Proverbs 24  Common English Bible

24 Don’t envy evil people,
    and don’t long to be with them.
² Their hearts are focused on violence,
    and their lips speak of trouble.

³ By wisdom a house is built;
    by understanding it is established.
⁴ By knowledge rooms are filled
    with all precious and pleasant wealth.
⁵ A wise person is mightier than a strong one;^[a]
    a knowledgeable person than a powerful one.
⁶ You should make war with guidance;
    victory comes with many counselors.

⁷ Wisdom is beyond foolish people.
    They don’t open their mouths in the gate.
⁸ Those who plot evil
    will be called master schemers.
⁹ The scheming of fools is sin;
    people detest mockers.

¹⁰ If you show yourself weak on a day of distress,
    your strength is too small.
¹¹ Rescue those being taken off to death;
    and from those staggering to the slaughter, don’t hold back.
¹² If you say, “Look, we didn’t know about it,”
    the one who weighs hearts—doesn’t he understand?
    The one who protects your life—he knows.
    He makes people pay for their actions.

¹³ My child, eat honey, for it is good.
    The honeycomb is sweet in your mouth.
¹⁴ Know that wisdom is like that for your whole being.
    If you find it, there is a future.
    Your hope won’t be cut off.

¹⁵ Wicked one, don’t wait secretly at the home of the righteous.
    Don’t destroy their dwelling.
¹⁶ The righteous may fall seven times but still get up,
    but the wicked will stumble into trouble.

¹⁷ When your enemies fall, don’t rejoice.
    When they stumble, don’t let your heart be glad,
¹⁸ or the Lord will see it and be displeased,
    and he will turn his anger from them.
¹⁹ Don’t get fighting mad at evil people;
    don’t be envious of the wicked.
²⁰ Indeed, there is no future for the evil;
    the lamp of the wicked will be put out.

²¹ Fear the Lord, my child, as well as the king.
    Don’t associate with those who are rebellious.
²² Disaster comes suddenly from them.
    Who can know the ruin that both can bring?

Partiality in judgment isn’t good.

²⁴ Those who say to the guilty, “You are innocent”—
    the people will curse them.
    Nations will condemn them.
²⁵ But it will go well for those who rebuke them.
    A rich blessing will come to them.
²⁶ Those who speak honestly
    are like those who kiss on the lips.

²⁷ Get your outside work done;
    make preparations in the field;
    then you can build your house.

²⁸ Don’t be a witness against your neighbor without reason;
    don’t deceive with your lips.
²⁹ Don’t say, “I’ll do to them what they did to me.
    I’ll pay them back for their actions.”

³⁰ I happened upon the field of a lazy person,
    by the vineyard of one with no sense.
³¹ Thorns grew all over it;
    weeds covered the ground,
    and the stone wall was falling down.
³² I observed this and took it to heart;
    I saw it and learned a lesson.
³³ “A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little lying down with folded arms”—
³⁴     and poverty will come on you like a prowler,
    deprivation like a man with a shield.