Proverbs 18:8–9

¹⁶¶ Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the Lord.

¹⁸There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.

²⁸A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.

²⁰Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.

²¹As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife.

²²The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.

²Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp rasor, working deceitfully.

³Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:

⁴That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.

⁴He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.

¹²That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

³⁰I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;

³¹And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.

³²Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction.

³³Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

³⁴So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.

²⁰Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:

²¹For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

¹¹Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;

²⁶His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:

²⁴Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer.

¹³And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

¹⁴And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

¹AND he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.

²And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.

²⁹I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.