Proverbs 22

A Good Name

¹A good name is more desirable than great riches;

favor is better than silver and gold.

²The rich and the poor have this in common:

Yahweh is Maker of them all.

³The prudent see danger and take cover,

but the simple keep going and suffer the consequences.

⁴The rewards of humility and the fear of Yahweh

are wealth and honor and life.

⁵Thorns and snares lie on the path of the perverse;

he who guards his soul stays far from them.

⁶Train up a child in the way he should go,

and when he is old he will not depart from it.

• PROV 22:6[NOTABLE]What you teach kids early shapes their whole life. See Are Proverbs Promises?
• PROV 22:6[NOTE]TRAIN UP. The Hebrew can also mean dedicate. In the way he should go may mean the right way, or the way that fits who the child is. See the Big Question Are Proverbs Promises?

⁷The rich rule over the poor,

and the borrower is slave to the lender.

⁸He who sows injustice will reap disaster,

and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.

⁹A generous man will be blessed,

for he shares his bread with the poor.

¹⁰Drive out the mocker, and conflict will depart;

even quarreling and insults will cease.

¹¹He who loves a pure heart and gracious lips

will have the king for a friend.

¹²Yahweh’s eyes keep watch over knowledge,

but He frustrates the words of the faithless.

¹³The slacker says, “There is a lion outside!

I will be slain in the streets!”

¹⁴The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit;

he who is under the wrath of Yahweh will fall into it.

¹⁵Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child,

but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

¹⁶Oppressing the poor to enrich oneself or giving gifts to the rich

will surely lead to poverty.

Thirty Sayings of the Wise

Saying 1

¹⁷Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise—

apply your mind to my knowledge—

• PROV 22:17[ARCHAEOLOGY]An Egyptian book of wisdom in thirty chapters, about 1300 to 1100 BC, has many lines like Proverbs 22:17 to 24:22, see The Instruction of Amenemope Field Notes page
• PROV 22:17[NOTE]THE WORDS OF THE WISE. A new part of the book begins here and runs to 24:22. It sounds a lot like an Egyptian book of wisdom.

¹⁸for it is pleasing when you keep them within you

and they are constantly on your lips.

¹⁹So that your trust may be in Yahweh,

I instruct you today—yes, you.

²⁰Have I not written for you thirty sayings

about counsel and knowledge,

• PROV 22:20[TEXT]THIRTY SAYINGS. The Hebrew is hard to read here. The letters as written can mean before now. The Jewish reading tradition says excellent things, like the KJV, and the Greek says three times. Many Bibles today read thirty, because this part can be counted as thirty sayings, and an Egyptian book of wisdom has thirty chapters. See The Instruction of Amenemope.

²¹to show you true and reliable words,

that you may soundly answer those who sent you?

Saying 2

²²Do not rob a poor man because he is poor,

and do not crush the afflicted at the gate,

²³for Yahweh will take up their case

and will plunder those who rob them.

Saying 3

²⁴Do not make friends with an angry man,

and do not associate with a hot-tempered man,

²⁵or you may learn his ways

and entangle yourself in a snare.

Saying 4

²⁶Do not be one who gives pledges,

who puts up security for debts.

²⁷If you have nothing with which to pay,

why should your bed be taken from under you?

Saying 5

²⁸Do not move an ancient boundary stone

which your fathers have placed.

• PROV 22:28[NOTE]BOUNDARY STONES. Stones marked the edge of a family's land. Moving one at night was stealing land, Deuteronomy 19:14. 23:10 says it again.

Saying 6

²⁹Do you see a man skilled in his work?

He will be stationed in the presence of kings;

he will not stand before obscure men.