Proverbs 24:19-29

19 Don't bother your head with braggarts or wish you could succeed like the wicked.

20 Those people have no future at all; they're headed down a dead-end street.

21 Fear God, dear child - respect your leaders; don't be defiant or mutinous.

22 Without warning your life can turn upside-down, and who knows how or when it might happen?

23 It's wrong, very wrong, to go along with injustice.

24 Whoever whitewashes the wicked gets a black mark in the history books,

25 But whoever exposes the wicked will be thanked and rewarded.

26 An honest answer is like a warm hug.

27 First plant your fields; then build your barn.

28 Don't talk about your neighbors behind their backs - no slander or gossip, please.

29 Don't say to anyone, "I'll get back at you for what you did to me. I'll make you pay for what you did!"

Proverbs 24:19-29 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 12

This chapter relates Rehoboam's going to Shechem to be made king, and Jeroboam's return from Egypt, 1Ki 12:1,2, the people's request to Rehoboam to be eased of their taxes, as the condition of making him king, 1Ki 12:3,4, his answer to them, after three days, having had the advice both of the old and young men, which latter he followed, and gave in a rough answer, 1Ki 12:5-15, upon which ten tribes revolted from him, and two abode by him, 1Ki 12:16-20, wherefore he meditated a war against the ten tribes, but was forbid by the Lord to engage in it, 1Ki 12:21-24 and Jeroboam, in order to establish his kingdom, and preserve the people from a revolt to the house of David, because of the temple worship at Jerusalem, devised a scheme of idolatrous worship in his own territories, 1Ki 12:25-33.