CHAPTER 24
1 Pursue [or follow] thou not evil men, desire thou not to be with them.
2 For the soul of them bethinketh on ravens, and their lips speak frauds.
3 An house shall be builded by wisdom, and it shall be made strong by prudence, or understanding.
4 [The] Cellars shall be filled in teaching, with all riches precious and full fair.
5 A wise man is strong, and a learned man is stalworth[y] and mighty.
6 For why battle is begun with ordinance; and health shall be, where many counsels be.
7 Wisdom is high to a fool; in the gate he shall not open his mouth.
8 He that thinketh to do evils, shall be called a fool.
9 The thought of a fool is sin; and a backbiter is abomination of men.
10 If thou hast slid, despairest in the day of anguish, thy strength shall be made less.
11 Deliver thou them, that be led to death; and cease thou not to deliver them, that be drawn to death.
12 If thou sayest, Strengths or Strong-holds suffice not; he that is [the] beholder of the heart, understandeth, and nothing deceiveth the keeper of thy soul, and he shall yield to a man after his works.
13 My son, eat thou honey, for it is good; and the honeycomb for it is full sweet to thy throat.
14 So and the teaching of wisdom is good to thy soul; and when thou hast found it, thou shalt have hope in the last things, and thine hope shall not perish.
15 Ambush thou not, and seek not wickedness in the house of a just [or rightwise] man, neither waste thou, his resting place.
16 For a just [or rightwise] man shall fall seven times in the day, and shall rise again; but wicked men shall fall into evil.
17 When thine enemy falleth, have thou not joy; and thine heart have not full out joying in his falling;
18 lest peradventure the Lord see, and it displease him, and he take away his ire [or his wrath] from him.
19 Strive thou not with the worst men, neither pursue [or follow] thou wicked men.
20 For why evil men have not hope of things to come, and the lantern of wicked men shall be quenched.
21 My son, dread thou God, and the king; and be thou not meddled [or mingled] with backbiters.
22 For their perdition shall rise together suddenly, and who knoweth the fall of ever either?
23 Also these things that pursue be to wise men. It is not good to know a person in doom.
24 Peoples shall curse them that say to a wicked man, Thou art just [or rightwise]; and lineages shall hold them abominable.
25 They that reprove justly sinners, shall be praised; and blessing shall come [up] on them.
26 He that answereth with rightful [or right] words, shall kiss lips.
27 Make ready thy work withoutforth, and work thy field diligently, that thou build thine house afterward.
28 Be thou not a witness without reasonable cause against thy neighbour; neither flatter thou any man with thy lips.
29 Say thou not, As he did to me, so I shall do to him, and I shall yield to each man after his work.
30 I passed by the field of a slow man, and by the vinery [or the vineyard] of a fond [or foolish] man;
31 and lo! nettles had filled all, thorns had covered the higher part thereof, and the wall of stones without mortar was destroyed.
32 And when I had seen this thing, I setted [or put] in mine heart, and by ensample, I learned teaching.
33 How long sleepest thou, slow man? when shalt thou rise from sleep? Soothly thou shalt sleep a little, thou shalt nap a little, thou shalt join together the hands a little, to take rest;
34 and then thy neediness as a courier shall come to thee, and thy beggary as an armed man.