Proverbs 24

1Do not be envious of evil people or wish you could be with them, 2because their minds are set on violence and their talk is all about causing harm. 3A house is built through wisdom and made secure through understanding; 4by knowledge its rooms are filled with every kind of rich and lovely treasure. 5Wise people have great power, and those with knowledge grow ever stronger. 6You should wage war with careful guidance; victory comes from having many advisers. 7Wisdom is out of a fool’s reach; at the city gate, where matters are decided, the fool has nothing to say. 8Whoever plots to do evil will be known as a schemer. 9Foolish scheming is sin, and people detest a mocker. 10If you give up when times are hard, how little strength you have! 11Rescue those being dragged off to death; hold back those who are stumbling toward slaughter. 12If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not the one who weighs hearts see the truth? The one who watches over your life knows it well, and he will repay each person for what they have done. 13My son, eat honey, because it is good; honey from the comb tastes sweet. 14Know that wisdom is like that for your soul: find it, and you will have a future, and your hope will not fail.

15Do not lie in ambush like a criminal at the home of a righteous person; do not raid the place where they live. 16For the righteous may fall seven times and still get up again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity. 17When your enemy falls, do not celebrate; when they trip up, do not let your heart be glad, 18or the LORD will see it and be displeased, and turn his anger away from them. 19Do not get upset about those who do evil or be envious of the wicked, 20for evil people have no future; the lamp of the wicked will go out. 21Fear the LORD and the king, my son, and have nothing to do with those who want to overturn things, 22for disaster will strike them without warning, and who can tell what ruin the LORD and the king can bring?

23These also are sayings of the wise: It is not right to show favoritism in a court case. 24Whoever tells the guilty, “You are innocent,” will be cursed by peoples and condemned by nations. 25But those who convict the guilty will be well thought of, and a rich blessing will come on them. 26To give a straight answer is to kiss the lips. 27Get your work outside in order and your fields ready first; after that, build your house.

28Do not testify against your neighbor without good reason, or use your lips to mislead. 29Do not say, “I will treat them the way they treated me; I will pay them back for what they did.” 30I walked past the field of someone lazy, past the vineyard of someone with no sense, 31and I saw thorns had sprung up everywhere, weeds had covered the ground, and its stone wall lay in ruins. 32I looked at it and thought it over; I saw it and learned a lesson: 33a bit more sleep, a bit more dozing, a bit more lying with arms folded, 34and poverty will be on you like a drifter on the road, and need like a man with a shield.