Proverbs 21:6-16

6 Make it to the top by lying and cheating; get paid with smoke and a promotion - to death!

7 The wicked get buried alive by their loot because they refuse to use it to help others.

8 Mixed motives twist life into tangles; pure motives take you straight down the road. Do Your Best, Prepare for the Worst

9 Better to live alone in a tumbledown shack than share a mansion with a nagging spouse.

10 Wicked souls love to make trouble; they feel nothing for friends and neighbors.

11 Simpletons only learn the hard way, but the wise learn by listening.

12 A God-loyal person will see right through the wicked and undo the evil they've planned.

13 If you stop your ears to the cries of the poor, your cries will go unheard, unanswered.

14 A quietly given gift soothes an irritable person; a heartfelt present cools a hot temper.

15 Good people celebrate when justice triumphs, but for the workers of evil it's a bad day.

16 Whoever wanders off the straight and narrow ends up in a congregation of ghosts.

Proverbs 21:6-16 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 9

This chapter relates a second vision Solomon had at Gibeon, in which he received an answer to his prayer in the preceding chapter, 1Ki 9:1-9 that passed between him and Hiram king of Tyre, 1Ki 9:10-14, the places that Solomon built or repaired, 1Ki 9:15-19, the Canaanitish people that became bondmen to him, and the officers he had among the children of Israel, 1Ki 9:20-23 the removal of Pharaoh's daughter to the house built for her, 1Ki 9:24. Solomon's attention to religious services, 1Ki 9:25 and the navy of ships he employed, which brought him in great riches, 1Ki 9:26-28.