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:

The LORD 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 the LORD

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.

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.

12The LORD’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 the LORD 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.