Proverbs

17* Better a dry morsel and a quiet life by it

than a house full of dinner from ill-will sacrifices.

2 A capable slave will have control over a worthless son

and will share inheritance among brothers.

3 Crucible for silver and furnace for gold,

but he who assays hearts is Jehovah.

4* He is a malefactor who listens eagerly to a villainous lip;

it is falsehood that gives ear to a malignant tongue.

5 One who jeers at a poor man is insulting him who made him;

one who is glad at calamity will not be held innocent.

6 Grandchildren are old men’s coronet;

but sons’ adornment is their fathers.

7* A grandiloquent lip is not becoming to a rascal;

much less a falsifying lip to a noble.

8* A bribe shows itself to its user as a favor-charm:

whatever he faces toward, he succeeds.

9 One who is looking for love covers up an offense;

but one who harps on a matter alienates a bosom friend.

10 A rebuke sinks deeper into a man of sense

than a hundred cuts with a stick into a fool.

11* A bad man seeks merely insubordination,

and will have a cruel messenger let loose on him.

12 Let a man encounter a bear that has lost her cubs

but not a fool in his ignorance.

13* One who returns bad for good

will never have his house without bad.

14 The beginning of a quarrel is somebody letting a trickle start,

so give up your side of the dispute before anybody gets into a rage.

15 One who declares a man right when he is wrong and one who declares

him wrong when he is right

are both of them things that Jehovah detests.

16 Why should a fool have in his hands a fee

to buy wisdom when he has no brains?

17* The friend loves at every time,

but a brother is born for distress.

18 A brainless man strikes hands,

pledges a security before another.

19** One who loves a squabble loves a bruise;

one who makes his doorway tall is asking for a crash.

20* A man with a crooked heart will come to no good,

and a man with a reversible tongue will fall into disaster.

21 To one who begets a fool it becomes a sorrow,

and a rascal’s father will not be glad.

22* A glad heart gives good healing,

but a broken-down spirit dries out a bone.

23 A bribe is taken out of a rogue’s pocket

to warp the courses of justice.

24 Wisdom is face to face with a man of sense,

but a fool’s eyes are at earth’s end.

25 A foolish son is a vexation to his father

and a bitterness to her who gave him birth.

26* Even fining an honest man is not good,

giving beatings to noble men for uprightness.

27* One who restrains his speech knows what is what,

and one with a cool spirit is a man of intelligence.

28 Even an ignoramus holding his tongue will be thought wise;

one who stops up his lips is sensible.