22 ¹A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold. ²The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all. ³A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. ⁴By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life. ⁵Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward: he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them. ⁶Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. ⁷The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. ⁸He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail. ⁹He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor. ¹⁰Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease. ¹¹He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend. ¹²The eyes of the LORD preserve knowledge, and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor. ¹³The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets. ¹⁴The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein. ¹⁵Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. ¹⁶He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want. ¹⁷Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge. ¹⁸For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy lips. ¹⁹That thy trust may be in the LORD, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee. ²⁰Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, ²¹That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee? ²²Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate: ²³For the LORD will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them. ²⁴Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: ²⁵Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul. ²⁶Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts. ²⁷If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee? ²⁸Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set. ²⁹Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.

23 ¹When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee: ²And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. ³Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat. ⁴Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. ⁵Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. ⁶Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: ⁷For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. ⁸The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words. ⁹Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. ¹⁰Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless: ¹¹For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee. ¹²Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge. ¹³Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. ¹⁴Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell. ¹⁵My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. ¹⁶Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. ¹⁷Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. ¹⁸For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off. ¹⁹Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. ²⁰Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: ²¹For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. ²²Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. ²³Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. ²⁴The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. ²⁵Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice. ²⁶My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. ²⁷For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit. ²⁸She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men. ²⁹Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? ³⁰They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. ³¹Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. ³²At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. ³³Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. ³⁴Yea, 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. ³⁵They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.