Proverbs 20

Jubilee Bible 2000

20 ¶ Wine makes a mocker, and beer a reveler, and whoever errs concerning them shall never be wise.

² ¶ The fear of the king is as the roaring of a lion; whoever provokes him to anger sins against his own soul.

³ ¶ It is an honour for a man to cease from strife, but every fool will be meddling.

⁴ ¶ The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore he shall beg in harvest and have nothing.

⁵ ¶ Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of intelligence will draw it out.

⁶ ¶ Most men will proclaim each one his own mercy, but who can find a man of truth?

⁷ ¶ The just man who walks in his integrity, blessed shall be his sons after him.

⁸ ¶ A king that sits in the throne of judgment scatters away all evil with his eyes.

⁹ ¶ Who shall be able to say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?

¹⁰ ¶ Double weights and double measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.

¹¹ ¶ Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work is pure and whether it is right.

¹² ¶ The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the LORD has made both of them.

¹³ ¶ Do not love sleep lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.

¹⁴ ¶ It is bad, it is bad, the buyer says; but when he is gone his way, then he boasts.

¹⁵ ¶ There is gold and a multitude of precious stones, but the lips of wisdom are a precious vessel.

¹⁶ ¶ Take his garment that is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him that is surety for a strange woman.

¹⁷ ¶ Bread of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.

¹⁸ ¶ Every thought must be ordered by counsel, and with intelligence war is made.

¹⁹ ¶ He that goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets; therefore meddle not with him that flatters with his lips.

²⁰ ¶ Whosoever curses his father or his mother, his fire shall be put out in obscure darkness.

²¹ ¶ An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed.

²² ¶ Say not thou, I will take vengeance, but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee.

²³ ¶ Double weights are an abomination unto the LORD, and a false balance is not good.

²⁴ ¶ Man’s steps are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

²⁵ ¶ It is a snare unto man to devour that which is holy and afterward to reconsider his vows.

²⁶ ¶ A wise king scatters the wicked and brings the wheel over them.

²⁷ ¶ The spirit of man is the fire of the LORD, which searches the secrets of the inward parts.

²⁸ ¶ Mercy and truth preserve the king, and his throne is upheld by mercy.

²⁹ ¶ The glory of young men is their strength, and the beauty of old men is the gray head.

³⁰ ¶ The scars of past wounds are medicine for evil, and living reproof reaches the most secret places in the inward parts.