The Proverbs

Chapter 20

Various observations of moral virtues, and their contrary vices, 1-30.

1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whoever is deceived by it is not wise.

2 The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion. Whoever provokes him to anger sins against his own soul.

3 It is an honor for a man to cease from strife, but every fool will be meddling.

4 The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore, he shall beg in harvest and have nothing.


6 Most men will each proclaim his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man?

7 The just man walks in his integrity. His children are blessed after him.


9 Who can say, "I have made my heart clean. I am pure from my sin"?

10 Diverse weights and diverse measures, both of them are alike abominations to the LORD.

11 Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work is pure and whether it is right.

12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the LORD has made even both of them.

13 Do not love sleep, lest you come to poverty. Open your eyes, and you shall be satisfied with bread.

14 "It is nothing, it is nothing," says the buyer, but when he is gone, then he boasts.


16 Take his garment who is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.

17 Bread of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth shall be filled with gravel.

18 Every purpose is established by counsel, and with good advice make war.

19 He who goes about as a gossiper reveals secrets; therefore, do not meddle with him who flatters with his lips.


21 An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but its end shall not be blessed.

22 Do not say, "I will recompense evil." But wait on the LORD, and he shall save you.

23 Diverse weights are an abomination to the LORD, and a false balance is not good.

24 Man's goings are of the LORD. How can a man then understand his own way?

25 It is a snare to the man who devours that which is holy, and later vows to make inquiry.

26 A wise king scatters the wicked, and brings the wheel over them.


28 Mercy and truth preserve the king, and his throne is upheld by mercy.

29 The glory of young men is their strength, and the beauty of old men is the gray head.

30 The blueness of a wound cleanses away evil, and so do stripes to the inward parts of the belly.


Matthew Henry Commentary - Proverbs, Chapter 20


John Gill's Chapter Summary:


[v.23] - Reference, Deuteronomy 25:13-14; Proverbs 11:1.