Poor and rich people
1It is better to be poor
and have an honest life
than to deceive people and be foolish.
2It is not good to try and do things
if you don't know how to do them.
If you hurry and do something too quickly,
you will make mistakes.
3People destroy their lives
when they do foolish things,
but then they blame the Lord
and say it is his fault.
4When someone is rich,
he has a lot of friends,
but if he becomes poor,
he has no friends.
5A false_witness will be punished,
and someone who tells lies
will not escape.
6Everyone wants to be friends
with important people.
They want to please someone
who gives away gifts.
7A poor man's brothers do not like him,
and his friends like him even less.
They stay away from him.
When he really needs them,
they are not there to help him.
8Someone who learns to be wise
is doing something good to himself
and loves his life.
If you love wisdom, you will succeed.
9The Lord will punish a false_witness.
Someone who tells lies will not live.
10People will be surprised
when they see a fool who is rich,
and they will be even more surprised
to see a slave who rules over leaders.
11A wise man
does not become angry quickly.
He always wants to forgive
the mistakes of other people.
12When a king is angry,
everyone must be afraid of him,
like a lion that roars.
But when the king is friendly,
it is as good as dew on the grass.
13A foolish child brings
a lot of trouble to his father.
When a woman keeps on complaining,
it is like water dripping
through the roof of a house.
14You can inherit a house
and money from your forefathers,
but it is only the Lord
who can give you a wise wife.
15A lazy person wants to sleep all day,
but someone who does not want to work
will not have any food to eat.
16People who obey
the commandments of the Lord will live.
Anyone who does not want to listen to God
will not have true_life.
17When you are good to a poor man
and help him,
you are lending money to the Lord,
and He will reward you and pay you back.
18You must teach your children
to be good,
and then they will live in the right way.
Do not let them become sinful
and destroy their lives.
19A person who gets angry quickly
will always have trouble and be punished.
If you want to help him,
you will have to help him again and again.
20If you listen to what people
teach you and you learn from them,
you will have wisdom in the end.
21People make a lot of plans
about what they want to do,
but what the Lord decides is what will happen.
22The most important thing
that you want from other people
is for them to be faithful.
It is better to be poor than to be a liar.
23Someone who respects the Lord
and serves Him will have true_life.
He will have enough to eat and sleep well.
Nothing bad will happen to him.
24A lazy man puts his hand
in the bowl to take food,
but he is too lazy to bring back
his hand to his mouth.
25If you beat someone who laughs at wisdom,
other fools will learn something.
If you teach a wise man something,
he will get more knowledge.
26It is very sad when a child
does something bad to his parents
and chases them away.
He should be ashamed.
27My son, if you stop learning,
you will always be a fool and forget
what you have already learned.
28A witness who tells lies
makes the court unfair.
Sinful people love to do things that are wrong.
29God will punish people
who laugh at wisdom.
They will beat fools on their backs.
