Proverbs 17

Good News Translation

17 Better to eat a dry crust of bread with peace of mind than have a banquet in a house full of trouble.

² A shrewd servant will gain authority over a master's worthless son and receive a part of the inheritance.

³ Gold and silver are tested by fire, and a person's heart is tested by the Lord.

⁴ Evil people listen to evil ideas, and liars listen to lies.

⁵ If you make fun of poor people, you insult the God who made them. You will be punished if you take pleasure in someone's misfortune.

⁶ Grandparents are proud of their grandchildren, just as children are proud of their parents.

⁷ Respected people do not tell lies, and fools have nothing worthwhile to say.

⁸ Some people think a bribe works like magic; they believe it can do anything.

⁹ If you want people to like you, forgive them when they wrong you. Remembering wrongs can break up a friendship.

¹⁰ An intelligent person learns more from one rebuke than a fool learns from being beaten a hundred times.

¹¹ Death will come like a cruel messenger to wicked people who are always stirring up trouble.

¹² It is better to meet a mother bear robbed of her cubs than to meet some fool busy with a stupid project.

¹³ If you repay good with evil, you will never get evil out of your house.

¹⁴ The start of an argument is like the first break in a dam; stop it before it goes any further.

¹⁵ Condemning the innocent or letting the wicked go—both are hateful to the Lord.

¹⁶ It does a fool no good to spend money on an education, because he has no common sense.

^17 (A)Friends always show their love. What are relatives for if not to share trouble?

¹⁸ Only someone with no sense would promise to be responsible for someone else's debts.

¹⁹ To like sin is to like making trouble. If you brag all the time,^[a] you are asking for trouble.

²⁰ Anyone who thinks and speaks evil can expect to find nothing good—only disaster.

²¹ There is nothing but sadness and sorrow for parents whose children do foolish things.

²² Being cheerful keeps you healthy. It is slow death to be gloomy all the time.

²³ Corrupt judges accept secret bribes, and then justice is not done.

²⁴ An intelligent person aims at wise action, but a fool starts off in many directions.

²⁵ Foolish children bring grief to their fathers and bitter regrets to their mothers.

²⁶ It is not right to make an innocent person pay a fine; justice is perverted when good people are punished.

²⁷ Those who are sure of themselves do not talk all the time. People who stay calm have real insight. ^28 (B)After all, even fools may be thought wise and intelligent if they stay quiet and keep their mouths shut.