Proverbs 11

¹³You shall not have two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light.

¹⁴You shall not have two differing measures in your house, one large and one small.

²³Unequal weights are detestable to the Lord, and dishonest scales are no good.

¹¹Honest scales and balances are from the Lord; all the weights in the bag are His concern.

³⁵You must not use dishonest measures of length, weight, or volume.

³⁶You shall maintain honest scales and weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁰Differing weights and unequal measures—both are detestable to the Lord.

⁷A merchant loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands.

²³A man’s pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor.

¹⁸Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

¹⁹It is better to be lowly in spirit among the humble than to divide the spoil with the proud.

³³The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and humility comes before honor.

¹⁴I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹²Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.

³⁴He mocks the mockers, but gives grace to the humble.

³⁵The wise will inherit honor, but fools are held up to shame.

¹⁸He who walks with integrity will be kept safe, but whoever is perverse in his ways will suddenly fall.

⁶Righteousness guards the man of integrity, but wickedness undermines the sinner.

²¹May integrity and uprightness preserve me, because I wait for You.

¹Of David. Vindicate me, O Lord! For I have walked with integrity; I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.

³A man’s own folly subverts his way, yet his heart rages against the Lord.

¹⁷If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own.

¹⁸Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the Day of the Lord’s wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of His jealousy.” For indeed, He will make a sudden end of all who dwell on the earth.

²Ill-gotten treasures profit nothing, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.

¹Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.

¹⁹They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will seem unclean. Their silver and gold cannot save them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their appetites or fill their stomachs with wealth, for it became the stumbling block that brought their iniquity.

⁸For physical exercise is of limited value, but godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for the present life and for the one to come.

⁶They trust in their wealth and boast in their great riches.

⁷No man can possibly redeem his brother or pay his ransom to God.

²²The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.

¹⁵The nations have fallen into a pit of their making; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.

¹⁶The Lord is known by the justice He brings; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. Higgaion Selah

⁶in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

³Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, grant me my life as my petition, and the lives of my people as my request.

⁴For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as menservants and maidservants, I would have remained silent, because no such distress would justify burdening the king.”

³¹So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

³²For the waywardness of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.

⁴“I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,” he said. “What is that to us?” they replied. “You bear the responsibility.”

⁵So Judas threw the silver into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

⁸He who digs a pit may fall into it, and he who breaches a wall may be bitten by a snake.

⁴⁴The king also said, “You know in your heart all the evil that you did to my father David. Therefore the Lord will bring your evil back upon your head.

³Here I am. Bear witness against me before the Lord and before His anointed: Whose ox or donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated or oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe and closed my eyes? Tell me, and I will restore it to you.”

⁴“You have not cheated us or oppressed us,” they replied, “nor have you taken anything from the hand of man.”

¹⁵He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making.

¹⁶His trouble recoils on himself, and his violence falls on his own head.

²²The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.

³²The Lord will bring his bloodshed back upon his own head, for without the knowledge of my father David he struck down two men more righteous and better than he when he put to the sword Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army.

³³Their blood will come back upon the heads of Joab and his descendants forever; but for David, his descendants, his house, and his throne, there shall be peace from the Lord forever.”

²⁸The hope of the righteous is joy, but the expectations of the wicked will perish.

¹³Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so the hope of the godless will perish.

¹⁴His confidence is fragile; his security is in a spider’s web.

²⁰But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and escape will elude them; they will hope for their last breath.”

⁹The enemy declared, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’

¹⁰But You blew with Your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

⁴When his spirit departs, he returns to the ground; on that very day his plans perish.

¹⁹Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!”’

²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’

²³The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den, and when Daniel was lifted out of the den, no wounds whatsoever were found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

²⁴At the command of the king, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought and thrown into the den of lions—they and their children and wives. And before they had reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

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

⁹Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said: “There is a gallows fifty cubits high at Haman’s house. He had it built for Mordecai, who gave the report that saved the king.” “Hang him on it!” declared the king.

¹⁰So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the fury of the king subsided.

³For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place.

⁴Because you are precious and honored in My sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you and nations in place of your life.

¹⁰For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight your soul.

¹¹Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you,

⁵Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn from them.

⁶Do not forsake wisdom, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will guard you.

²⁷And as for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so remain in Him as you have been taught.

¹Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons,

²influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.

²⁰My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant.

²¹His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.

¹³For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.

¹⁴And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

¹²When the righteous triumph, there is great glory, but when the wicked rise, men hide themselves.

¹⁰The righteous will rejoice when they see they are avenged; they will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹Then men will say, “There is surely a reward for the righteous! There is surely a God who judges the earth!”

¹⁵Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal garments of blue and white, with a large gold crown and a purple robe of fine linen. And the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced.

