Proverbs 20

1 Wine makes a mocker, and beer a reveler, and whoever errs concerning them shall never be wise.
2 The fear of the king is as the roaring of a lion; whoever provokes him to anger sins against his own soul.
3 It is an honour for a man to cease from strife, but every fool will be meddling.
4 The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore he shall beg in harvest and have nothing.
5 Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of intelligence will draw it out.
6 Most men will proclaim each one his own mercy, but who can find a man of truth?
7 The just man who walks in his integrity, blessed shall be his sons after him.
8 A king that sits in the throne of judgment scatters away all evil with his eyes.
9 Who shall be able to say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?
10 Double weights and double measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.
11 Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work is pure and whether it is right.
12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the LORD has made both of them.
13 Do not love sleep lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.
14 It is bad, it is bad, the buyer says; but when he is gone his way, then he boasts.
15 There is gold and a multitude of precious stones, but the lips of wisdom are a precious vessel.
16 Take his garment that is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him that is surety for a strange woman.
17 Bread of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.
18 Every thought must be ordered by counsel, and with intelligence war is made.
19 He that goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets; therefore meddle not with him that flatters with his lips.
20 Whosoever curses his father or his mother, his fire shall be put out in obscure darkness.
21 An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed.
22 Say not thou, I will take vengeance, but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee.
23 Double weights are an abomination unto the LORD, and a false balance is not good.
24 Man’s steps are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?
25 It is a snare unto man to devour that which is holy and afterward to reconsider his vows.
26 A wise king scatters the wicked and brings the wheel over them.
27 The spirit of man is the fire of the LORD, which searches the secrets of the inward parts.
28 Mercy and truth preserve the king, and his throne is upheld by mercy.
29 The glory of young men is their strength, and the beauty of old men is the gray head.
30 The scars of past wounds are medicine for evil, and living reproof reaches the most secret places in the inward parts.

Proverbs 20 Commentaries

The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010