1A good name is preferable to great riches. Favour is better than silver and gold.

2The rich and the poor meet together – יהוה is the Maker of them all.

3A clever one foresees evil and hides himself, But the simple go on and are punished.

4The reward of humility is the fear of יהוה, Riches, and esteem and life.

5Thorns, snares are in the way of the perverse; He who guards his life keeps far away from them.

6Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he turns not away from it.

7The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower is servant to the lender.

8He who sows unrighteousness reaps trouble, And the rod of his wrath perishes.

9He who has a good eye is blessed, For he gives of his bread to the poor.

10Cast out the scoffer and strife goes out, And contention and shame cease.

11He who loves cleanness of heart, Whose speech is pleasant, A sovereign is his friend.

12The eyes of יהוה shall watch over knowledge, But He overthrows the words of the treacherous.

13The lazy one says, “There is a lion outside! I am going to be killed in the streets!”

14The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit; The one denounced by יהוה falls in there.

15Folly is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline drives it far from him.

16One oppresses the poor to increase his wealth, Another gives to the rich, only to come to poverty.

17Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, And apply your heart to my knowledge;

18For they are pleasant If you guard them within you; Let all of them be ready on your lips.

19I caused you to know today, even you:

20Have I not previously written to you Of counsels and knowledge,

21To cause you to know The certainty of the words of truth, To return words of truth to those who send to you?

22Do not rob the poor because he is poor, And oppress not the afflicted at the gate.

23For יהוה pleads their cause, And shall plunder those who plunder them.

24Make no friendship with one given to wrath, And do not go with a man of rage,

25Lest you learn his ways, And find yourself ensnared.

26Do not be one of those who shakes hands in a pledge, One of those who are guarantors for debts.

27If you do not have the means to pay, Why should he take away your bed from under you?

28Do not move the ancient boundary Which your fathers have set.

29Do you see a man who is skilled in his work? He does stand before sovereigns, He does not stand before obscure ones.