Proverbs 20
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whoso is deceived is not wise.
Proverbs 20 opens with a blunt warning that wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging, then moves into business ethics, twice condemning divers weights and measures as an abomination to the LORD. It also cautions against loving sleep, since the sluggard who will not plow by reason of the cold ends up begging at harvest, continuing straight from the wealth-and-poverty sayings of Proverbs 19.
Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever errs thereby is not wise.
The terror of a king is as the roaring of a lion. He who provokes him to anger sins against his own life.
It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarrelling.
The sluggard will not plow because of the winter. Therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing.
Purpose in the heart of man is deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.
Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find?
A righteous man who walks in his integrity, blessed are his sons after him.
A king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters away all evil with his eyes.
Who can say, I have made my heart clean. I am pure from my sin?
Diverse weights, and diverse measures, both of them alike are an abomination to Jehovah.
Even a child makes himself known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.
The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, Jehovah has made even both of them.
Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty. Open thine eyes, and thou shall be satisfied with bread.
It is bad, it is bad, says the buyer, but when he is gone his way, then he boasts.
There is gold, and abundance of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.
Take his garment who is surety for a stranger, and hold him in pledge for foreigners.
Bread of falsehood is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.
Every purpose is established by counsel, and by wise guidance make thou war.
He who goes about as a tale-bearer reveals secrets. Therefore do not associate with him who opens wide his lips.
He who curses his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in blackness of darkness.
An inheritance gotten hastily at the beginning shall not be blessed in the end.
Say thou not, I will recompense evil. Wait for Jehovah, and he will save thee.
Diverse weights are an abomination to Jehovah, and a false balance is not good.
A man's goings are of Jehovah, how then can man understand his way?
It is a snare to a man to say rashly, It is holy. And to make inquiry after vows.
A wise king winnows the wicked, and brings the wheel over them.
The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, searching all his innermost parts.
Kindness and truth preserve the king, and his throne is upheld by kindness.
The glory of young men is their strength, and the beauty of old men is the hoary head.
Stripes that wound cleanse away evil, and strokes, the innermost parts.