¹ Better is the poor man whose ways are upright, than the man of wealth whose ways are twisted.

⁶ Better is the poor man whose ways are upright, than the man of wealth whose ways are not straight.

⁵ Give ear, my dear brothers; are not those who are poor in the things of this world marked out by God to have faith as their wealth, and for their heritage the kingdom which he has said he will give to those who have love for him?

⁶ But you have put the poor man to shame. Are not the men of wealth rulers over you? do they not take you by force before their judges?

²⁶ For what profit has a man, if he gets all the world with the loss of his life? or what will a man give in exchange for his life?

³¹ So I say to you, Every sin and every evil word against God will have forgiveness; but for evil words against the Spirit there will be no forgiveness.

³² And whoever says a word against the Son of man, will have forgiveness; but whoever says a word against the Holy Spirit, will not have forgiveness in this life or in that which is to come.

³³ Make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for by its fruit you will get knowledge of the tree.

³⁴ You offspring of snakes, how are you, being evil, able to say good things? because out of the heart's store come the words of the mouth.

³ For your hands are unclean with blood, and your fingers with sin; your lips have said false things, and your tongue gives out deceit.

⁷ An upright man goes on in his righteousness: happy are his children after him!

²² The ornament of a man is his mercy, and a poor man is better than one who is false.

⁸ Better is a little with righteousness, than great wealth with wrongdoing.

¹⁶ Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great wealth together with trouble.

² He who goes on his way in righteousness has before him the fear of the Lord; but he whose ways are twisted gives him no honour.

²⁶ The upright man is a guide to his neighbour, but the way of evil-doers is a cause of error to them.

²⁶ All the day he is ready to have mercy and to give; his children are a blessing.

¹¹ But as for me, I will go on in my upright ways: be my saviour, and have mercy on me.

²⁵ Let my lord give no attention to Nabal, that good-for-nothing: for as his name is, so is he, a man without sense: but I, your servant, did not see the young men whom my lord sent.

¹⁷ So now, give thought to what you are going to do; for evil is in store for our master and all his house: for he is such a good-for-nothing person that it is not possible to say anything to him.