Proverbs 21:8-25

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.

¹⁷The lover of pleasure will be a poor man: the lover of wine and oil will not get wealth.

¹⁸The evil-doer will be given as a price for the life of the good man, and the worker of deceit in the place of the upright.

¹⁹It is better to be living in a waste land, than with a bitter-tongued and angry woman.

²⁰There is a store of great value in the house of the wise, but it is wasted by the foolish man.

²¹He who goes after righteousness and mercy will get life, righteousness, and honour.

²²A wise man goes up into the town of the strong ones, and overcomes its strength in which they put their faith.

²³He who keeps watch over his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles.

²⁴The man of pride, lifted up in soul, is named high-hearted; he is acting in an outburst of pride.

²⁵The desire of the hater of work is death to him, for his hands will do no work.