Proverbs 25 - The Right Word at the Right Time/A Person Without Self-Control

Proverbs 25 - The Message (MSG)

The Right Word at the Right Time

25 There are also these proverbs of Solomon,
    collected by scribes of Hezekiah, king of Judah.

² God delights in concealing things;
    scientists delight in discovering things.

³ Like the horizons for breadth and the ocean for depth,
    the understanding of a good leader is broad and deep.

^4-5 Remove impurities from the silver
    and the silversmith can craft a fine chalice;
Remove the wicked from leadership
    and authority will be credible and God-honoring.

^6-7 Don’t work yourself into the spotlight;
    don’t push your way into the place of prominence.
It’s better to be promoted to a place of honor
    than face humiliation by being demoted.

⁸ Don’t jump to conclusions—there may be
    a perfectly good explanation for what you just saw.

^9-10 In the heat of an argument,
    don’t betray confidences;
Word is sure to get around,
    and no one will trust you.

^11-12 The right word at the right time
    is like a custom-made piece of jewelry,
And a wise friend’s timely reprimand
    is like a gold ring slipped on your finger.

¹³ Reliable friends who do what they say
    are like cool drinks in sweltering heat—refreshing!

¹⁴ Like billowing clouds that bring no rain
    is the person who talks big but never produces.

¹⁵ Patient persistence pierces through indifference;
    gentle speech breaks down rigid defenses.

A Person Without Self-Control

^16-17 When you’re given a box of candy, don’t gulp it all down;
    eat too much chocolate and you’ll make yourself sick;
And when you find a friend, don’t outwear your welcome;
    show up at all hours and he’ll soon get fed up.

¹⁸ Anyone who tells lies against the neighbors
    in court or on the street is a loose cannon.

¹⁹ Trusting a double-crosser when you’re in trouble
    is like biting down on an abscessed tooth.

²⁰ Singing light songs to the heavyhearted
    is like pouring salt in their wounds.

^21-22 If you see your enemy hungry, go buy him lunch;
    if he’s thirsty, bring him a drink.
Your generosity will surprise him with goodness,
    and God will look after you.

²³ A north wind brings stormy weather,
    and a gossipy tongue stormy looks.

²⁴ Better to live alone in a tumbledown shack
    than share a mansion with a nagging spouse.

²⁵ Like a cool drink of water when you’re worn out and weary
    is a letter from a long-lost friend.

²⁶ A good person who gives in to a bad person
    is a muddied spring, a polluted well.

²⁷ It’s not smart to stuff yourself with sweets,
    nor is glory piled on glory good for you.

²⁸ A person without self-control
    is like a house with its doors and windows knocked out.

Proverbs 24 - Intelligence Outranks Muscle/Rescue the Perishing/More Sayings of the Wise

Proverbs 24-The Message (MSG)

Intelligence Outranks Muscle

19

24 ^1-2 Don’t envy bad people;
    don’t even want to be around them.
All they think about is causing a disturbance;
    all they talk about is making trouble.

20

^3-4 It takes wisdom to build a house,
    and understanding to set it on a firm foundation;
It takes knowledge to furnish its rooms
    with fine furniture and beautiful draperies.

21

^5-6 It’s better to be wise than strong;
    intelligence outranks muscle any day.
Strategic planning is the key to warfare;
    to win, you need a lot of good counsel.

22

⁷ Wise conversation is way over the head of fools;
    in a serious discussion they haven’t a clue.

23

^8-9 The person who’s always cooking up some evil
    soon gets a reputation as prince of rogues.
Fools incubate sin;
    cynics desecrate beauty.

Rescue the Perishing

24

¹⁰ If you fall to pieces in a crisis,
    there wasn’t much to you in the first place.

25

^11-12 Rescue the perishing;
    don’t hesitate to step in and help.
If you say, “Hey, that’s none of my business,”
    will that get you off the hook?
Someone is watching you closely, you know—
    Someone not impressed with weak excuses.

26

^13-14 Eat honey, dear child—it’s good for you—
    and delicacies that melt in your mouth.
Likewise knowledge,
    and wisdom for your soul—
Get that and your future’s secured,
    your hope is on solid rock.

27

^15-16 Don’t interfere with good people’s lives;
    don’t try to get the best of them.
No matter how many times you trip them up,
    God-loyal people don’t stay down long;
Soon they’re up on their feet,
    while the wicked end up flat on their faces.

28

^17-18 Don’t laugh when your enemy falls;
    don’t crow over his collapse.
God might see, and become very provoked,
    and then take pity on his plight.

29

^19-20 Don’t bother your head with braggarts
    or wish you could succeed like the wicked.
Those people have no future at all;
    they’re headed down a dead-end street.

30

^21-22 Fear God, dear child—respect your leaders;
    don’t be defiant or mutinous.
Without warning your life can turn upside down,
    and who knows how or when it might happen?

