Proverbs 27:13-27

Get security from someone who guarantees a stranger’s debt. Get a deposit if he does it for foreigners. A loud and cheerful greeting early in the morning will be taken as a curse! A quarrelsome wife is as annoying as constant dripping on a rainy day. Stopping her complaints is like trying to stop the wind or trying to hold something with greased hands. As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. As workers who tend a fig tree are allowed to eat the fruit, so workers who protect their employer’s interests will be rewarded. As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person. Just as Death and Destruction are never satisfied, so human desire is never satisfied. Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but a person is tested by being praised. You cannot separate fools from their foolishness, even though you grind them like grain with mortar and pestle. Know the state of your flocks, and put your heart into caring for your herds, for riches don’t last forever, and the crown might not be passed to the next generation. After the hay is harvested and the new crop appears and the mountain grasses are gathered in, your sheep will provide wool for clothing, and your goats will provide the price of a field. And you will have enough goats’ milk for yourself, your family, and your servant girls.