¹⁶For the Jews it was a time of light and gladness, of joy and honor.

²⁸When the wicked come to power, people hide themselves; but when they perish, the righteous flourish.

³¹So may all Your enemies perish, O Lord! But may those who love You shine like the sun at its brightest.” And the land had rest for forty years.

³⁴Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

⁸Mockers inflame a city, but the wise turn away anger.

⁶The tongue also is a fire, a world of wickedness among the parts of the body. It pollutes the whole person, sets the course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

²⁰In response, King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out to heaven in prayer,

²¹and the Lord sent an angel who annihilated every mighty man of valor and every leader and commander in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace. And when he entered the temple of his god, some of his own sons struck him down with the sword.

³⁰He will deliver even one who is not innocent, rescuing him through the cleanness of your hands.”

¹⁵Now a poor wise man was found in the city, and he saved the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

¹⁹When words are many, sin is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.

²³When they heaped abuse on Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats, but entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.

¹⁴The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all of this and were scoffing at Jesus.

⁹To some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt, He also told this parable:

²¹He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who shows kindness to the poor.

³Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy, for we have endured much contempt.

⁴We have endured much scorn from the arrogant, much contempt from the proud.

¹⁹He who reveals secrets is a constant gossip; avoid the one who babbles with his lips.

⁹Argue your case with your neighbor without betraying another’s confidence,

¹⁶You must not go about spreading slander among your people. You must not endanger the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord.

¹³At the same time they will also learn to be idle, going from house to house and being not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, discussing things they should not mention.

²⁰Without wood, a fire goes out; without gossip, a conflict ceases.

²¹Like charcoal for embers and wood for fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.

¹⁴“Our lives for your lives!” the men agreed. “If you do not report our mission, we will show you kindness and faithfulness when the Lord gives us the land.”

⁶Only with sound guidance should you wage war, and victory lies in a multitude of counselors.

²²Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

¹⁸Set plans by consultation, and wage war under sound guidance.

²²Understanding is a fountain of life to its possessor, but the discipline of fools is folly.

¹Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.

²When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this, he was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon and had been living ever since.

⁶So the apostles and elders met to look into this matter.

⁷After much discussion, Peter got up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you that the Gentiles would hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.

¹⁸A man lacking judgment strikes hands in pledge and puts up security for his neighbor.

¹My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge with a stranger,

²if you have been trapped by the words of your lips, ensnared by the words of your mouth,

¹⁶Take the garment of the one who posts security for a stranger; get collateral if it is for a foreigner.

²⁶Do not be one who gives pledges, who puts up security for debts.

²⁷If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you?

³⁰Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

³¹Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her at the gates.

⁴²But only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.”

¹⁴Among those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.

¹⁵And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

³²Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me this day!

³³Blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because today you kept me from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.

³⁹So Peter got up and went with them. On his arrival, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood around him, weeping and showing him the tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

³Joanna the wife of Herod’s household manager Chuza, Susanna, and many others. These women were ministering to them out of their own means.

⁷Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

¹³For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

³⁴Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

³⁵For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in,

¹Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.

²Your riches have rotted and moths have eaten your clothes.

²⁷Therefore, may my advice be pleasing to you, O king. Break away from your sins by doing what is right, and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed. Perhaps there will be an extension of your prosperity.”

¹For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Blessed is the one who cares for the poor; the Lord will deliver him in the day of trouble.

²The Lord will protect and preserve him; He will bless him in the land and refuse to give him over to the will of his foes.

⁸The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

⁹Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

⁸He who digs a pit may fall into it, and he who breaches a wall may be bitten by a snake.

¹²Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the Lord until He comes and sends righteousness upon you like rain.

¹³You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your mighty men,

¹⁸Peacemakers who sow in peace reap the fruit of righteousness.

⁵Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy.

⁶He who goes out weeping, bearing a trail of seed, will surely return with shouts of joy, carrying sheaves of grain.

⁸He who sows injustice will reap disaster, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.

¹⁶The labor of the righteous leads to life, but the gain of the wicked brings punishment.

⁸But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow wickedness, there will be wrath and anger.

⁹There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Greek;

²⁸There is life in the path of righteousness, but another path leads to death.

²³The fear of the Lord leads to life, that one may rest content, without visitation from harm.

²²He follows her on impulse, like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding into a trap,

²³until an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare—not knowing it will cost him his life.

¹⁶For their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed blood.

¹⁷How futile it is to spread the net where any bird can see it!

¹Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the Law of the Lord.

¹³Surely the righteous will praise Your name; the upright will dwell in Your presence.

¹⁷I know, my God, that You test the heart and delight in uprightness. All these things I have given willingly and with an upright heart, and now I have seen Your people who are present here giving joyfully and willingly to You.

