Old/New Testament

22 Better is a good name, than many riches; for good grace is above silver and gold (for a good reputation is more valuable than silver and gold).

² A rich man and a poor man met themselves; the Lord is [the] worker of ever either. (A rich person and a poor person met together; the Lord is the Maker of both of them.)

³ A fell man seeth evil, and hideth himself; and an innocent man passed, and he was tormented by harm. (A clever person seeth evil coming, and hideth himself; but a gullible person passed forth, or kept going, and so he was tormented by harm.)

⁴ The end of temperance is the dread of the Lord; riches, and glory, and life. (The fruit of humility is the fear of the Lord/is reverence for the Lord; along with riches, and glory, and life.)

⁵ Armours and swords be in the way of a wayward man; but the keeper of his soul goeth away far from those. (Arms, or weapons, and swords be on the way of the wayward; but he who keepeth his life safe goeth far away from them.)

⁶ It is a proverb, A young waxing man after his way, and when he hath waxed eld, he shall not go away from it. (Here is a proverb: If a young person is brought up in the right way, when he hath grown older, he shall not go away from it.)

⁷ A rich man commandeth to poor men; and he that taketh borrowing, is servant of the lender.

⁸ He that soweth wickedness shall reap evils; and the rod of his ire shall be ended.

⁹ He that is ready to (give) mercy shall be blessed; for (out) of his loaves he gave (some) to a poor man.

¹⁰ Cast thou out a scorner, and strife shall go out with him; and causes and despisings shall cease.

¹¹ He that loveth the cleanness of heart, shall have the king (for) a friend, for the grace of his lips (for the eloquence of his words).

¹² The eyes of the Lord keep knowing; and the words of a wicked man be deceived. (The eyes of the Lord keep knowledge safe; but the words of the wicked be deceitful.)

¹³ A slow man shall say (A lazy person shall say), A lion is withoutforth; I shall be slain in the midst of the streets.

¹⁴ The mouth of an alien woman is a deep ditch; he to whom the Lord is wroth shall fall into it. (The mouth of a woman whom thou hast been intimate with, but who is not thy wife, is a deep ditch; he to whom the Lord is angry with, shall fall into it.)

¹⁵ Folly is bound together in the heart of a child; and a rod of chastising shall drive it away. (Foolishness is bound up in a child’s heart, but the rod of discipline shall drive it away.)

¹⁶ He that falsely challengeth a poor man, to increase his own riches (He who oppresseth the poor, to increase his own riches), shall give to a richer man, and he shall be needy.

¹⁷ My son, bow down thine ear, and hear thou the words of wise men; but set thou the heart to my teaching. (My son, bow down thy ear, and listen thou to the words of the wise; yea, set thou thy heart unto my teaching, or my instruction.)

¹⁸ That shall be fair to thee, when thou hast kept it in thine heart, and it shall flow again in thy lips. (It shall please thee when thou hast kept it in thy heart, and it shall flow freely from thy lips.)

¹⁹ That thy trust be in the Lord; wherefore and I have showed it to thee today. (So that thy trust be in the Lord; and so I have showed it to thee today.)

²⁰ Lo! I have described it in three manners^[a]1, in thoughts and knowing,

²¹ (so) that I should show to thee the firmness and speeches of truth; to answer (out) of these things to them that sent (unto) thee.

²² Do thou not violence to a poor man, for he is poor; neither defoul thou a needy man in the gate. (Do not thou do violence to a poor person, because he is poor; and do not take advantage of a needy person in court/at the city gates.)

²³ For the Lord shall deem his cause, and he shall torment them that tormented his soul. (For the Lord shall judge his case, and he shall torment those who tormented him.)

²⁴ Do not thou be (a) friend to a wrathful man, neither go thou with a wrathful man;

²⁵ lest peradventure thou learn his ways, and take cause of stumbling to thy soul. (lest perhaps thou learn his ways, and bring a cause of stumbling unto thy soul.)

²⁶ Do not thou be with them that fasten, or bind, their hands, and that proffer themselves to be borrows for debts; (Do not thou be with those who bind their hands, and who offer themselves as pledges for other people’s debts;)

²⁷ for if he hath not whereof he shall restore, what of cause is, that thou (should) take away (the) covering from (off) thy bed? (for if thou hath not whereof to pay, then they shall even take away thy bed from under thee.)

²⁸ Go thou not over the eld marks, (or the boundary stones,) which thy fathers have set.

²⁹ Thou hast seen a man smart in his work; he shall stand before kings, and he shall not be before unnoble men.

