| 1 The vengeful will suffer the LORD'S vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail. |
| 2 Forgive your neighbor's injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. |
| 3 Should a man nourish anger against his fellows and expect healing from the LORD? |
| 4 Should a man refuse mercy to his fellows, yet seek pardon for his own sins? |
| 5 If he who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins? |
| 6 Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin! |
| 7 Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor; of the Most High's covenant, and overlook faults. |
| 8 Avoid strife and your sins will be fewer, for a quarrelsome man kindles disputes, |
| 9 Commits the sin of disrupting friendship and sows discord among those at peace. |
| 10 The more wood, the greater the fire, the more underlying it, the fiercer the fight; The greater a man's strength, the sterner his anger, the greater his power, the greater his wrath. |
| 11 Pitch and resin make fires flare up, and insistent quarrels provoke bloodshed. |
| 12 If you blow upon a spark, it quickens into flame, if you spit on it, it dies out; yet both you do with your mouth! |
| 13 Cursed be gossips and the double-tongued, for they destroy the peace of many. |
| 14 A meddlesome tongue subverts many, and makes them refugees among the peoples; It destroys walled cities, and overthrows powerful dynasties. |
| 15 A meddlesome tongue can drive virtuous women from their homes and rob them of the fruit of their toil; |
| 16 Whoever heeds it has no rest, nor can he dwell in peace. |
| 17 A blow from a whip raises a welt, but a blow from the tongue smashes bones; |
| 18 Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not as many as by the tongue. |
| 19 Happy he who is sheltered from it, and has not endured its wrath; Who has not borne its yoke nor been fettered with its chain; |
| 20 For its yoke is a yoke of iron and its chains are chains of bronze! |
| 21 Dire is the death it inflicts, besides which even the nether world is a gain; |
| 22 It will not take hold among the just nor scorch them in its flame, |
| 23 But those who forsake the LORD will fall victims to it, as it burns among them unquenchably! It will hurl itself against them like a lion; like a panther, it will tear them to pieces. |
| 24 As you hedge round your vineyard with thorns, set barred doors over your mouth; |
| 25 As you seal up your silver and gold, so balance and weigh your words. |
| 26 Take care not to slip by your tongue and fall victim to your foe waiting in ambush. |