잠언 24

¹Do not be envious of evil people \q or wish you could be with them, ²because their minds are set on violence \q and their talk is all about causing harm. ³A house is built through wisdom \q and made secure through understanding; ⁴by knowledge its rooms are filled \q with every kind of rich and lovely treasure. ⁵Wise people have great power, \q and those with knowledge grow ever stronger.^{a 6}You should wage war with careful guidance; \q victory comes from having many advisers. ⁷Wisdom is out of a fool’s reach; \q at the city gate, where matters are decided, \q the fool has nothing to say. ⁸Whoever plots to do evil \q will be known as a schemer. ⁹Foolish scheming is sin, \q and people detest a mocker. ¹⁰If you give up when times are hard, \q how little strength you have! ¹¹Rescue those being dragged off to death; \q hold back those who are stumbling toward slaughter.^{b 12}If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” \q does not the one who weighs hearts see the truth? \q The one who watches over your life knows it well, \q and he will repay each person for what they have done. ¹³My son, eat honey, because it is good; \q honey from the comb tastes sweet. ¹⁴Know that wisdom is like that for your soul: \q find it, and you will have a future, \q and your hope will not fail.

¹⁵Do not lie in ambush like a criminal at the home of a righteous person; \q do not raid the place where they live. ¹⁶For the righteous may fall seven times and still get up again, \q but the wicked are brought down by calamity. ¹⁷When your enemy falls, do not celebrate; \q when they trip up, do not let your heart be glad, ¹⁸or the LORD will see it and be displeased, \q and turn his anger away from them. ¹⁹Do not get upset about those who do evil \q or be envious of the wicked, ²⁰for evil people have no future; \q the lamp of the wicked will go out. ²¹Fear the LORD and the king, my son, \q and have nothing to do with those who want to overturn things,^{c 22}for disaster will strike them without warning, \q and who can tell what ruin the LORD and the king can bring?

More sayings of the wise

²³These also are sayings of the wise: \q It is not right to show favoritism in a court case. ²⁴Whoever tells the guilty, “You are innocent,” will be cursed by peoples \q and condemned by nations. ²⁵But those who convict the guilty will be well thought of, \q and a rich blessing will come on them. ²⁶To give a straight answer \q is to kiss the lips. ²⁷Get your work outside in order and your fields ready first; \q after that, build your house.

²⁸Do not testify against your neighbor without good reason, \q or use your lips to mislead. ²⁹Do not say, “I will treat them the way they treated me; \q I will pay them back for what they did.” ³⁰I walked past the field of someone lazy, \q past the vineyard of someone with no sense, ³¹and I saw thorns had sprung up everywhere, \q weeds had covered the ground, \q and its stone wall lay in ruins. ³²I looked at it and thought it over; \q I saw it and learned a lesson: ³³a bit more sleep, a bit more dozing, \q a bit more lying with arms folded, ³⁴and poverty will be on you like a drifter on the road, \q and need like a man with a shield.