1 - A wise judge shall judge his people, and the government of a prudent man shall be steady.
2 - As the judge of the people is himself, so also are his ministers: and what manner of man the ruler of a city is, such also are they that dwell therein.
3 - An unwise king shall be the ruin of his people: and cities shall be inhabited through the prudence of the rulers.
4 - The power of the earth is in the hand of God, and in his time he will raise up a profitable ruler over it.
5 - The prosperity of man is in the hand of God, and upon the person of the scribe he shall lay his honour.
6 - Remember not any injury done thee by thy neighbour, and do thou nothing by deeds of injury.
7 - Pride is hateful before God and men: and all iniquity of nations is execrable.
8 - A kingdom is translated from one people to another, because of injustices, and wrongs, and injuries, and divers deceits.
9 - But nothing is more wicked than the covetous man. Why is earth, and ashes proud?
10 - There is not a more wicked thing than to love money: for such a one setteth even his own soul to sale: because while he liveth he hath cast away his bowels.
11 - All power is of short life. A long sickness is troublesome to the physician.
12 - The physician cutteth off a short sickness: so also a king is to day, and to morrow he shall die.
13 - For when a man shall die, he shall inherit serpents, and beasts, and worms.
14 - The beginning of the pride of man, is to fall off from God:
15 - Because his heart is departed from him that made him: for pride is the beginning of all sin: he that holdeth it, shall be filled with maledictions, and it shall ruin him in the end.
16 - Therefore hath the Lord disgraced the assemblies of the wicked, and hath utterly destroyed them.
17 - God hath overturned the thrones of proud princes, and hath set up the meek in their stead.
18 - God hath made the roots of proud nations to wither, and hath planted the humble of these nations.
19 - The Lord hath overthrown the lands of the Gentiles, and hath destroyed them even to the foundation.
20 - He hath made some of them to wither away, and hath destroyed them, and hath made the memory of them to cease from the earth.
21 - God hath abolished the memory of the proud, and hath preserved the memory of them that are humble in mind.
22 - Pride was not made for men: nor wrath for the race of women.
23 - That seed of men shall be honoured, which feareth God: but that seed shall be dishonoured, which transgresseth the commandments of the Lord.
24 - In the midst of brethren their chief is honourable: so shall they that fear the Lord, be in his eyes.
25 - The fear of God is the glory of the rich, and of the honourable, and of the poor.
26 - Despise not a just man that is poor, and do not magnify a sinful man that is rich.
27 - The great man, and the judge, and the mighty is in honour: and there is none greater than he that feareth God.
28 - They that are free shall serve a servant that is wise: and a man that is prudent and well instructed will not murmur when he is reproved; and he that is ignorant, shall not be honoured.
29 - Extol not thyself in doing thy work, and linger not in the time of distress;
30 - Better is he that laboureth, and aboundeth in all things, than he that boasteth himself and wanteth bread.
31 - My son, keep thy soul in meekness, and give it honour according to its desert.
32 - Who will justify him that sinneth against his own soul? and who will honour him that dishonoureth his own soul?
33 - The poor man is glorified by his discipline and fear, and there is a man that is honoured for his wealth.
34 - But he that is glorified in poverty, how much more in wealth? and he that is glorified in wealth, let him fear poverty.