23 When thou sittest to eat with the prince, perceive thou diligently what things be set before thy face,

² and set thou a coulter in thy throat. If nevertheless thou hast power on thy soul, (and set thou a knife at thy own throat, if thou hast not power over thy self.)

³ desire thou not of his meats, in whom is the bread of lying. (Do not thou desire any of his food, for he is not what he seemeth to be/for this is not what it seemeth to be.)

⁴ Do not thou travail to be made rich, but set thou measure to thy prudence. (Do not thou labour to be made rich, but set thou a limit to what thou can achieve.)

⁵ Raise not thine eyes to riches, which thou mayest not have; for those shall make to themselves pens, as of an eagle, and they shall fly into heaven. (Raise not up thine eyes to riches, which thou cannot hold onto; for they shall make wings for themselves, like an eagle, and they shall fly away into the heavens.)

⁶ Eat thou not with an envious man, and desire thou not his meats; (Do not thou eat with the envious, and do not thou desire his food;)

⁷ for at the likeness of a false diviner, and of a conjecturer, that is, (an) expounder of dreams, he guesseth that, that he knoweth not. He shall say to thee, Eat thou and drink; and his soul is not with thee (but his heart is not for thee/but his heart is not with thee).

⁸ Thou shalt spew out the meat, which thou hast eaten; and thou shalt lose thy fair words (and thy flattery shall have been wasted).

⁹ Speak thou not in the ears of unwise men (Speak thou not in the ears of the unwise); for they shall despise the teaching of thy speech.

¹⁰ Touch thou not the terms, (or the boundary stones, of the property) of little children; and enter thou not into the field of fatherless and motherless children.

¹¹ For the neighbour of them is strong, and he shall deem their cause against thee. (For their Friend is strong, and he shall judge their case against thee.)

¹² Thine heart enter to teaching, and thine ears to the words of knowing. (Let thy heart draw close to instruction, and thy ears to words of knowledge.)

¹³ Do not thou withdraw chastising, (or discipline,) from a child; for though thou smitest him with a rod, he shall not die.

¹⁴ Thou shalt smite him with a rod, and thou shalt deliver his soul from hell. (Thou shalt strike him with a rod, and so thou shalt rescue his soul from Sheol, or from the land of the dead/from hell itself.)

¹⁵ My son, if thy soul is wise, mine heart shall have joy with thee; (My son, if thou be wise, my heart shall have joy over thee;)

¹⁶ and my reins shall make full out joy, when thy lips speak rightful thing(s).

¹⁷ (Let) Thine heart follow not sinners; but be thou in the dread of the Lord all day (but be thou in the fear of the Lord/with reverence for the Lord all day long).

¹⁸ For thou shalt have hope at the last, and thine abiding shall not be done away.

¹⁹ My son, hear thou, and be wise, and (ad)dress thy soul in the way (and direct thy soul to the right way).

²⁰ Do not thou be in the feasts of drinkers, neither in the oft eatings of them, that bring together fleshes to eat. (Do not thou be at the feasts of drinkers, nor at the oft eatings of those who bring much meat to eat.)

²¹ For men giving attention to drinks, and giving morsels together, shall be wasted, and napping shall be clothed with clothes rent. (For those giving attention to drinks, and giving morsels to each other, shall be wasted, or destroyed, and their napping shall eventually clothe them with torn clothes.)

²² Hear thy father, that begat thee (Listen to thy father, who begat thee); and despise not thy mother, when she is eld.

²³ Buy thou truth, and do not thou sell (off) wisdom, and doctrine, and understanding.

²⁴ The father of a just man joyeth full out with joy; he that begat a wise man, shall be glad in him. (The father of a righteous person rejoiceth with great joy; he who begat someone who is wise, shall take much pleasure, or pride, in him.)

²⁵ Thy father and thy mother have joy, and he that begat thee, make full out joy. (So let thy father and thy mother have joy over thee, and let she who bare thee, rejoice.)

²⁶ My son, give thine heart to me, and thine eyes keep my ways.

²⁷ For a whore is a deep ditch, and an alien woman, is a strait pit. (For a whore is a deep ditch, and a woman whom thou hath been intimate with, but who is not thy wife, is a narrow pit.)

²⁸ She setteth ambush in the way, as a thief (She setteth ambush on the way, like a thief); and shall add despisers in men, that is, (she) shall multiply (the) despisers of God among men.

²⁹ To whom is woe? to whose father is woe? to whom be chidings? (to whom be arguments?) to whom be ditches? to whom be wounds without cause? to whom is putting out of eyes?

