Proverbs 24 — WBMS
24Verse 1Pursue [or follow] thou not evil men, desire thou not to be with them.Verse 2For the soul of them bethinketh on ravens, and their lips speak frauds.Verse 3An house shall be builded by wisdom, and it shall be made strong by prudence, or understanding.Verse 4[The] Cellars shall be filled in teaching, with all riches precious and full fair.Verse 5A wise man is strong, and a learned man is stalworth[y] and mighty.Verse 6For why battle is begun with ordinance; and health shall be, where many counsels be.Verse 7Wisdom is high to a fool; in the gate he shall not open his mouth.Verse 8He that thinketh to do evils, shall be called a fool.Verse 9The thought of a fool is sin; and a backbiter is abomination of men.Verse 10If thou hast slid, despairest in the day of anguish, thy strength shall be made less.Verse 11Deliver thou them, that be led to death; and cease thou not to deliver them, that be drawn to death.Verse 12If thou sayest, Strengths or Strong-holds suffice not; he that is [the] beholder of the heart, understandeth, and nothing deceiveth the keeper of thy soul, and he shall yield to a man after his works.Verse 13My son, eat thou honey, for it is good; and the honeycomb for it is full sweet to thy throat.Verse 14So and the teaching of wisdom is good to thy soul; and when thou hast found it, thou shalt have hope in the last things, and thine hope shall not perish.Verse 15Ambush thou not, and seek not wickedness in the house of a just [or rightwise] man, neither waste thou, his resting place.Verse 16For a just [or rightwise] man shall fall seven times in the day, and shall rise again; but wicked men shall fall into evil.Verse 17When thine enemy falleth, have thou not joy; and thine heart have not full out joying in his falling;Verse 18lest peradventure the Lord see, and it displease him, and he take away his ire [or his wrath] from him.Verse 19Strive thou not with the worst men, neither pursue [or follow] thou wicked men.Verse 20For why evil men have not hope of things to come, and the lantern of wicked men shall be quenched.Verse 21My son, dread thou God, and the king; and be thou not meddled [or mingled] with backbiters.Verse 22For their perdition shall rise together suddenly, and who knoweth the fall of ever either?Verse 23Also these things that pursue be to wise men. It is not good to know a person in doom.Verse 24Peoples shall curse them that say to a wicked man, Thou art just [or rightwise]; and lineages shall hold them abominable.Verse 25They that reprove justly sinners, shall be praised; and blessing shall come [up] on them.Verse 26He that answereth with rightful [or right] words, shall kiss lips.Verse 27Make ready thy work withoutforth, and work thy field diligently, that thou build thine house afterward.Verse 28Be thou not a witness without reasonable cause against thy neighbour; neither flatter thou any man with thy lips.Verse 29Say thou not, As he did to me, so I shall do to him, and I shall yield to each man after his work.Verse 30I passed by the field of a slow man, and by the vinery [or the vineyard] of a fond [or foolish] man;Verse 31and lo! nettles had filled all, thorns had covered the higher part thereof, and the wall of stones without mortar was destroyed.Verse 32And when I had seen this thing, I setted [or put] in mine heart, and by ensample, I learned teaching.Verse 33How long sleepest thou, slow man? when shalt thou rise from sleep? Soothly thou shalt sleep a little, thou shalt nap a little, thou shalt join together the hands a little, to take rest;Verse 34and then thy neediness as a courier shall come to thee, and thy beggary as an armed man.