Chapter text
World English Bible
Verse-by-verse text with stable anchors, canonical chapter URLs, and copyable verse links.
- 1 Don’t boast about tomorrow; for you don’t know what a day may bring.
- 2 Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.
- 3 A stone is heavy, and sand is a burden; but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both.
- 4 Wrath is cruel, and anger is overwhelming; but who is able to stand before jealousy?
- 5 Better is open rebuke than hidden love.
- 6 The wounds of a friend are faithful, although the kisses of an enemy are profuse.
- 7 A full soul loathes a honeycomb; but to a hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet.
- 8 As a bird that wanders from her nest, so is a man who wanders from his home.
- 9 Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart; so does earnest counsel from a man’s friend.
- 10 Don’t forsake your friend and your father’s friend. Don’t go to your brother’s house in the day of your disaster. A neighbor who is near is better than a distant brother.
- 11 Be wise, my son, and bring joy to my heart, then I can answer my tormentor.
- 12 A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge; but the simple pass on, and suffer for it.
- 13 Take his garment when he puts up collateral for a stranger. Hold it for a wayward woman!
- 14 He who blesses his neighbor with a loud voice early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse by him.
- 15 A continual dropping on a rainy day and a contentious wife are alike:
- 16 restraining her is like restraining the wind, or like grasping oil in his right hand.
- 17 Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens his friend’s countenance.
- 18 Whoever tends the fig tree shall eat its fruit. He who looks after his master shall be honored.
- 19 Like water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man.
- 20 Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; and a man’s eyes are never satisfied.
- 21 The crucible is for silver, and the furnace for gold; but man is refined by his praise.
- 22 Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with grain, yet his foolishness will not be removed from him.
- 23 Know well the state of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds,
- 24 for riches are not forever, nor does the crown endure to all generations.
- 25 The hay is removed, and the new growth appears, the grasses of the hills are gathered in.
- 26 The lambs are for your clothing, and the goats are the price of a field.
- 27 There will be plenty of goats’ milk for your food, for your family’s food, and for the nourishment of your servant girls.