Proverbs 20

EJ2000(i) 1 ¶ Wine makes a mocker, and beer a reveler, and whoever errs concerning them shall never be wise. 2 ¶ The fear of the king is as the roaring of a lion; whoever provokes him to anger sins against his own soul. 3It is an honour for a man to cease from strife, but every fool will be meddling. 4 ¶ The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore he shall beg in harvest and have nothing. 5 ¶ Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of intelligence will draw it out. 6 ¶ Most men will proclaim each one his own mercy, but who can find a man of truth? 7 ¶ The just man who walks in his integrity, blessed shall be his sons after him. 8 ¶ A king that sits in the throne of judgment scatters away all evil with his eyes. 9 ¶ Who shall be able to say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin? 10 ¶ Double weights and double measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD. 11 ¶ Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work is pure and whether it is right. 12 ¶ The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the LORD has made both of them. 13 ¶ Do not love sleep lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread. 14 ¶ It is bad, it is bad, the buyer says; but when he is gone his way, then he boasts. 15 There is gold and a multitude of precious stones, but the lips of wisdom are a precious vessel. 16 ¶ Take his garment that is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him that is surety for a strange woman. 17 ¶ Bread of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. 18Every thought must be ordered by counsel, and with intelligence war is made. 19 ¶ He that goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets; therefore meddle not with him that flatters with his lips. 20 ¶ Whosoever curses his father or his mother, his fire shall be put out in obscure darkness. 21 ¶ An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed. 22 ¶ Say not thou, I will take vengeance, but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee. 23 ¶ Double weights are an abomination unto the LORD, and a false balance is not good. 24 ¶ Man’s steps are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way? 25It is a snare unto man to devour that which is holy and afterward to reconsider his vows. 26 ¶ A wise king scatters the wicked and brings the wheel over them. 27 ¶ The spirit of man is the fire of the LORD, which searches the secrets of the inward parts. 28 ¶ Mercy and truth preserve the king, and his throne is upheld by mercy. 29 ¶ The glory of young men is their strength, and the beauty of old men is the gray head. 30 ¶ The scars of past wounds are medicine for evil, and living reproof reaches the most secret places in the inward parts.