Proverbs 21:1-16

¹The king's heart in the hands of the Lord is like the water streams, and by him it is turned in any direction at his pleasure.

²Every way of a man seems right to himself, but the Lord is the tester of hearts.

³To do what is right and true is more pleasing to the Lord than an offering.

⁴A high look and a heart of pride, ***of the evil-doer is sin.

⁵The purposes of the man of industry have their outcome only in wealth; but one who is over-quick in acting will only come to be in need.

⁶He who gets stores of wealth by a false tongue, is going after what is only breath, and searching for death.

⁷By their violent acts the evil-doers will be pulled away, because they have no desire to do what is right.

⁸Twisted is the way of him who is full of crime; but as for him whose heart is clean, his work is upright.

⁹It is better to be living in an angle of the house-top, than with a bitter-tongued woman in a wide house.

¹⁰The desire of the evil-doer is fixed on evil: he has no kind feeling for his neighbour.

¹¹When the man of pride undergoes punishment, the simple man gets wisdom; and by watching the wise he gets knowledge.

¹²The Upright One, looking on the house of the evil-doer, lets sinners be overturned to their destruction.

¹³He whose ears are stopped at the cry of the poor, will himself get no answer to his cry for help.

¹⁴By a secret offering wrath is turned away, and the heat of angry feelings by money in the folds of the robe.

¹⁵It is a joy to the good man to do right, but it is destruction to the workers of evil.

¹⁶The wanderer from the way of knowledge will have his resting-place among the shades.