Wine Is a Mocker

1Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler,

and anyone led astray by it is not wise.

2The terror of a king is like the roaring of the young lion;

the one making him angry is wronging his own soul.†

3An honor to a man is cessation from strife,

and every fool will quarrel.

4From autumn a lazy one will not will plow,

and he begs in the harvest, and there is nothing.

5Counsel in the heart of man is deep waters,

and a man of understanding will draw it out.

6Many a man proclaims, each man his loving devotion—

and a man of faithfulness, who can find?

7A righteous one is walking about in his integrity;

blessed are his sons after him.

8A king sitting on the throne of judgment

is scattering all evil with his eyes.

9Who can say, “I have made clean my heart;

I have been cleansed from my sin?

10A stone and a stone, an ephah and an ephah†—

the two of them alike are an abomination to YHWH.

11Even by his deeds a child is known,

whether his action is pure and upright.

12The ear hearing, and the eye seeing—

YHWH has made even both of them.

13You should not love sleep, lest you be dispossessed;

open your eyes, be satisfied with bread.

“Bad, bad,” says the one buying,

and having gone away himself, then he boasts.

There is gold and an abundance of rubies,

and the lips of knowledge are a precious vessel.

Take his garment when it has been pledged for a stranger,

and hold it in pledge for a foreign woman.†

The bread of deceit is sweet to a man,

and afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.

Plans are established by counsel,

and by guidance wage war.

The one going about with slander uncovers a secret;

and do not pledge yourself to the one opening his lips.†

One belittling his father or his mother,

his lamp will be extinguished in the pupil of darkness.

An inheritance gained unjustly at first,

even its latter end will not be blessed.

You should not say, “I will repay evil.”

Wait for YHWH, and He will save you.

23An abomination to YHWH are a stone and a stone,

and scales of deceit are not good.

24From YHWH are the steps of man;

and how can a man understand his way?

25It is a snare for a man to rashly declare “It is holy”

and afterward to reconsider his vows.

26Wise is a king scattering the wicked—

he even turns the wheel over them.

27The spirit† of a man is the lamp of YHWH,

searching all the chambers of the belly.

28Loving devotion and faithfulness guard a king,

and his throne is supported by loving devotion.

29The glory of young men is their strength,

and the splendor of old men, grey hair.

30Stripes that wound scour evil,

and beatings, the chambers of the belly.