Proverbs

11 Cheating scales are what Jehovah detests,

and a full-standard weight is what he approves.

2 Comes pretentiousness, comes dishonor;

but wisdom is on the side of modest men.

3* Straightforward men’s conscientiousness will guide them,

but faithless men will be upset by their wickedness.

4 Property does no good on a day of wrath,

but right-doing delivers from death.

5 A conscientious man’s rectitude will smooth his course,

but a wrong-doer will fall by his tendency to wrong.

6 Straightforward men’s rectitude will deliver them,

but faithless men will be caught by their greed.

7* At man’s death hope perishes

and the prospect vigor gave is lost.

8 An honest man is rescued out of distress

and a rogue goes in instead.

9** By an ungodly man’s mouth his neighbor is ruined,

but by knowledge honest men are rescued.

10 When good things happen to honest men a town jubilates,

but when rogues perish there is shouting.

11 By upright men’s blessing a town stands tall,

but by rogues’ mouths it is demolished.

12 A brainless man despises his neighbor,

but an intelligent man holds his tongue.

13 A tattler discloses confidences,

but a man of trusty spirit covers a matter up.

14 By not having political skill a people falls;

but preservation comes by plenty of advisers.

15* One comes to grievous harm because he has gone security for a stranger;

but he who hates hand-strikers has nothing to fear.

16* A gracious woman holds honor,

but a woman who hates the right things, a chair of dishonor.

Idlers will lack means,

but aggressive men will control riches.

17* A friendly man is befriending himself;

but a cruel man is breeding trouble for his own flesh.

18 A wrong-doer makes illusory revenue,

but he who sows the seed of right, real wages.

19* Firmness in the right makes for life;

but one who chases after evil does this for his own death.

20 Men crooked in their hearts are what Jehovah detests,

and men conscientious in their courses are what he approves.

21 Hand on hand a vicious man will not be cleared,

but right-doers’ descendants escape.

22 A beautiful but wrong-headed woman

is a gold ring in a hog’s nose.

23 Honest men’s desire is pure kindness,

but rogues’ hope is truculence.

24 There is such a thing as one who scatters but has more and more;

but one who scrimps unduly is headed only for want.

25 A generous soul will get plenty of oil,

and a man who gives water freely, plenty of water for himself.

26 One who refuses to sell grain the people will curse,

but there will be blessings for the head of one who does sell it.

27** One who goes after good is going to find God’s favor,

and one who hunts for harm will have it come to him.

28 He who puts confidence in his riches, he will fall,

but right-doers will bud out like leaves.

29* One who breeds trouble for his house will have an estate of air;

and an ignoramus is slave to a man with a wise brain.

30* The fruit of right-doing is bark from a tree of life,

but rascality takes lives away.

31 Here an honest man has a narrow margin of well-being—

how much more a rogue and sinner!