More Sayings of the Wise

An Honest Answer

²³ It’s wrong, very wrong,
    to go along with injustice.

^24-25 Whoever whitewashes the wicked
    gets a black mark in the history books,
But whoever exposes the wicked
    will be thanked and rewarded.

²⁶ An honest answer
    is like a warm hug.

²⁷ First plant your fields;
    then build your barn.

^28-29 Don’t talk about your neighbors behind their backs—
    no slander or gossip, please.
Don’t say to anyone, “I’ll get back at you for what you did to me.
    I’ll make you pay for what you did!”

^30-34 One day I walked by the field of an old lazybones,
    and then passed the vineyard of a lout;
They were overgrown with weeds,
    thick with thistles, all the fences broken down.
I took a long look and pondered what I saw;
    the fields preached me a sermon and I listened:
“A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there,
    sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next?
Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life,
    with poverty as your permanent houseguest!”

Proverbs 23 - Restrain Yourself/Buy Wisdom, Education, Insight

Proverbs 23 - The Message (MSG)

Restrain Yourself

6

23 ^1-3 When you go out to dinner with an influential person,
    mind your manners:
Don’t gobble your food,
    don’t talk with your mouth full.
And don’t stuff yourself;
    bridle your appetite.

7

^4-5 Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich;
    restrain yourself!
Riches disappear in the blink of an eye;
    wealth sprouts wings
    and flies off into the wild blue yonder.

8

^6-8 Don’t accept a meal from a tightwad;
    don’t expect anything special.
He’ll be as stingy with you as he is with himself;
    he’ll say, “Eat! Drink!” but won’t mean a word of it.
His miserly serving will turn your stomach
    when you realize the meal’s a sham.

9

⁹ Don’t bother talking sense to fools;
    they’ll only poke fun at your words.

10

^10-11 Don’t stealthily move back the boundary lines
    or cheat orphans out of their property,
For they have a powerful Advocate
    who will go to bat for them.

11

¹² Give yourselves to disciplined instruction;
    open your ears to tested knowledge.

12

^13-14 Don’t be afraid to correct your young ones;
    a spanking won’t kill them.
A good spanking, in fact, might save them
    from something worse than death.

13

^15-16 Dear child, if you become wise,
    I’ll be one happy parent.
My heart will dance and sing
    to the tuneful truth you’ll speak.

14

^17-18 Don’t for a minute envy careless rebels;
    soak yourself in the Fear-of-God—
That’s where your future lies.
    Then you won’t be left with an armload of nothing.

15

^19-21 Oh listen, dear child—become wise;
    point your life in the right direction.
Don’t drink too much wine and get drunk;
    don’t eat too much food and get fat.
Drunks and gluttons will end up on skid row,
    in a stupor and dressed in rags.

Buy Wisdom, Education, Insight

16

^22-25 Listen with respect to the father who raised you,
    and when your mother grows old, don’t neglect her.
Buy truth—don’t sell it for love or money;
    buy wisdom, buy education, buy insight.
Parents rejoice when their children turn out well;
    wise children become proud parents.
So make your father happy!
    Make your mother proud!

17

²⁶ Dear child, I want your full attention;
    please do what I show you.

^27-28 A whore is a bottomless pit;
    a loose woman can get you in deep trouble fast.
She’ll take you for all you’ve got;
    she’s worse than a pack of thieves.

18

^29-35 Who are the people who are always crying the blues?
    Who do you know who reeks of self-pity?
Who keeps getting beat up for no reason at all?
    Whose eyes are bleary and bloodshot?
It’s those who spend the night with a bottle,
    for whom drinking is serious business.
Don’t judge wine by its label,
    or its bouquet, or its full-bodied flavor.
Judge it rather by the hangover it leaves you with—
    the splitting headache, the queasy stomach.
Do you really prefer seeing double,
    with your speech all slurred,
Reeling and seasick,
    drunk as a sailor?
“They hit me,” you’ll say, “but it didn’t hurt;
    they beat on me, but I didn’t feel a thing.
When I’m sober enough to manage it,
    bring me another drink!”

Proverbs 22 - The Cure Comes Through/Don't Move Back the Boundary Lines

Proverbs 22 - The Message (MSG)

The Cure Comes Through Discipline

22 A sterling reputation is better than striking it rich;
    a gracious spirit is better than money in the bank.

² The rich and the poor shake hands as equals—
    God made them both!

³ A prudent person sees trouble coming and ducks;
    a simpleton walks in blindly and is clobbered.

⁴ The payoff for meekness and Fear-of-God
    is plenty and honor and a satisfying life.

⁵ The perverse travel a dangerous road, potholed and mud-slick;
    if you know what’s good for you, stay clear of it.

⁶ Point your kids in the right direction—
    when they’re old they won’t be lost.

⁷ The poor are always ruled over by the rich,
    so don’t borrow and put yourself under their power.

