Proverbs 17

¹ Better a mouthful of dry bread with peace than a house fil ed with quarrelsome sacrifices.

² A shrewd servant comes off better than an unworthy child, he will share the inheritance with thebrothers.

³ A furnace for silver, a foundry for gold, but Yahweh for the testing of hearts!

⁴ An evil-doer pays heed to malicious talk, a liar listens to a slanderous tongue.

⁵ To mock the poor is to insult the Creator, no one who laughs at distress wil go unpunished.

⁶ The crown of the aged is their children's children; the children's glory is their father.

⁷ Fine words do not become the foolish, false words become a prince stil less.

⁸ A gift works like a talisman for one who holds it: it brings prosperity at every turn.

⁹ Whoever covers an offence promotes love, whoever again raises the matter divides friends.

¹⁰ A reproof makes more impression on a person of understanding than a hundred strokes on a fool.

¹¹ The wicked person thinks of nothing but rebellion, but a cruel messenger wil be sent to such a one.

¹² Rather come on a bear robbed of her cubs than on a fool in his fol y.

¹³ Disaster wil never be far from the house of one who returns evil for good.

¹⁴ As well unleash a flood as start a dispute; desist before the quarrel breaks out.

¹⁵ To absolve the guilty and condemn the upright, both alike are abhorrent to Yahweh.

¹⁶ What good is money in the hand of a fool? To buy wisdom with it? The desire is not there.

¹⁷ A friend is a friend at all times, it is for adversity that a brother is born.

¹⁸ Whoever offers guarantees lacks sense and goes surety for a neighbour.

¹⁹ The double-dealer loves sin, the proud courts ruin.

²⁰ The tortuous of heart finds no happiness, the perverse of speech fal s into misery.

²¹ He who fathers a stupid child does so to his sorrow, the father of a fool knows no joy.

²² A glad heart is excel ent medicine, a depressed spirit wastes the bones away.

²³ Under cover of his cloak a bad man takes a gift to pervert the course of justice.

²⁴ The intelligent has wisdom there before him, but the eyes of a fool range to the ends of the earth.

²⁵ A foolish child is a father's sorrow, and the grief of her who gave the child birth.

²⁶ To fine the upright is indeed a crime, to strike the noble is an injustice.

²⁷ Whoever can control the tongue knows what knowledge is, someone of understanding keeps a cooltemper.

²⁸ If the fool holds his tongue, he may pass for wise; if he seals his lips, he may pass for intel igent.