Proverbs 17:18–20

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.