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Proverbs 20
1Wine is a mocker and beer is a brawler. Whoever is led astray by them is not wise.
2The terror of a is like the roaring of a lion. He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life.
3It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling.
4The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter; therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing.
5Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.
6Many men claim to be men of unfailing love, but who can find a faithful man?
7A man walks in integrity. Blessed are his children after him.
8A who sits on the throne of judgment scatters away all evil with his eyes.
9Who can say, “I have made my heart pure. I am clean and without sin”?
10Differing weights and differing measures, both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD.
11Even a child makes himself known by his doings, whether his work is pure, and whether it is right.
12The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD has made even both of them.
13Don’t love sleep, lest you come to poverty. Open your eyes, and you shall be satisfied with bread.
14“It’s no good, it’s no good,” says the buyer; but when he is gone his way, then he boasts.
15There is gold and abundance of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a rare jewel.
16Take the garment of one who puts up collateral for a stranger; and hold him in pledge for a wayward woman.
17Fraudulent food is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth is filled with gravel.
18Plans are established by advice; by wise guidance you wage war!
19He who goes about as a tale-bearer reveals secrets; therefore don’t keep company with him who opens wide his lips.
20Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in blackness of darkness.
21An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning won’t be blessed in the end.
22Don’t say, “I will pay back evil.” Wait for the LORD, and he will save you.
23The LORD detests differing weights, and dishonest scales are not pleasing.
24A man’s steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?
25It is a snare to a man to make a rash dedication, then later to consider his vows.
26A wise winnows out the wicked, and drives the threshing wheel over them.
27The spirit of man is the LORD’s lamp, searching all his innermost parts.
28Love and faithfulness keep the safe. His throne is sustained by love.
29The glory of young men is their strength. The splendor of old men is their gray hair.
30Wounding blows cleanse away evil, and beatings purge the innermost parts.
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Questions this passage answers
How do I stop committing the same sin over and over?
Scripture answers a repeated sin by changing what the believer reckons to be true, then by naming the ordinary means: consider yourself dead to sin, stop presenting your body to it, bring it out of secrecy by confession, walk by the Spirit, and remove what feeds the desire. It does not promise a single moment that ends the struggle, and it does not treat repeated falling as proof that grace has run out.
How do I trust God when life is difficult?
Biblical trust is not a feeling you generate. It is leaning your weight on what God has revealed about himself, especially when your circumstances suggest otherwise. Scripture builds trust the same way every time: by remembering what God has already done, telling him the truth about what you feel now, and obeying the next small thing while the outcome is still hidden.
How do I know God's will for my life?
Scripture speaks of God's will in two ways. His revealed will is what he has already told us plainly and is not in doubt: holiness, love, gratitude, obedience. His hidden will concerns the future and is not given to us in advance. The Bible directs almost all its attention to the first, and it teaches us to make wise decisions inside it rather than to decode secret guidance.
What does it mean to fear the Lord?
The fear of the LORD is not terror of an unpredictable God. It is the reverence of a creature who has rightly understood who God is, holy, sovereign and near, and who therefore takes him seriously in every decision. Proverbs calls it the beginning of knowledge, because a person who has not reckoned with God has not yet begun to understand anything rightly.