Proverbs 17:17–25

²⁴A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

¹³Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

¹⁴Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

¹⁷And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul.

¹⁶And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:

³Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.

⁷All the brethren of the poor do hate him: how much more do his friends go far from him? he pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him.

¹¹For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

²⁶I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.

¹⁴For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

¹⁶¶ And Jonathan Saul’s son arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God.

¹AND David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?

²And there was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they had called him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba? And he said, Thy servant is he.

³And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may shew the kindness of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet.

⁴And the king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lo-debar.

⁵¶ Then king David sent, and fetched him out of the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, from Lo-debar.

⁶Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell on his face, and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold thy servant!

⁷¶ And David said unto him, Fear not: for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father’s sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father; and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually.

⁸And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?

⁹¶ Then the king called to Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master’s son all that pertained to Saul and to all his house.

¹⁰Thou therefore, and thy sons, and thy servants, shall till the land for him, and thou shalt bring in the fruits, that thy master’s son may have food to eat: but Mephibosheth thy master’s son shall eat bread alway at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.

¹¹Then said Ziba unto the king, According to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant, so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table, as one of the king’s sons.

¹²And Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Micha. And all that dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants unto Mephibosheth.

¹³So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem: for he did eat continually at the king’s table; and was lame on both his feet.

²But Jonathan Saul’s son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee: now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place, and hide thyself:

¹⁵He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it: and he that hateth suretiship is sure.

¹MY son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,

²Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.

³Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.

⁴Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.

⁵Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

²⁶Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts.

²⁷If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?

¹⁶Take his garment that is surety for a stranger: and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.

¹⁶He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.

¹⁸Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

¹²Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.

³⁶¶ And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

³⁷But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.

³⁸And it came to pass about ten days after, that the Lord smote Nabal, that he died.

¹⁴But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

¹⁵This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

¹⁶For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

⁵¶ Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, I will be king: and he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.

¹AND it came to pass after this, that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him.

²⁰For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

¹⁴The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with.

²⁷Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house.

²²An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.

²³A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.

⁹If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest.

²⁰For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:

²⁰The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth;

²¹Whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation:

¹³¶ Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;

¹⁴That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

¹⁵Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?

⁶And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

⁷For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:

⁸But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

³¹The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom: but the froward tongue shall be cut out.

¹²The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.

¹⁰He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall fall.

¹⁴Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.

⁶A fool’s lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes.

⁷A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.

³²For the froward is abomination to the Lord: but his secret is with the righteous.

¹²¶ A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.

¹³He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;

¹⁴Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.

¹⁵Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.

¹³The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

²⁶With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.

¹THE proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.

¹³A foolish son is the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.

³²And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel: and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever.

³³And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart: and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age.

³⁴And this shall be a sign unto thee, that shall come upon thy two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die both of them.

³⁵And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever.

³⁴¶ And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:

²⁰A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother.

²⁵A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him.

¹⁵My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.

¹⁶Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.

³And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.

³³¶ And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!

⁴I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

¹⁹I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it: albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides.

²⁰Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in the Lord.

³And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.

¹³A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

²⁵Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.

¹⁴The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?

¹⁰For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

⁷¶ Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.

⁸Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.

⁹Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.

²By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

³And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

⁴And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

⁵And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

⁷So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.

³For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.

⁴My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.

⁵By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.

¹⁵My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

³When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.

⁴For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

¹⁹Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.

⁸¶ And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.

³¶ That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

⁸A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth.

²³Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

³Behold, here I am: witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you.

³And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.

¹²In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.

¹⁰¶ And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them.

¹¹And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him.

¹¹The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.

¹⁶A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.

¹⁴A gift in secret pacifieth anger: and a reward in the bosom strong wrath.

¹⁴The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.

¹WHO is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.

⁶A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.

³⁷Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.

¹⁶For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

⁹¶ Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

¹⁷If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

¹⁴The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.

⁵Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

¹THE proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.

¹AND it came to pass after this, that Absalom the son of David had a fair sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her.

²And Amnon was so vexed, that he fell sick for his sister Tamar; for she was a virgin; and Amnon thought it hard for him to do any thing to her.

³But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah David’s brother: and Jonadab was a very subtil man.

⁴And he said unto him, Why art thou, being the king’s son, lean from day to day? wilt thou not tell me? And Amnon said unto him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.

⁵And Jonadab said unto him, Lay thee down on thy bed, and make thyself sick: and when thy father cometh to see thee, say unto him, I pray thee, let my sister Tamar come, and give me meat, and dress the meat in my sight, that I may see it, and eat it at her hand.

⁶¶ So Amnon lay down, and made himself sick: and when the king was come to see him, Amnon said unto the king, I pray thee, let Tamar my sister come, and make me a couple of cakes in my sight, that I may eat at her hand.

⁷Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, Go now to thy brother Amnon’s house, and dress him meat.

⁸So Tamar went to her brother Amnon’s house; and he was laid down. And she took flour, and kneaded it, and made cakes in his sight, and did bake the cakes.

⁹And she took a pan, and poured them out before him; but he refused to eat. And Amnon said, Have out all men from me. And they went out every man from him.

¹⁰And Amnon said unto Tamar, Bring the meat into the chamber, that I may eat of thine hand. And Tamar took the cakes which she had made, and brought them into the chamber to Amnon her brother.

¹¹And when she had brought them unto him to eat, he took hold of her, and said unto her, Come lie with me, my sister.

¹²And she answered him, Nay, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing ought to be done in Israel: do not thou this folly.

¹³And I, whither shall I cause my shame to go? and as for thee, thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the king; for he will not withhold me from thee.

¹⁴Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice: but, being stronger than she, forced her, and lay with her.

¹⁵¶ Then Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone.

¹⁶And she said unto him, There is no cause: this evil in sending me away is greater than the other that thou didst unto me. But he would not hearken unto her.

¹⁷Then he called his servant that ministered unto him, and said, Put now this woman out from me, and bolt the door after her.

¹⁸And she had a garment of divers colours upon her: for with such robes were the king’s daughters that were virgins apparelled. Then his servant brought her out, and bolted the door after her.

¹⁹¶ And Tamar put ashes on her head, and rent her garment of divers colours that was on her, and laid her hand on her head, and went on crying.

²⁰And Absalom her brother said unto her, Hath Amnon thy brother been with thee? but hold now thy peace, my sister: he is thy brother; regard not this thing. So Tamar remained desolate in her brother Absalom’s house.

²¹¶ But when king David heard of all these things, he was very wroth.

²²And Absalom spake unto his brother Amnon neither good nor bad: for Absalom hated Amnon, because he had forced his sister Tamar.

²⁰A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother.

¹³A foolish son is the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.

¹⁸¶ Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.

¹⁹And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.