✧A good name is more desirable than great riches; favor is better than silver and gold. ✧2The rich and the poor have this in common: The LORD is Maker of them all. ✧3The prudent see danger and take cover, but the simple keep going and suffer the consequences. ✧4The rewards of humility and the fear of the LORD are wealth and honor and life. ✧5Thorns and snares lie on the path of the perverse; he who guards his soul stays far from them. ✧6Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. ✧7The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender. ✧8He who sows injustice will reap disaster, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed. ✧9A generous man will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor. ✧10Drive out the mocker, and conflict will depart; even quarreling and insults will cease. ✧11He who loves a pure heart and gracious lips will have the king for a friend. ✧12The LORD’s eyes keep watch over knowledge, but He frustrates the words of the faithless. ✧13The slacker says, “There is a lion outside! I will be slain in the streets!” ✧14The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the LORD will fall into it. ✧15Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. ✧16Oppressing the poor to enrich oneself or giving gifts to the rich will surely lead to poverty. ✧17Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise— apply your mind to my knowledge— ✧18for it is pleasing when you keep them within you and they are constantly on your lips. ✧19So that your trust may be in the LORD, I instruct you today—yes, you. ✧20Have I not written for you thirty sayings about counsel and knowledge, ✧21to show you true and reliable words, that you may soundly answer those who sent you? ✧22Do not rob a poor man because he is poor, and do not crush the afflicted at the gate, ✧23for the LORD will take up their case and will plunder those who rob them. ✧24Do not make friends with an angry man, and do not associate with a hot-tempered man, ✧25or you may learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare. ✧26Do not be one who gives pledges, who puts up security for debts. ✧27If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you? ✧28Do not move an ancient boundary stone which your fathers have placed. ✧29Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will be stationed in the presence of kings; he will not stand before obscure men.