⁸ Whoever sows sin reaps weeds,
    and bullying anger sputters into nothing.

⁹ Generous hands are blessed hands
    because they give bread to the poor.

¹⁰ Kick out the troublemakers and things will quiet down;
    you need a break from bickering and griping!

¹¹ God loves the pure-hearted and well-spoken;
    good leaders also delight in their friendship.

¹² God guards knowledge with a passion,
    but he’ll have nothing to do with deception.

¹³ The loafer says, “There’s a lion on the loose!
    If I go out I’ll be eaten alive!”

¹⁴ The mouth of a whore is a bottomless pit;
    you’ll fall in that pit if you’re on the outs with God.

¹⁵ Young people are prone to foolishness and fads;
    the cure comes through tough-minded discipline.

¹⁶ Exploit the poor or glad-hand the rich—whichever,
    you’ll end up the poorer for it.

The Thirty Precepts of the Sages

Don’t Move Back the Boundary Lines

^17-21 Listen carefully to my wisdom;
    take to heart what I can teach you.
You’ll treasure its sweetness deep within;
    you’ll give it bold expression in your speech.
To make sure your foundation is trust in God,
    I’m laying it all out right now just for you.
I’m giving you thirty sterling principles—
    tested guidelines to live by.
Believe me—these are truths that work,
    and will keep you accountable
    to those who sent you.

1

^22-23 Don’t walk on the poor just because they’re poor,
    and don’t use your position to crush the weak,
Because God will come to their defense;
    the life you took, he’ll take from you and give back to them.

2

^24-25 Don’t hang out with angry people;
    don’t keep company with hotheads.
Bad temper is contagious—
    don’t get infected.

3

^26-27 Don’t gamble on the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,
    hocking your house against a lucky chance.
The time will come when you have to pay up;
    you’ll be left with nothing but the shirt on your back.

4

²⁸ Don’t stealthily move back the boundary lines
    staked out long ago by your ancestors.

5

²⁹ Observe people who are good at their work—
    skilled workers are always in demand and admired;
    they don’t take a backseat to anyone.

Proverbs 21 - God Examines Our Motives/Do Your Best, Prepare for the Worst

Proverbs 21 - International Version (NIV)

 

21 In the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water
    that he channels toward all who please him.

² A person may think their own ways are right,
    but the Lord weighs the heart.

³ To do what is right and just
    is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

⁴ Haughty eyes and a proud heart—
    the unplowed field of the wicked—produce sin.

⁵ The plans of the diligent lead to profit
    as surely as haste leads to poverty.

⁶ A fortune made by a lying tongue
    is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare.^[a]

⁷ The violence of the wicked will drag them away,
    for they refuse to do what is right.

⁸ The way of the guilty is devious,
    but the conduct of the innocent is upright.

⁹ Better to live on a corner of the roof
    than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

¹⁰ The wicked crave evil;
    their neighbors get no mercy from them.

¹¹ When a mocker is punished, the simple gain wisdom;
    by paying attention to the wise they get knowledge.

¹² The Righteous One^[b] takes note of the house of the wicked
    and brings the wicked to ruin.

¹³ Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor
    will also cry out and not be answered.

¹⁴ A gift given in secret soothes anger,
    and a bribe concealed in the cloak pacifies great wrath.

¹⁵ When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous
    but terror to evildoers.

¹⁶ Whoever strays from the path of prudence
    comes to rest in the company of the dead.

¹⁷ Whoever loves pleasure will become poor;
    whoever loves wine and olive oil will never be rich.

¹⁸ The wicked become a ransom for the righteous,
    and the unfaithful for the upright.

¹⁹ Better to live in a desert
    than with a quarrelsome and nagging wife.

²⁰ The wise store up choice food and olive oil,
    but fools gulp theirs down.

²¹ Whoever pursues righteousness and love
    finds life, prosperity^[c] and honor.

²² One who is wise can go up against the city of the mighty
    and pull down the stronghold in which they trust.

²³ Those who guard their mouths and their tongues
    keep themselves from calamity.

²⁴ The proud and arrogant person—“Mocker” is his name—
    behaves with insolent fury.

²⁵ The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him,
    because his hands refuse to work.
²⁶ All day long he craves for more,
    but the righteous give without sparing.

²⁷ The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable—
    how much more so when brought with evil intent!

²⁸ A false witness will perish,
    but a careful listener will testify successfully.

²⁹ The wicked put up a bold front,
    but the upright give thought to their ways.

³⁰ There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan
    that can succeed against the Lord.

³¹ The horse is made ready for the day of battle,
    but victory rests with the Lord.

Footnotes:

1. Proverbs 21:6 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint and Vulgate; most Hebrew manuscripts vapor for those who seek death
2. Proverbs 21:12 Or The righteous person
3. Proverbs 21:21 Or righteousness

New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.