CHAPTER 11

                ¹Cheating scales are the LORD’s loathing,

                    and a true weight-stone His pleasure.

                ²With a bold face, there comes disgrace,

                    but wisdom is with the humble.

                ³The upright’s innocence guides them,

                    but the falseness of traitors destroys them.

                ⁴Wealth avails not on the day of wrath,

                    but righteousness saves from death.

                ⁵The innocent’s righteousness makes his way smooth,

                    but in his wickedness the wicked man falls.

                ⁶The upright’s innocence saves them,

                    but in disasters are traitors ensnared.

                ⁷When a wicked man dies, hope perishes,

                    and the longing of villains will perish.

                ⁸The righteous is rescued from straits, ⁹and the wicked man comes in his stead. Through speech the tainted man ruins his fellow,

                    but through knowledge the righteous are rescued.

                ¹⁰When the righteous do well, the city exults,

                    and when the wicked perish—glad song.

                ¹¹Through the upright’s blessing a city soars,

                    and by the mouth of the wicked it is razed.

                ¹²Who scorns his fellow man has no sense,

                    but a man of discernment keeps silent.

                ¹³The gossip lays bare secrets,

                    but the trustworthy conceals the matter.

                ¹⁴For want of designs a people falls,

                    but there is rescue through many councillors.

                ¹⁵He will surely be shattered who gives bond for a stranger,

                    but he who hates offering pledge is secure.

                ¹⁶A gracious woman holds fast to honor,

                    but the arrogant hold fast to wealth.

                ¹⁷A kindly man does good for himself,

                    but a cruel man blights his own flesh.

                ¹⁸The wicked man makes a false profit,

                    but who sows righteousness reaps true reward.

                ¹⁹A righteous son is for life,

                    but the pursuer of evil—for his death.

                ²⁰The LORD’s loathing are the crooked of heart,

                    but His pleasure, whose way is blameless.

                ²¹Count on it, the evil will not go scot-free,

                    but the seed of the righteous escapes.

                ²²A golden ring in the snout of a pig,

                    a lovely woman who lacks good sense.

                ²³The desire of the righteous is only good.

                    The hope of the wicked is wrath.

                ²⁴One man is spendthrift and gains all the more,

                    another saves honestly but comes to want.

                ²⁵A benign person will flourish,

                    and he who slakes others’ thirst, his own thirst is slaked.

                ²⁶Who holds back grain the nation will damn,

                    but blessing on the provider’s head.

                ²⁷Who seeks out good pursues favor,

                    but who looks for evil, it will come to him.

                ²⁸Who trusts in his wealth, he will fall,

                    but like a leaf the righteous will burgeon.

                ²⁹Who blights his house will inherit the wind,

                    and the dolt is a slave to the wise of heart.

                ³⁰The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,

                    and the wise man draws in people.

                ³¹If the righteous on earth is requited,

                    how much more the wicked offender.