• Instructions and Warnings

  • 1 Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth.
  • 2 Let a stranger praise you, and not your own mouth; A foreigner, and not your own lips.
  • 3 A stone is heavy and the sand weighty, But the provocation of an ignorant fool is heavier than both of them.
  • 4 Wrath is cruelty and anger is a flood, But who can stand before jealousy?
  • 5 Better is reproof that is revealed Than love that is hidden.
  • 6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.
  • 7 A satisfied soul tramples the honeycomb, But to a hungry soul any bitter thing is sweet.
  • 8 Like a bird that wanders from her nest, So is a man who wanders from his place.
  • 9 Oil and incense make the heart glad, So counsel from the soul is sweet to his friend.
  • 10 Do not forsake your friend or your father’s friend, And do not come to your brother’s house in the day of your disaster; Better is one who dwells near than a brother far away.
  • 11 Be wise, my son, and make my heart glad, That I may respond with a word to him who reproaches me.
  • 12 A prudent man sees evil and hides, The simple pass on and are punished.
  • 13 Take his garment when he becomes a guarantor for a stranger; And for a foreign woman seize it as a pledge.
  • 14 He who blesses his friend with a loud voice early in the morning, It will be counted as a curse to him.
  • 15 A constant dripping on a day of steady rain And a contentious woman are alike;
  • 16 He who would restrain her restrains the wind, And grasps oil with his right hand.
  • 17 Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.
  • 18 He who guards the fig tree will eat its fruit, And he who keeps watch for his master will be honored.
  • 19 As in water face reflects face, So the heart of man reflects man.
  • 20 Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, So the eyes of man are never satisfied.
  • 21 The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, And each is tested by the mouth that praises him.
  • 22 Though you pound an ignorant fool in a mortar with a pestle in the midst of crushed grain, His folly will not turn aside from him.
  • 23 Know well the condition of your flocks, And pay attention to your herds;
  • 24 For wealth is not forever, Neither is a crown from generation to generation.
  • 25 When the grass disappears and the vegetation appears, And the herbs of the mountains are gathered in,
  • 26 The lambs will be for your clothing, And the goats will bring the price of a field,
  • 27 And there will be enough goats’ milk for your food, For the food of your household, And sustenance for your maidens.