Proverbs 22:12-28

¹²The eyes of the Lord keep knowing; and the words of a wicked man be deceived. (The eyes of the Lord keep knowledge safe; but the words of the wicked be deceitful.)

¹³A slow man shall say (or A lazy person shall say), A lion is withoutforth; I shall be slain in the midst of the streets.

¹⁴The mouth of an alien woman is a deep ditch; he to whom the Lord is wroth shall fall into it. (The mouth of a woman with whom thou hast been intimate, but who is not thy wife, is a deep ditch; he to whom the Lord is angry with, shall fall into it.)

¹⁵Folly is bound together in the heart of a child; and a rod of chastising shall drive it away. (Foolishness is bound up in a child’s heart, but the rod of discipline shall drive it away.)

¹⁶He that falsely challengeth a poor man, to increase his own riches, (or He who oppresseth the poor, to increase his own riches), shall give to a richer man, and he shall be needy.

¹⁷My son, bow down thine ear, and hear thou the words of wise men; but set thou the heart to my teaching. (My son, bow down thy ear, and listen thou to the words of the wise; yea, set thou thy heart unto my teaching, or my instruction.)

¹⁸That shall be fair to thee, when thou hast kept it in thine heart, and it shall flow again in thy lips. (It shall please thee when thou hast kept it in thy heart, and it shall flow freely from thy lips.)

¹⁹That thy trust be in the Lord; wherefore and I have showed it to thee today. (So that thy trust be in the Lord; and so I have showed it to thee today.)

²⁰Lo! I have described it in three manners, in thoughts and knowing,

²¹(so) that I should show to thee the firmness and speeches of truth; to answer (out) of these things to them that sent (unto) thee.

²²Do thou not violence to a poor man, for he is poor; neither defoul thou a needy man in the gate. (Do not thou do violence to a poor person, because he is poor; and do not take advantage of a needy person in court or at the city gates.)

²³For the Lord shall deem his cause, and he shall torment them that tormented his soul. (For the Lord shall judge his case, and he shall torment those who tormented him.)

²⁴Do not thou be (a) friend to a wrathful man, neither go thou with a wrathful man;

²⁵lest peradventure thou learn his ways, and take cause of stumbling to thy soul. (lest perhaps thou learn his ways, and bring a cause of stumbling unto thy soul.)

²⁶Do not thou be with them that fasten, or bind, their hands, and that proffer themselves to be borrows for debts; (Do not thou be with those who bind their hands, and who offer themselvesas pledges for other people’s debts;)

²⁷for if he hath not whereof he shall restore, what of cause is, that thou (should) take away (the) covering from (off) thy bed? (for if thou hath not whereof to pay, then they shall even take away thy bed from under thee.)

²⁸Go thou not over the eld marks, (or the boundary stones), which thy fathers have set.