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Instructions and Warnings

^1 (C1)Do not boast about tomorrow,
For you ^(C2)do not know what a day may bring forth.

² Let a ^(C1)stranger praise you, and not your own mouth;
A foreigner, and not your own lips.

³ A stone is heavy and the sand weighty,
But the provocation of an ignorant fool is heavier than both of them.

⁴ Wrath is cruelty and anger is a flood,
But ^(C1)who can stand before jealousy?

⁵ Better is reproof that is ^(C1)revealed
Than love that is hidden.

⁶ Faithful are the ^(C1)wounds of a friend,
But ^(F1)deceitful are the ^(C2)kisses of an enemy.

⁷ A satisfied soul tramples the honeycomb,
But to a hungry soul any bitter thing is sweet.

⁸ Like a ^(C1)bird that wanders from her nest,
So is a man who ^(C2)wanders from his place.

^9 (C1)Oil and incense make the heart glad,
So counsel from the ^(F1)soul is sweet to his friend.

¹⁰ Do not forsake your ^(C1)friend or ^(C2)your father's friend,
And do not come to your brother's house in the day of your disaster;
Better is one who dwells near than a brother far away.

^11 (C1)Be wise, my son, and make my heart glad,
That I may ^(C2)respond with a word to him who reproaches me.

¹² A prudent man sees evil and hides,
The simple pass on and are punished.

^13 (C1)Take his garment when he becomes a guarantor for a stranger;
And for ^(F1)a foreign woman seize it as a pledge.

^14 (C1)He who blesses his friend with a loud voice early in the morning,
It will be counted as a curse to him.

¹⁵ A ^(C1)constant dripping on a day of steady rain
And a contentious woman are alike;

¹⁶ He who would ^(F1)restrain her ^(F1)restrains the wind,
And ^(F2)grasps oil with his right hand.

¹⁷ Iron sharpens iron,
So one man sharpens another.

¹⁸ He who guards the ^(C1)fig tree will eat its fruit,
And he who ^(C2)keeps watch for his master will be honored.

¹⁹ As in water face reflects face,
So the heart of man reflects man.

^20 (C1)Sheol and Abaddon are ^(C2)never satisfied,
So the ^(C3)eyes of man are never satisfied.

²¹ The ^(C1)refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold,
And each ^(C2)is tested by the mouth that praises him.

²² Though you ^(C1)pound an ignorant fool in a mortar with a pestle in the midst of crushed grain,
His ^(F1)folly will not turn aside from him.

^23 (C1)Know well the ^(F1)condition of your flocks,
And pay attention to your herds;

²⁴ For wealth is not forever,
Neither is a ^(C1)crown from generation to generation.

²⁵ When the grass disappears and the vegetation appears,
And the herbs of the mountains are ^(C1)gathered in,

²⁶ The lambs will be for your clothing,
And the goats will bring the price of a field,

²⁷ And there will be enough goats' milk for your food,
For the food of your household,
And sustenance for your maidens.