Old Testament · Proverbs

Proverbs 20

Wine Is a Mocker

1Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and everyone who staggers in it is not wise.
2A growl like a young lion is the dread of a king; one who provokes him sins against his own soul^a.
3An honor to a man^b is to cease from strife, but every fool breaks out.
4From winter the sluggard does not plow; so he begs in harvest, and there is nothing.
5Counsel in the heart of a man is deep waters, but a man of understanding draws it out.
6Most men^c proclaim each his own kindness, but a man of faithfulness, who can find?
7One walking in his integrity, a righteous one — happy are his children after him.
8A king sitting on the throne of judgment^d scatters with his eyes all evil.
9Who can say, "I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin"?
10A stone and a stone, an ephah and an ephah — an abomination of the LORD are both of them alike.
11Even by his deeds a youth makes himself known, whether his work is pure and whether it is upright.
12A hearing ear and a seeing eye — the LORD has made even both of them.
13Do not love sleep, lest you be dispossessed; open your eyes, be satisfied with bread.
14"Bad, bad," says the buyer; but going his way, then he boasts.
15There is gold and an abundance of corals, but a precious vessel are the lips of knowledge.
16Take his garment, for he has gone surety for a stranger; and for a foreign woman take him in pledge.
17Sweet to a man is bread of falsehood, but afterward his mouth is filled with gravel.
18Plans by counsel are established; and with wise guidance make war.
19One who reveals a secret goes about as a slanderer; so with one who opens wide his lips do not associate.
20One who curses his father and his mother, his lamp will be extinguished in deep darkness.
21An inheritance gotten hastily at the first, its end will not be blessed.
22Do not say, "I will repay evil"; wait for the LORD, and He will save you.
23An abomination of the LORD are a stone and a stone, and scales of deceit are not good.
24From the LORD are the steps of a man; and a man, how can he understand his way?
25A snare to a man is to rashly utter "Holy," and after vows to make inquiry.
26A wise king scatters the wicked, and brings back over them a wheel.
27The lamp of the LORD is the breath^e of a man, searching all the chambers of the belly.
28Kindness and truth preserve a king, and by kindness he upholds his throne.
29The glory of young men is their strength, and the splendor of old men is gray hair.
30Wounding stripes scour away evil, and blows reach the chambers of the belly.