Proverbs 21

God Examines Our Motives ¹Good leadership is a channel of water controlled by GOD; he directs it to whatever ends he chooses.

²    We justify our actions by appearances;
   God examines our motives.

³    Clean living before God and justice with our neighbors
   mean far more to GOD than religious performance.

⁴    Arrogance and pride—distinguishing marks in the wicked—
   are just plain sin.

⁵    Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run;
   hurry and scurry puts you further behind.

⁶    Make it to the top by lying and cheating;
   get paid with smoke and a promotion—to death!

⁷    The wicked get buried alive by their loot
   because they refuse to use it to help others.

⁸    Mixed motives twist life into tangles;
   pure motives take you straight down the road.

Do Your Best, Prepare for the Worst ⁹ Better to live alone in a tumbledown shack
   than share a mansion with a nagging spouse.

¹⁰    Wicked souls love to make trouble;
   they feel nothing for friends and neighbors.

¹¹    Simpletons only learn the hard way,
   but the wise learn by listening.

¹²    A God-loyal person will see right through the wicked
   and undo the evil they've planned.

¹³    If you stop your ears to the cries of the poor,
   your cries will go unheard, unanswered.

¹⁴    A quietly given gift soothes an irritable person;
   a heartfelt present cools a hot temper.

¹⁵    Good people celebrate when justice triumphs,
   but for the workers of evil it's a bad day.

¹⁶    Whoever wanders off the straight and narrow
   ends up in a congregation of ghosts.

¹⁷    You're addicted to thrills? What an empty life!
   The pursuit of pleasure is never satisfied.

¹⁸    What a bad person plots against the good, boomerangs;
   the plotter gets it in the end.

¹⁹    Better to live in a tent in the wild
   than with a cross and petulant spouse.

²⁰    Valuables are safe in a wise person's home;
   fools put it all out for yard sales.

²¹    Whoever goes hunting for what is right and kind
   finds life itself—glorious life!

²²    One sage entered a whole city of armed soldiers—
   their trusted defenses fell to pieces!

²³    Watch your words and hold your tongue;
   you'll save yourself a lot of grief.

²⁴    You know their names—Brash, Impudent, Blasphemer—
   intemperate hotheads, every one.

²⁵    Lazy people finally die of hunger
   because they won't get up and go to work.

²⁶    Sinners are always wanting what they don't have;
   the God-loyal are always giving what they do have.

²⁷    Religious performance by the wicked stinks;
   it's even worse when they use it to get ahead.

²⁸    A lying witness is unconvincing;
   a person who speaks truth is respected.

²⁹    Unscrupulous people fake it a lot;
   honest people are sure of their steps.

³⁰    Nothing clever, nothing conceived, nothing contrived,
   can get the better of GOD.

³¹    Do your best, prepare for the worst—
   then trust GOD to bring victory.