignominy shall cease.

¹¹ He that loveth pureness of heart, upon whose lips is grace, the king is his friend.

¹² The eyes of Jehovah preserve knowledge; but he overthroweth the words of the unfaithful.

¹³ The sluggard saith, There is a lion without, I shall be killed in the streets!

¹⁴ The mouth of strange women is a deep ditch: he with whom Jehovah is displeased shall fall therein.

¹⁵ Folly is bound in the heart of a child; the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

¹⁶ He that oppresseth the poor, it is to enrich him; he that giveth to the rich, [bringeth] 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: they shall be together fitted on thy lips. ¹⁹ That thy confidence may be in Jehovah, I have made [them] known to thee this day, even to thee. ²⁰ Have not I written to thee excellent things, in counsels and knowledge, ²¹ that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest 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 the soul of those that despoil them.

²⁴ Make no friendship with an angry man, and go not with a furious man; ²⁵ lest thou learn his paths, and get a snare to thy soul.

²⁶ Be not of them that strike hands, of them that are sureties for debts: ²⁷ if thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?

²⁸ Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.

²⁹ Hast thou seen a man diligent in his work? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before the mean.

23¹ When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider well who 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; for they are deceitful food.

⁴ Weary not thyself to become rich; cease from thine own intelligence: ⁵ wilt thou set thine eyes upon it, it is gone; for indeed it maketh itself wings and it flieth away as an eagle towards the heavens.

⁶ Eat thou not the food of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainties. ⁷ For as he thinketh in his soul, so is he. Eat and drink! will he say unto thee; but his heart is not with thee. ⁸ Thy morsel which thou hast eaten must thou vomit up, and thou wilt have wasted thy sweet words.

⁹ Speak not in the ears of a foolish [man], 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 mighty; 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 beatest him with the rod, he shall 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 shall rejoice, even mine; ¹⁶ and my reins shall exult, when thy lips speak right things.

¹⁷ Let not thy heart envy sinners, but [be thou] in the fear of Jehovah all the day; ¹⁸ for surely there is a result, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

¹⁹ Thou, my son, hear and be wise, and direct thy heart in the way. ²⁰ Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh. ²¹ For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness clotheth 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; wisdom, and instruction, and intelligence. ²⁴ The father of a righteous [man] shall greatly rejoice, and he that begetteth a wise [son] shall have joy of him: ²⁵ let thy father and thy mother have joy, and let her that bore thee rejoice. ²⁶ My son, give me thy heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. ²⁷ For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit. ²⁸ She also lieth in wait as a robber, and increaseth the treacherous among men.

²⁹ Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who contentions? Who complaining? Who wounds without cause? Who redness of eyes? ³⁰ —They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to try mixed wine. ³¹ Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkleth in the cup, and goeth down smoothly: ³² at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. ³³ Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall speak froward things; ³⁴ and thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, and as he that lieth down upon the top of a mast: ³⁵ —''They have smitten me, [and] I am not sore; they have beaten me, [and] I knew it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.''

24¹ Be not thou envious of evil men, neither desire to be with them; ² for their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief.

³ Through wisdom is a house built, and by understanding it is established; ⁴ and by knowledge are the chambers filled with all precious and pleasant substance. ⁵ A wise man is strong, and a man of knowledge increaseth strength. ⁶ For with good advice shalt thou make thy war; and in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

⁷ Wisdom is too high for a fool: he will not open his mouth in the gate. ⁸ He that deviseth to do evil shall be called a master of intrigues. ⁹ The purpose of folly is sin, and the scorner is an abomination to men.

¹⁰ [If] thou losest courage in the day of trouble, thy strength is small.

¹¹ Deliver them that are taken forth unto death, and withdraw not from them that stagger to slaughter. ¹² If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not, will not he that weigheth the hearts consider it? And he that preserveth thy soul, he knoweth it; and he rendereth to man according to his work.

¹³ Eat honey, my son, for it is good; and a honeycomb is sweet to thy taste: ¹⁴ so consider wisdom for thy soul; if thou hast found it, there shall be a result, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

¹⁵ Lay not wait, O wicked [man], against the dwelling of the righteous; lay not waste his resting-place. ¹⁶ For the righteous falleth seven times, and riseth up again; but the wicked stumble into disaster.

¹⁷ Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thy heart be glad when he stumbleth; ¹⁸ lest Jehovah see it, and it be evil in his sight, and he turn away his anger from him.

¹⁹ Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, [and] be not envious of the wicked: ²⁰ for there shall be no future to the evil [man]; the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.

²¹ My son, fear Jehovah and the king: meddle not with them that are given to change. ²² For their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both?

²³ These things also come from the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment. 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 cometh upon them. ²⁶ He kisseth the lips who giveth a right answer.

²⁷ Prepare thy work without, and put thy field in order, and afterwards build thy house.

²⁸ Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and wouldest thou deceive 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 a sluggard, and by the vineyard of a man void of understanding; ³¹ and lo, it was all grown over with thistles, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and its stone wall was broken down. ³² Then I looked, I took it to heart; I saw, I received instruction: ³³ —A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest! ³⁴ So shall thy poverty come [as] a roving plunderer, and thy penury as an armed man.

The Offering for the Saints

8¹ But we make known to you, brethren, the grace of God bestowed in the assemblies of Macedonia; ² that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty has abounded to the riches of their [free-hearted] liberality. ³ For according to [their] power, I bear witness, and beyond [their] power, [they were] willing of their own accord, ⁴ begging of us with much entreaty [to give effect to] the grace and fellowship of the service which [was to be rendered] to the saints. ⁵ And not according as we hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord, and to us by God's will. ⁶ So that we begged Titus that, according as he had before begun, so he would also complete as to you this grace also;

⁷ but even as ye abound in every way, in faith, and word, and knowledge, and all diligence, and in love from you to us, that ye may abound in this grace also. ⁸ I do not speak as commanding [it], but through the zeal of others, and proving the genuineness of your love. ⁹ For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sakes he, being rich, became poor, in order that ye by his poverty might be enriched. ¹⁰ And I give [my] opinion in this, for this is profitable for you who began before, not only to do, but also to be willing, a year ago. ¹¹ But now also complete the doing of it; so that as [there was] the readiness to be willing, so also to complete out of what ye have. ¹² For if the readiness be there, [a man is] accepted according to what he may have, not according to what he has not. ¹³ For [it is] not in order that there may be ease for others, and for you distress, ¹⁴ but [on the principle] of equality; in the present time your abundance for their lack, that their abundance may be for your lack, so that there should be equality. ¹⁵ According as it is written, He who [gathered] much had no excess, and he who [gathered] little was nothing short.

¹⁶ But thanks [be] to God, who gives the same diligent zeal for you in the heart of Titus. ¹⁷ For he received indeed the entreaty, but, being full of zeal, he went of his own accord to you; ¹⁸ but we have sent with him the brother whose praise [is] in the glad tidings through all the assemblies; ¹⁹ and not only [so], but [is] also chosen by the assemblies as our fellow-traveller with this grace, ministered by us to the glory of the Lord himself, and [a witness of] our readiness; ²⁰ avoiding this, that any one should blame us in this abundance [which is] administered by us; ²¹ for we provide for things honest, not only before [the] Lord, but also before men. ²² And we have sent with them our brother whom we have often proved to be of diligent zeal in many things, and now more diligently zealous through the great confidence [he has] as to you. ²³ Whether as regards Titus, [he is] my companion and fellow-labourer in your behalf; or our brethren, [they are] deputed messengers of assemblies, Christ's glory. ²⁴ Shew therefore to them, before the assemblies, the proof of your love, and of our boasting about you.