22:1
Fame is preferable to great wealth, favour, to silver and gold.
22:2
Rich and poor rub shoulders, Yahweh has made them both.
22:3
The discreet sees danger and takes shelter, simpletons go ahead and pay the penalty.
22:4
The reward of humility is the fear of Yahweh, and riches, honour and life.
22:5
Thorns and snares line the path of the wilful, whoever values life will stay at a distance.
22:6
Give a lad a training suitable to his character and, even when old, he will not go back on it.
22:7
The rich lords it over the poor, the borrower is the lender's slave.
22:8
Whoever sows injustice reaps disaster, and the rod of such anger will disappear.
22:9
A kindly eye will earn a blessing, such a person shares out food with the poor.
22:10
Expel the mocker and strife goes too, law-suits and dislike die down.
22:11
Whoever loves the pure of heart and is gracious of speech has the king for a friend.
22:12
Yahweh's eyes protect knowledge, but he confounds deceitful speeches.
22:13
'There is a lion outside,' says the idler, 'I shall be killed in the street!'
22:14
The mouth of an adulterous woman is a deep pit, into it falls the man whom Yahweh rebukes.
22:15
Folly is anchored in the heart of a youth, the whip of instruction will rid him of it.
22:16
Harsh treatment enriches the poor, but a gift impoverishes the rich.
22:17
Give ear, listen to the sayings of the sages, and apply your heart to what I know,
22:18
for it will be a delight to keep them deep within you to have them all ready on your lips.
22:19
So that your trust may be in Yahweh, it is you whom I wish to instruct today.
22:20
Have I not written for you thirty chapters of advice and knowledge,
22:21
to make you know the certainty of true sayings, so that you can return with sound answers to those who sent you?
22:22
Do not despoil the weak, for he is weak, and do not oppress the poor at the gate,
22:23
for Yahweh takes up their cause, and extorts the life of their extortioners.
22:24
Do not make friends with one who gives way to anger, make no one quick-tempered a companion of yours,
22:25
for fear you learn such behaviour and in it find a snare for yourself.
22:26
Do not be one of those who go guarantor, who go surety for debts:
22:27
if you have no means of paying your bed will be taken from under you.
22:28
Do not displace the ancient boundary-stone set by your ancestors.
22:29
You see someone alert at his business? His aim will be to serve kings; not for him the service of the obscure.
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