| Those who guard their lips preserve their lives, but those who speak rashly will come to ruin. | He who guards his mouth makes his life secure, but one who talks excessively ensures his own downfall. |
| The wise in heart accept commands, but a chattering fool comes to ruin. | A wise man will heed commandments, but a babbling fool will come to grief. |
|
| One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. | Some friends can lead us to ruin, but a true friend is closer than a brother. |
| Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. | However, those who want riches fall into temptations and are trapped into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. |
| Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. | Repent and renounce all your transgressions. Otherwise your iniquity will prove to be your downfall. |
| The way of the Lord is a refuge for the blameless, but it is the ruin of those who do evil. | The way of the Lord is a stronghold for the upright, but destruction for evildoers. |
| The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. | The Lord watches over the stranger and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he blocks the way of the wicked. |
| Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” | Do not let anyone lead you astray. “Bad company corrupts good morals.” |
| With their mouths the godless destroy their neighbors, but through knowledge the righteous escape. | With his mouth the godless man seeks to ruin his neighbor, but knowledge enables the righteous to be delivered. |
| If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. | However, if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you are upright in your dealings with your neighbor; if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow; if you do not shed innocent blood in this place; and if you do not follow other gods and thereby cause your own destruction, then I will allow you to live in this place, in the land that I gave as a permanent gift to your fathers long ago. |
| Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. | Can a woman forget the infant at her breast; or feel no compassion for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you. Behold, I have inscribed your name on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before my eyes. |