³⁰ Whether not to them, that dwell in wine, and study to drink [up] all of (the) cups? (Whether not to those, who live in wine, and endeavour to drink up every last drop from the cup?)

³¹ Behold thou not [the] wine (Look thou not upon the wine), when it sparkleth, when the colour thereof shineth in a glass cup. It entereth sweetly,

³² but at the last it shall bite as an adder, and as a cockatrice it shall shed abroad venoms. (but in the end, it shall bite like a serpent, and it shall sting, with its venom, like a cockatrice.)

³³ Thine eyes shall see strange, (or unknown,) women, and thy heart shall speak wayward things.

³⁴ And thou shalt be as a man sleeping in the midst of the sea, and as a governor asleeped, when the steer(ing), either the instrument of governance, is lost.

³⁵ And thou shalt say, They beat me, but I had not sorrow; they drew me, and I feeled not; when shall I wake out, and I shall find wines again? (when shall I wake up, and I can drink more wine again?)

24 Follow thou not evil men (Do not thou follow evil people), desire thou not to be with them.

² For the soul of them bethinketh (on) ravens, and their lips speak frauds. (For their minds think about robberies, and their lips speak lies.)

³ An house shall be builded by wisdom, and it shall be made strong by prudence, (or by understanding).

⁴ [The] Cellars shall be filled in teaching, with all riches precious and full fair. (By knowledge and study, the cellars shall be filled with all precious and beautiful things of riches.)

⁵ A wise man is strong, and a learned man is stalworthy and mighty.

⁶ For why battle is begun with ordinance; and health shall be, where many counsels be. (For battle is begun with forethought; and victory shall be, where there be many plans, or much good advice.)

⁷ Wisdom is high to a fool; in the gate he shall not open his mouth. (Wisdom is too high for a fool to reach; in court/at the city gates, he shall not even dare to open his mouth.)

⁸ He that thinketh to do evils, shall be called a fool.

⁹ The thought of a fool is (a) sin; and a backbiter is abomination of men (and a backbiter is an abomination to everyone).

¹⁰ If thou hast slid, despairest (thou) in the day of anguish, (for) thy strength shall be made less.

¹¹ Deliver thou them, that be led to death (Rescue thou them, who be led to death); and cease thou not to deliver them, that be drawn to death.

¹² If thou sayest, Strongholds suffice not; he that is [the] beholder of the heart, understandeth, and nothing deceiveth the keeper of thy soul, and he shall yield to a man after his works.

¹³ My son, eat thou honey, for it is good; and the honeycomb for it is full sweet to thy throat.

¹⁴ So and the teaching of wisdom is good to thy soul; and when thou hast found it, thou shalt have hope in the last things, and thine hope shall not perish. (And so the teaching of wisdom is good for thy soul; and when thou hast found it, thou shalt have hope unto the end, and thy hope shall never perish.)

¹⁵ Ambush thou not, and seek not (to bring) wickedness in the house of a just man, neither waste thou, his rest(ing) (place). (Do not thou ambush, and do not seek to bring wickedness into the house of a righteous person, nor destroy thou his resting place.)

¹⁶ For a just man shall fall seven times in the day, and shall rise again; but wicked men shall fall into evil. (For a righteous person shall fall seven times in a day, and shall rise up again each time; but the wicked shall fall into evil, and shall never get out of it.)

¹⁷ When thine enemy falleth, have thou not joy; and thine heart have not full out joying in his falling;

¹⁸ lest peradventure the Lord see, and it displease him, and he take away his ire from him.

¹⁹ Strive thou not with the worst men, neither follow thou wicked men. (Argue thou not with the wicked, nor follow thou the wicked.)

²⁰ For why evil men have not hope of things to come, and the lantern of wicked men shall be quenched. (For evil people have no hope in things to come, and the lantern of the wicked shall be quenched.)

²¹ My son, dread thou God, and the king; and be thou not meddled with backbiters. (My son, fear thou God/have thou reverence for God, and the king; and be thou not mixed in, or mingled, with backbiters.)

²² For their perdition shall rise together suddenly (For their perdition shall suddenly rise up, or shall happen), and who knoweth the fall of ever either?

²³ Also these things that follow be to wise men. It is not good to know a person in doom. (And these things that follow also be for the wise. It is not good to know a person whom thou is judging.)

²⁴ Peoples shall curse them that say to a wicked man, Thou art just; and lineages shall hold them abominable. (The peoples, or the nations, shall curse those who say to a wicked person, Thou art righteous; and the tribes, or all the people, shall hold them as abominable.)

