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Proverbs 20

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1Wine is a mocker, Strong drink is a brawler, And whoever is led astray by it is not wise. ✦ 2The wrath of a king is like the roaring of a lion; Whoever provokes him to anger sins against his own life. ✦ 3It is honorable for a man to stop striving, Since any fool can start a quarrel. ✦ 4The lazy man will not plow because of winter; He will beg during harvest and have nothing. ✦ 5Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, But a man of understanding will draw it out. ✦ 6Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, But who can find a faithful man? ✦ 7The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him. ✦ 8A king who sits on the throne of judgment Scatters all evil with his eyes. ✦ 9Who can say, “I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin”? ✦ 10Diverse weights and diverse measures, They are both alike, an abomination to the Lord. ✦ 11Even a child is known by his deeds, Whether what he does is pure and right. ✦ 12The hearing ear and the seeing eye, The Lord has made them both. ✦ 13Do not love sleep, lest you come to poverty; Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with bread. ✦ 14“It is good for nothing,” cries the buyer; But when he has gone his way, then he boasts. ✦ 15There is gold and a multitude of rubies, But the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel. ✦ 16Take the garment of one who is surety for a stranger, And hold it as a pledge when it is for a seductress. ✦ 17Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, But afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel. ✦ 18Plans are established by counsel; By wise counsel wage war. ✦ 19He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets; Therefore do not associate with one who flatters with his lips. ✦ 20Whoever curses his father or his mother, His lamp will be put out in deep darkness. ✦ 21An inheritance gained hastily at the beginning Will not be blessed at the end. ✦ 22Do not say, “I will recompense evil”; Wait for the Lord, and He will save you. ✦ 23Diverse weights are an abomination to the Lord, And dishonest scales are not good. ✦ 24A man’s steps are of the Lord; How then can a man understand his own way? ✦ 25It is a snare for a man to devote rashly something as holy, And afterward to reconsider his vows. ✦ 26A wise king sifts out the wicked, And brings the threshing wheel over them. ✦ 27The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, Searching all the inner depths of his heart. ✦ 28Mercy and truth preserve the king, And by lovingkindness he upholds his throne. ✦ 29The glory of young men is their strength, And the splendor of old men is their gray head. ✦ 30Blows that hurt cleanse away evil, As do stripes the inner depths of the heart. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Where this chapter connects

Prov 16 ·12Prov 19 ·7Prov 24 ·6Prov 13 ·6Prov 20 ·5Prov 11 ·5Prov 25 ·5Prov 18 ·4

Christ at the center

Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.

How Proverbs 20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

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Lay

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    A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

  • SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical

    Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

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