Proverbs 19

Integrity with empty pockets beats a crooked mouth with full ones. The verse prices character above circumstance and says so as a straight comparison.

Eagerness without information is not a virtue. The verse pairs an empty head with fast feet and says the combination goes wrong.

A man wrecks his own road and then takes it up with God. The verse describes a reflex most people recognize once it is named.

Money attracts company and poverty scatters it. The verse reports how this works without pretending it should.

Perjury does not stay buried. The verse says it twice, in two ways, and both halves say the same thing on purpose.

Generous men attract crowds, and the crowd is not always about the man. The verse observes what gifts buy.

Poverty costs a man his family, then his friends, then his dignity as he chases people who will not turn around. The verse follows the loss all the way down.

Pursuing wisdom is an act of self-care, not self-improvement. The verse calls it loving your own life.

The chapter repeats itself and raises the stakes. "Will not escape" becomes "shall perish."

Some things do not belong together. The verse names two arrangements that look wrong because they put weight where it cannot be carried.

Insight slows a person down, and the slowing is not weakness. The verse calls letting an offense go a man's glory.

Power has weather. The same man is a lion one day and morning dew the next, and both images are about what it is like to live underneath him.

Two domestic miseries, one sudden and one relentless. The verse is about what home trouble does over time, not about what women are.

Property comes down through a family. A good marriage does not, and the verse says where it does come from.

Slack habits deepen into something heavier than habit, and an empty table follows. The verse traces a slide, not a moral category.

Paying attention to how you live keeps you alive. The verse is about the preservation of a life, not about the destination of a soul.

God treats kindness to a poor person as a loan made to Himself. The verse is about how seriously He takes it, not about a return on investment.

Correct your child while correction can still do something, and never let the correcting become the harm. Both halves are commands, and the second one restrains the first.

An angry man collects consequences, and pulling him out of them just schedules the next rescue. The verse is addressed to the rescuer.

Take advice now so that the man you become later has something to work with. The verse is a long-range appeal.

You will make many plans. One counsel outlasts them, and the verse says whose.

Loyal kindness is what makes a person worth having. The verse then says a poor honest man beats a liar, whatever the liar can offer.

Living oriented toward God is a way of life that tends toward life. The verse describes a settled existence; it does not issue an insurance policy.

He got his hand into the food and could not finish the trip. The verse is a joke, and the joke is the argument.

Different people need different things, and some learn only by watching what happens to somebody else. The verse sorts by teachability, not by worth.

A grown child who plunders his parents disgraces himself. The verse describes predation, not distance.

Stop listening and you will drift. The verse states it as a dare rather than a warning, and the sarcasm is deliberate.

A corrupt witness makes a mockery of the very thing a court exists for. The second line says he has an appetite for it.

The consequences are already made up. The chapter ends by saying the outcome is not improvised.