Fake Weights (Not to be Confused with "Shake Weights")
- The wise advice continues. God hates it when people try to scam others with fake weights and balances—just don't do it.
- Pride has wholly negative effects, but humble people have wisdom.
- Upright people are saved by their integrity, but crooked and devious people ruin themselves.
- The proverbs continue all repeating a very similar theme: the good qualities of righteous people save them, the bad qualities of wicked people lead to their own destruction.
- Riches can't save you; only your good qualities can lead you to salvation, keep you in bliss after death.
- The righteous benefit the places where the live, but naturally, the wicked really don't—people are glad when they get their just deserts.
Metaphorical Nostril Piercings
- Gossip and belittling others is for fools—but avoiding these things and seeking wise counsel is for righteous and right-minded people.
- The proverbs continue by contrasting the righteous and unrighteous, wise and foolish, kind and cruel: things work out for the first category and not for the latter.
- Gracious women receive honor, but women who lack virtue find shame, etc. The aggressive are noted for being good at earning wealth, the timid for being bad at it.
- The writer says that a beautiful woman without good sense is like "a gold ring in a pig's snout."
- Giving freely doesn't necessarily cause you to become poor—and being a miser won't save you from ruin. So, generosity is a good thing.
- One should seek good instead of favor—since good leads to favor. But if you just search for favor, it will lead to misfortune.
- Similarly, putting confidence in riches alone leads to destruction.
- Also, troubling your household is a bad idea—you just inherit "wind."
- In the end, the author recaps how good righteousness is and how bad wickedness and its effects are.