Proverbs 22

1✦A GOOD name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.

2✦The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all.

3✦A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.

4✦By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life.

5✦Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward: he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them.

6✦Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

7✦The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

8✦He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.

9✦He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor.

10✦Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease.

11✦He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend.

12✦The eyes of the LORD preserve knowledge, and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor.

13✦The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.

14✦The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.

15✦Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

16✦He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.

17✦Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge.

18✦For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy lips.

19✦That thy trust may be in the LORD, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee.

20✦Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge,

21✦That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?

22✦Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:

23✦For the LORD will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.

24✦Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:

25✦Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.

26✦Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts.

27✦If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?

28✦Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.

29✦Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.