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too many lawyers
Proverbs 17:1-28 (JDV).
Proverbs 17:1 Better a dry crust with peace than a house full of feasting with strife.
Proverbs 17:2 A prudent servant will rule over a disgraceful son and share an inheritance among brothers.
Proverbs 17:3 A crucible is for silver, and a smelter is for gold, and Yahveh is the tester of hearts.
Proverbs 17:4 A wicked person listens to malicious talk; a liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.
Proverbs 17:5 The one who mocks the poor insults his Maker, and one who rejoices over calamity will not go unpunished.
Proverbs 17:6 Grandchildren are the crown of the elderly, and the pride of children is their fathers.
Proverbs 17:7 Eloquent words are not appropriate on a fool’s lips; how much worse are lies for a ruler.
Proverbs 17:8 A bribe seems like a magic stone to its owner; wherever he turns, he succeeds.
Proverbs 17:9 Whoever conceals an offense promotes love, but whoever gossips about it separates friends.
Proverbs 17:10 A rebuke cuts into a perceptive person more than a hundred lashes into a fool.
Proverbs 17:11 An evil person wants only rebellion; a cruel messenger will be sent against him.
Proverbs 17:12 Better for a person to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his foolishness.
Proverbs 17:13 If anyone returns evil for good, evil will never depart from his house.
Proverbs 17:14 You release a flood at the first lawsuit; stop the dispute before it breaks out.
Proverbs 17:15 Acquitting the guilty and condemning the just — both are repulsive to Yahveh.
Proverbs 17:16 Why does a fool have money in his hand with no intention of buying wisdom?
Proverbs 17:17 A friend always loves, and a brother is born for a difficult time.
Proverbs 17:18 One without sense enters an agreement and puts up security for his friend.
Proverbs 17:19 One who loves to offend loves strife; one who builds a high threshold invites injury.
Proverbs 17:20 One with a twisted mind will not succeed, and one with deceitful speech will fall into ruin.
Proverbs 17:21 A man fathers a fool to his own sorrow; the father of a fool has no joy.
Proverbs 17:22 A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
Proverbs 17:23 A wicked person secretly takes a bribe to subvert the course of justice.
Proverbs 17:24 Wisdom is the focus of the perceptive, but a fool’s eyes roam to the ends of the land.
Proverbs 17:25 A foolish son is grief to his father and bitterness to the one who bore him.
Proverbs 17:26 It is certainly not good to fine an innocent person or to beat a noble for his honesty.
Proverbs 17:27 The one who has knowledge restrains his words, and one who keeps a cool head is a person of understanding.
Proverbs 17:28 Even a fool is considered wise when he keeps silent — discerning when he seals his lips.
too many lawyers
David Vignali writes: “The 17th chapter of Proverbs does not contain any proverb that has come to be widely known or quoted in daily use. Therefore I have chosen to comment on verse 14, which says (in the Jerusalem Bible translation), ‘As well loose a flood as initiate legal proceedings; break off before the dispute begins.’
We live in a litigious society. Brooksville, Florida, where I live, has a population of a little more than 7,500 in the city proper and 46 pages of ads in the Yellow Pages for attorneys! One of the problems that has become a concern in Florida is that the law schools here are now producing more graduates every year than there are jobs in the legal field for the newly graduated young people.
God’s Word, here and in several other places, counsels against being involved in legal proceedings with our fellow Christians and with people outside of Christ. Let us try to follow God’s Word and God’s will in our dealings with the people around us.”
Devotions 