1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great wealth,
good favor more than silver or gold.
2 The rich and the poor are met together;
the Lord is the Creator of them both.
3 A shrewd person saw danger and hid himself,
but the naive passed on by and paid for it.
4 The reward for humility and fearing the Lord
is riches and honor and life.
5 Thorns and snares are in the path of the perverse,
but the one who guards himself keeps far from them.
6 Train a child in the way that he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it.
7 The rich rule over the poor,
and the borrower is servant to the lender.
8 The one who sows iniquity will reap trouble,
and the rod of his fury will end.
9 A generous person will be blessed,
for he has given some of his food to the poor.
10 Drive out the scorner and contention will leave;
strife and insults will cease.
11 The one who loves a pure heart
and whose speech is gracious—the king will be his friend.
12 The eyes of the Lord watched over a cause,
and subverted the words of the treacherous person.
13 The sluggard has said, “There is a lion outside!
I will be killed in the middle of the streets!”
14 The mouth of an adulteress is like a deep pit;
the one against whom the Lord is angry will fall into it.
15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,
but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.
16 The one who oppresses the poor to increase his own gain
and the one who gives to the rich—both end up only in poverty.
17 Incline your ear and listen to the words of the wise,
and apply your mind to my instruction.
18 For it is pleasing if you keep these sayings within you,
and they are ready on your lips.
19 So that your confidence may be in the Lord,
I hereby make them known to you today—even you.
20 Have I not written thirty sayings for you,
sayings of counsel and knowledge,
21 to show you true and reliable words,
so that you may give accurate answers to those who sent you?
22 Do not exploit a poor person because he is poor
and do not crush the needy in court,
23 for the Lord will plead their case
and will rob the life of those who are robbing them.
24 Do not make friends with an angry person,
and do not associate with a wrathful person,
25 lest you learn his ways
and entangle yourself in a snare.
26 Do not be one who strikes hands in pledge
or who puts up security for debts.
27 If you do not have enough to pay,
your bed will be taken right out from under you!
28 Do not move an ancient boundary stone
that was put in place by your ancestors.
29 You have seen a person skilled in his work—
he will take his position before kings;
he will not take his position before obscure people.
1 Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage. 3 So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress. 4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead. 9 And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive 10 and I died. So I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual—but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin. 15 For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want—instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good. 17 But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.
21 So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. 23 But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.