Proverbs 20

1. Wine is a mocker; strong drink is raging, and whoever is deceived by it is not wise.

2. The dreaded wrath of a king is as the roaring of a lion; whoever provokes him to anger sins against his own soul.

3. It is an honor for a man to cease from strife, but every fool will rail on.

4. The lazy one will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore he shall beg in harvest and have nothing.

5. A plan in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.

6. Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find?

7. A righteous man who walks in his integrity, his children are blessed after him.

8. A king who sits in the throne of judgment scatters away all evil with his eyes.

9. Who can say, “I have made my heart clean; I am pure from my sin”?

10. Different kinds of weights and different kinds of measures, both are an abomination to the LORD.

11. Even a child is known by his own 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 you come to poverty; open your eyes and you shall be satisfied with bread.

14. “It is bad! It is bad!” says the buyer; but when he has gone his way, then he boasts.

15. There is gold and a multitude of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.

16. Take the garment of him who is guaranty for a stranger, and take a pledge from him for a strange woman.

17. Bread of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.

18. Every purpose is established by counsel, and with good advice make war.

19. A talebearer goes about revealing secrets; therefore do not mix with him who flatters with his lips.

20. Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in deep darkness.

21. An inheritance gotten hastily in the beginning, even the end of it shall not be blessed.

22. Do not say, “I will repay evil;” wait on the LORD, and He will save you.

23. Different kinds of weights are an abomination to the LORD, and a false scale is not good.

24. Man’s steps are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

25. It is a snare to a man to say rashly, “It is a holy thing,” and after making his vow to reconsider it.

26. A wise king scatters the wicked and rolls a threshing wheel over them.

27. The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.

28. Love 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 stripes that wound purge away evil, and yea, strokes cleanse the innermost parts of one’s being.