Proverbs 20
Big idea: Two images anchor this run, and both are about inspection. A scale — differing weights, named an abomination twice in eleven verses, which for a collection that rarely repeats itself is emphasis. And a lamp: the spirit of man is Yahweh's lamp, searching the innermost parts. Between them sit the ordinary failures a scale and a lamp would catch, and the run's most honest line asks who could survive either: who can say, I have made my heart pure?
Chapter 20 is a run about weighing and being weighed. Chapter 21 is another from the same collection, and it starts higher up — with the king's own heart being turned.
20:1–15 — Wine, the sluggard, and the deep water in a man
Fifteen couplets about things that are hard to see into — a drinker who thinks he is fine, a man's actual reasoning, a merchant's bag of stones, a buyer's real opinion. Verse 9 is the run's centre and the collection's least comfortable question, sitting in a book otherwise confident about telling the righteous from the wicked.
1 Wine is a mocker and beer is a brawler. Whoever is led astray by them is not wise. 2 The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion. He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life. 3 It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling. 4 The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter; therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing. 5 Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. 6 Many men claim to be men of unfailing love, but who can find a faithful man? 7 A righteous man walks in integrity. Blessed are his children after him. 8 A king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters away all evil with his eyes. 9 Who can say, “I have made my heart pure. I am clean and without sin”? 10 Differing weights and differing measures, both of them alike are an abomination to Yahweh. 11 Even a child makes himself known by his doings, whether his work is pure, and whether it is right. 12 The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, Yahweh has made even both of them. 13 Don’t love sleep, lest you come to poverty. Open your eyes, and you shall be satisfied with bread. 14 “It’s no good, it’s no good,” says the buyer; but when he is gone his way, then he boasts. 15 There is gold and abundance of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a rare jewel.
20:16–30 — Yahweh's lamp, and the steps a man cannot see
Fifteen couplets that keep coming back to what a man cannot audit himself. He cannot see his own steps (verse 24), cannot search his own innermost parts without a lamp he did not light (verse 27), and — per verse 23, repeating verse 10 — cannot be trusted with his own scales. The run also contains the collection's clearest instruction about revenge, which is simply to wait.
16 Take the garment of one who puts up collateral for a stranger; and hold him in pledge for a wayward woman. 17 Fraudulent food is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth is filled with gravel. 18 Plans are established by advice; by wise guidance you wage war! 19 He who goes about as a tale-bearer reveals secrets; therefore don’t keep company with him who opens wide his lips. 20 Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in blackness of darkness. 21 An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning won’t be blessed in the end. 22 Don’t say, “I will pay back evil.” Wait for Yahweh, and he will save you. 23 Yahweh detests differing weights, and dishonest scales are not pleasing. 24 A man’s steps are from Yahweh; how then can man understand his way? 25 It is a snare to a man to make a rash dedication, then later to consider his vows. 26 A wise king winnows out the wicked, and drives the threshing wheel over them. 27 The spirit of man is Yahweh’s lamp, searching all his innermost parts. 28 Love and faithfulness keep the king safe. His throne is sustained by love. 29 The glory of young men is their strength. The splendor of old men is their gray hair. 30 Wounding blows cleanse away evil, and beatings purge the innermost parts.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).