Reflections on Proverbs 11

 

Proverbs 11 (Contemporary English Version)


1. The LORD hates anyone who cheats, but he likes everyone who is honest.
   
2. Too much pride can put you to shame. It's wiser to be humble.
   
3. If you do the right thing, honesty will be your guide. But if you are crooked, you will be trapped by your own dishonesty.
   
4. When God is angry, money won't help you. Obeying God is the only way to be saved from death.
   
5. If you are truly good, you will do right; if you are wicked, you will be destroyed by your own sin.
   
6. Honesty can keep you safe, but if you can't be trusted, you trap yourself.
   
7. When the wicked die, their hopes die with them.
   
8. Trouble goes right past the LORD's people and strikes the wicked.
   
9. Dishonest people use gossip to destroy their neighbors; good people are protected by their own good sense.
   
10. When honest people prosper and the wicked disappear, the whole city celebrates.
    
11. When God blesses his people, their city prospers, but deceitful liars can destroy a city.
    
12. It's stupid to say bad things about your neighbors. If you are sensible, you will keep quiet.
    
13. A gossip tells everything, but a true friend will keep a secret.
    
14. A city without wise leaders will end up in ruin; a city with many wise leaders will be kept safe.
    
15. It's a dangerous thing to guarantee payment for someone's debts. Don't do it!
    
16. A gracious woman will be respected, but a man must work hard to get rich.
    
17. Kindness is rewarded-- but if you are cruel, you hurt yourself.
    
18. Meanness gets you nowhere, but goodness is rewarded.
    
19. Always do the right thing, and you will live; keep on doing wrong, and you will die.
    
20. The LORD hates sneaky people, but he likes everyone who lives right.
    
21. You can be sure of this: All crooks will be punished, but God's people won't.
    
22. A beautiful woman who acts foolishly is like a gold ring on the snout of a pig.
    
23. Good people want what is best, but troublemakers hope to stir up trouble.
    
24. Sometimes you can become rich by being generous or poor by being greedy.
    
25. Generosity will be rewarded: Give a cup of water, and you will receive a cup of water in return.
    
26. Charge too much for grain, and you will be cursed; sell it at a fair price, and you will be praised.
    
27. Try hard to do right, and you will win friends; go looking for trouble, and you will find it.
    
28. Trust in your wealth, and you will be a failure, but God's people will prosper like healthy plants.
    
29. Fools who cause trouble in the family won't inherit a thing. They will end up as slaves of someone with good sense.
    
30. Live right, and you will eat from the life-giving tree. And if you act wisely, others will follow.
    
31. If good people are rewarded here on this earth, all who are cruel and mean will surely be punished.
    

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Chapter eleven is a listing of short wisdoms which serves also as a contrasting of the benefits of following wisdom versus not following wisdom. It is clear that wisdom is a choice that is available to everyone and is not something related to intelligence or some other attribute that some can have and others cannot. In Solomon's vernacular, wisdom is equivalent to righteousness and lack of wisdom is equivalent to wickedness. Thus, lack of wisdom and wickedness are used interchangeably to describe those who reject wisdom. Why would this be? Maybe it is related to the issue of choice.  Those who choose not to follow wisdom have wickedness in their hearts that causes them to choose this direction over that of wisdom. Therefore the two go together. Why would one choose not to follow wisdom? As I discussed in chapter 10, it is to have what they want at any expense, even at the disregard of justice and other virtues and at the harm of others. Such a pathway is a rejection of wisdom and leads to wickedness.

But look at the outcomes to rejecting wisdom to which Solomon points in this chapter. It causes one to fall and to be destroyed. It leads to nothing of benefit. It tears down rather than building up. It turns everyone against the person who lacks wisdom (the wicked). The desires of the wicked benefit no one and lead only to destruction. They will not go unpunished.

It is good to read this chapter and make note of its wise practices. Guard against legalism, though. The proverbs should not be made into laws that must be strictly observed with outcomes that are certain. Again, they are wise practices that may not always have observable outcomes, but when consistently practiced will build up one's life and benefit them and others rather than tearing down.