²⁹A wicked man hardens his face, but the upright man makes his way sure.

¹⁴With deceit in his heart he devises evil; he continually sows discord.

²⁵To the faithful You show Yourself faithful, to the blameless You show Yourself blameless;

²⁶to the pure You show Yourself pure, but to the crooked You show Yourself shrewd.

¹Hallelujah! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments.

²His descendants will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.

³⁹This promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far off—to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

³⁹I will give them one heart and one way, so that they will always fear Me for their own good and for the good of their children after them.

²⁶They are ever generous and quick to lend, and their children are a blessing.

⁵Everyone who is proud in heart is detestable to the Lord; be assured that he will not go unpunished.

²²A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is passed to the righteous.

³Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes,

⁴but from the inner disposition of your heart, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in God’s sight.

³⁰Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

⁴because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the seductive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft.

⁵“Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of Hosts. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms.

¹⁰Then a woman came out to meet him, with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart.

²²Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

¹³The woman named Folly is loud; she is naive and knows nothing.

⁶Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

⁴Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

⁸But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow wickedness, there will be wrath and anger.

⁹There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Greek;

¹⁶But I have not run away from being Your shepherd; I have not desired the day of despair. You know that the utterance of my lips was spoken in Your presence.

¹⁷You have heard, O Lord, the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their hearts. You will incline Your ear,

⁴One thing I have asked of the Lord; this is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and seek Him in His temple.

¹⁷Kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord, and He will repay the lender.

³⁸Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

¹⁰Give generously to him, and do not let your heart be grieved when you do so. And because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything to which you put your hand.

⁹He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn will be lifted high in honor.

⁶Sow your seed in the morning, and do not rest your hands in the evening, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or if both will equally prosper.

⁶You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but never get warm. You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.”

⁷Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

⁶Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

⁷Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver.

⁷Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

⁸Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will come quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

³⁴Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

³⁵For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in,

⁸But a noble man makes honorable plans; he stands up for worthy causes.

²⁷Whoever gives to the poor will not be in need, but he who hides his eyes will receive many curses.

¹³The dying man blessed me, and I made the widow’s heart sing for joy.

⁶Now Joseph was the ruler of the land; he was the one who sold grain to all its people. So when his brothers arrived, they bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.

⁴Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,

⁵asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales.

²⁴Whoever tells the guilty, “You are innocent”—peoples will curse him, and nations will denounce him;

¹⁵He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making.

¹⁶His trouble recoils on himself, and his violence falls on his own head.

¹¹An evil man seeks only rebellion; a cruel messenger will be sent against him.

¹⁰So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the fury of the king subsided.

⁶They spread a net for my feet; my soul was despondent. They dug a pit before me, but they themselves have fallen into it! Selah

¹⁵The nations have fallen into a pit of their making; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.

¹⁶The Lord is known by the justice He brings; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. Higgaion Selah

²In pride the wicked pursue the needy; let them be caught in the schemes they devise.

¹⁷Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be conceited and not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy.

⁸He is like a tree planted by the waters that sends out its roots toward the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes, and its leaves are always green. It does not worry in a year of drought, nor does it cease to produce fruit.

⁷“Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”

⁸But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in the loving devotion of God forever and ever.

³He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.

¹²The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

¹³Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.

²⁴And the disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!

²⁵It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

¹⁶This too is a grievous affliction: Exactly as a man is born, so he will depart. What does he gain as he toils for the wind?

¹⁹The evil bow before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.

²⁷He who is greedy for unjust gain brings trouble on his household, but he who hates bribes will live.

⁹Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, to place his nest on high and escape the hand of disaster!

¹⁰You have plotted shame for your house by cutting off many peoples and forfeiting your life.

¹⁷Now consider carefully what you must do, because disaster looms over our master and all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that nobody can speak to him!”

³⁸About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal dead.

³Then the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever.

²⁰consider this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

¹⁹Though I am free of obligation to anyone, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.

²⁰To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), to win those under the law.

¹⁸She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those who lay hold of her are blessed.

¹⁹After all, who is our hope, our joy, our crown of boasting, if it is not you yourselves in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?

³⁶Already the reaper draws his wages and gathers a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.

¹⁷For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God?

¹⁸And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

²⁹For behold, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears My Name, so how could you possibly go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the Lord of Hosts.’

³⁰That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.

³¹Now if we judged ourselves properly, we would not come under judgment.

²¹Disaster pursues sinners, but prosperity is the reward of the righteous.

⁹Why then have you despised the command of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own. You have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites.

¹⁰Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’

¹⁴I will be his Father, and he will be My son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.

¹⁵But My loving devotion will never be removed from him as I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.