Context No. 2839 of 4322 · Proverbs

Proverbs 20:1-16: in context

1Wine is a mocker and beer is a brawler. Whoever is led astray by them is not wise. 2The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion. He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life. 3It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling. 4The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter; therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing. 5Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. 6Many men claim to be men of unfailing love, but who can find a faithful man? 7A righteous man walks in integrity. Blessed are his children after him. 8A king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters away all evil with his eyes. 9Who can say, “I have made my heart pure. I am clean and without sin”? 10Differing weights and differing measures, both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD. 11Even a child makes himself known by his doings, whether his work is pure, and whether it is right. 12The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD has made even both of them. 13Don’t love sleep, lest you come to poverty. Open your eyes, and you shall be satisfied with bread. 14“It’s no good, it’s no good,” says the buyer; but when he is gone his way, then he boasts. 15There is gold and abundance of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a rare jewel. 16Take the garment of one who puts up collateral for a stranger; and hold him in pledge for a wayward woman.

This run of proverbs circles again and again to one uncomfortable subject: honesty, about our dealings and about our own hearts. Wine is a mocker; it is an honor to avoid strife; the sluggard who will not plow begs at harvest. And then the piercing question: who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?

That question undercuts any pretense of self-made purity. And the proverb about differing weights, one scale for buying and a lighter one for selling, exposes the everyday dishonesty of tilting things quietly in our own favor, which God calls an abomination. Even the buyer who says, it is no good, it is no good, and then goes off and boasts of his bargain, catches the small lie we tell to get an edge. Wisdom presses toward a life with one honest scale, in the marketplace and in the heart alike.

Do I keep two sets of weights, one strict standard for what I demand of others and a lighter one for myself?

Sources

Proverbs 20:9: "Who can say, I have made my heart pure. I am clean and without sin?"
Proverbs 20:10: "Differing weights and differing measures, both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD."
Luke 6:31: "As you would like people to do to you, do exactly so to them."