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Proverbs 22
1A good name is more desirable than great riches, and loving favor is better than silver and gold.
2The rich and the poor have this in common: The LORD is the maker of them all.
3A prudent man sees danger and hides himself; but the simple pass on, and suffer for it.
4The result of humility and the fear of the LORD is wealth, honor, and life.
5Thorns and snares are in the path of the wicked; whoever 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. The borrower is servant to the lender.
8He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.
9He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.
10Drive out the mocker, and strife will go out; yes, quarrels and insults will stop.
11He who loves purity of heart and speaks gracefully is the ’s friend.
12The LORD’s eyes watch over knowledge, but he frustrates the words of the unfaithful.
13The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I will be killed in the streets!”
14The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit. He who is under the LORD’s wrath will fall into it.
15Folly is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
16Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, both come to poverty.
17Turn your ear, and listen to the words of the wise. Apply your heart to my teaching.
18For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips.
19I teach you today, even you, so that your trust may be in the LORD.
20Haven’t I written to you thirty excellent things of counsel and knowledge,
21To teach you truth, reliable words, to give sound answers to the ones who sent you?
22Don’t exploit the poor because he is poor; and don’t crush the needy in court;
23for the LORD will plead their case, and plunder the life of those who plunder them.
24Don’t befriend a hot-tempered man. Don’t associate with one who harbors anger,
25lest you learn his ways and ensnare your soul.
26Don’t you be one of those who strike hands, of those who are collateral for debts.
27If you don’t have means to pay, why should he take away your bed from under you?
28Don’t move the ancient boundary stone which your fathers have set up.
29Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve . He won’t serve obscure men.
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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.