World English Bible
- Don’t be envious of evil men, neither desire to be with them;
- for their hearts plot violence and their lips talk about mischief.
- Through wisdom a house is built; by understanding it is established;
- by knowledge the rooms are filled with all rare and beautiful treasure.
- A wise man has great power. A knowledgeable man increases strength,
- for by wise guidance you wage your war, and victory is in many advisors.
- Wisdom is too high for a fool. He doesn’t open his mouth in the gate.
- One who plots to do evil will be called a schemer.
- The schemes of folly are sin. The mocker is detested by men.
- If you falter in the time of trouble, your strength is small.
- Rescue those who are being led away to death! Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter!
- If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this,” doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it? Shall he not give to every man according to his work?
- My son, eat honey, for it is good, the droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to your taste;
- so you shall know wisdom to be to your soul. If you have found it, then there will be a reward: Your hope will not be cut off.
- Don’t lay in wait, wicked man, against the habitation of the righteous. Don’t destroy his resting place;
- for a righteous man falls seven times and rises up again, but the wicked are overthrown by calamity.
- Don’t rejoice when your enemy falls. Don’t let your heart be glad when he is overthrown,
- lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.
- Don’t fret yourself because of evildoers, neither be envious of the wicked;
- for there will be no reward to the evil man. The lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.
- My son, fear the LORD and the king. Don’t join those who are rebellious,
- for their calamity will rise suddenly. Who knows what destruction may come from them both?
- These also are sayings of the wise: To show partiality in judgment is not good.
- He who says to the wicked, “You are righteous,” peoples will curse him, and nations will abhor him—
- but it will go well with those who convict the guilty, and a rich blessing will come on them.
- An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.
- Prepare your work outside, and get your fields ready. Afterwards, build your house.
- Don’t be a witness against your neighbor without cause. Don’t deceive with your lips.
- Don’t say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will repay the man according to his work.”
- I went by the field of the sluggard, by the vineyard of the man void of understanding.
- Behold, it was all grown over with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.
- Then I saw, and considered well. I saw, and received instruction:
- a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep,
- so your poverty will come as a robber and your want as an armed man.
Proverbs 24 is filled with threatened structures: a house being built, a righteous home attacked, a field prepared, a vineyard abandoned, and a stone wall collapsing. Wisdom here is not merely the ability to make good decisions. It is God’s power working through human faithfulness to resist ruin.
Evil often appears impressive because we see its finished monuments but not its rotten foundations. Thus the chapter begins by warning us not to envy the wicked. Violence can build quickly; wisdom builds slowly. The Hebrew word bayit, “house,” may mean both a building and a household. Wisdom establishes not only walls, therefore, but generations—habits, loves, memories, and ways of worship that will outlive us.
Augustine described virtue as rightly ordered love. Proverbs 24 shows what that looks like. The wise heart refuses both envy when the wicked rise and delight when an enemy falls. These seem like opposite reactions, yet both make another person’s fortune the center of our peace. Holy love is freer: it grieves evil without craving the evildoer’s destruction.
Verse 12 speaks of God weighing hearts. Later, after passing the neglected vineyard, the sage says in the World English Bible, “Then I saw, and considered well.” The Hebrew expression is stronger: he “set his heart” upon what he saw. God examines the heart; wisdom teaches us to place our own heart before reality and receive correction.
The ruined vineyard did not collapse in one dramatic act. Its destruction came through repeated littles: a little sleep, a little folding of the hands. Much spiritual poverty arrives this way—not through open rebellion, but through small permissions. Prayer is postponed. Resentment is entertained. Another person’s suffering becomes background scenery. Eventually the wall is gone.
That is why the command to rescue those being led to death stands at the chapter’s center. In the ancient world, this could describe people dragged toward execution through corrupt judgment—the same setting suggested by references to the city gate, where legal cases were heard. Biblical wisdom is never merely private serenity. It enters public injustice, rejects partiality, and refuses the excuse, “We did not know.” The God who weighs hearts knows when ignorance has been carefully cultivated.
The righteous person falls seven times. Seven signifies fullness: the righteous may suffer the full measure of adversity, yet suffering does not receive the final word. This is not confidence in human toughness but in God’s preserving grace.
Here the chapter leans toward Christ. He was condemned by partial judges, led away to death, and laid in the deepest ruin. Yet he rose. Because our Rescuer has risen, falling is no longer the same as being forsaken.
Even the chapter’s honey carries this hope. Excavations at Tel Rehov uncovered rows of ancient clay beehives, evidence that honey production was carefully cultivated in Israel. Sweetness required patient tending. So does wisdom. Tend it today, and hope will not be cut off.
Suggested cross-references: Psalm 37:1–24; Isaiah
58:6–7; Matthew 7:24–27; Romans 12:17–21; James 2:1–9
Suggested hymn: “God of Grace and God of Glory”
Lord of the rising and the ruined, expose the neglected fields within me. Free me from envy, revenge, and chosen blindness. Give me courage to rescue the threatened, patience to build wisely, and faith to rise again through Christ. Amen.