²⁵ They that reprove justly sinners, shall be praised (They who justly rebuke sinners, shall be praised); and blessing shall come [up]on them.

²⁶ He that answereth (with) rightful words, shall kiss lips. (Lips shall kiss him, who answereth with upright words.)

²⁷ Make ready thy work withoutforth, and work thy field diligently, that thou build thine house afterward. (Do all thy work outside, and work thy field diligently, and then afterward, thou shalt build thy house.)

²⁸ Be thou not a witness without reasonable cause against thy neighbour; neither flatter thou any man with thy lips.

²⁹ Say thou not, As he did to me, so I shall do to him, and I shall yield to each man after his work.

³⁰ I passed by the field of a slow man, and by the vinery of a fond man; (I passed by a lazy man’s field, and by a foolish person’s vineyard;)

³¹ and lo! nettles had filled all, thorns had covered the higher part thereof, and the wall of stones without mortar was destroyed.

³² And when I had seen this thing, I setted (it) in mine heart, and by ensample, I learned (the) teaching. (And when I had seen this, I put it in my heart, and by example, I learned the lesson.)

³³ How long sleepest thou, slow man? when shalt thou rise from sleep? Soothly thou shalt sleep a little, thou shalt nap a little, thou shalt join together the hands a little, to take rest; (How long sleepest thou, O lazy man? when shalt thou rise from sleep? Truly thou shalt sleep a little, thou shalt nap a little, and then thou shalt join together thy hands a little, and take rest again;)

³⁴ and then thy neediness as a courier shall come to thee, and thy beggary as an armed man.

8 But, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God, that is given in the churches of Macedonia,

² that in much assaying of tribulation, the plenty of the joy of them was [the abundance, or plenty, of the joy of them was], and the highest poverty of them was plenteous into the riches of the simpleness of them.

³ For I bear witnessing to them, after might and above might they were willful [after virtue, or power, and above virtue they were willful],

⁴ with much admonishing beseeching us the grace and the communing of [the] ministering, that is made to holy men.

⁵ And not as we hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord, afterward to us by the will of God.

⁶ So that we prayed Titus, that as he began, so also he perform in you this grace.

⁷ But as ye abound in all things, in faith, and word, and knowing [and science, or knowing], and all busyness, moreover and in your charity into us, that also in this grace ye abound.

⁸ I say not as commanding, but by the busyness of other men proving also the good wit of your charity.

⁹ And ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, for he was made needy for you, when he was rich, that ye should be made rich by his neediness [that ye should be made rich by his mis-ease, or neediness].

¹⁰ And I give counsel in this thing; for this is profitable to you, that not only have begun to do, but also ye began to have will from the former year [but and to desire from the former year].

¹¹ But now [Now forsooth] perform ye in deed, that as the discretion of will is ready [to desire good], so be it also of performing of that that ye have.

¹² For if the will be ready, it is accepted after that that it hath, not after that that it hath not.

¹³ And not that it be remission to other men^[a], and to you tribulation;

¹⁴ but of evenness in the present time your abundance fulfill the need of them, that also the abundance of them be a fulfilling of your need, that evenness be made; [but of evenness, in this present time your abundance fulfill the mis-ease of them, that and the abundance of them be supplement, or fulfilling, of your mis-ease, or need, that evenness be made;]

¹⁵ as it is written, He that [hath] gathered much, was not increased, and he that [had] gathered little, had not less.

¹⁶ And I do thankings to God, that gave the same busyness for you in the heart of Titus,

¹⁷ for [soothly] he received exhortation; but when he was busier, by his will he went forth to you [with his will he went forth to you].

¹⁸ And we sent with him a brother, whose praising is in the gospel by all churches.

¹⁹ And not only [praised], but also he is ordained of churches the fellow of our pilgrimage into this grace, that is ministered of us to the glory of the Lord, and to our ordained will;

²⁰ eschewing this thing, that no man blame us in this plenty, that is ministered of us to the glory of the Lord.

²¹ For we purvey good things, not only before God, but also before all men.

²² For we sent with them also our brother, whom we have proved in many things oft, that he was busy, but now much busier, for much trust in you, [Forsooth we sent with them and our brother, whom we have proved in many things oft, to be busy, now forsooth much busier, in much trust in you,]

²³ either for Titus, that is my fellow and helper in you, either for our brethren [either our brethren], apostles of the churches of the glory of Christ.

²⁴ Therefore show ye to them in the face of churches, that showing that is of your charity [the showing that is of your charity] and of our glory for you.