Proverbs 16:16–19

PROVERBS CHAPTER 16.

V. 16. How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! its value being so immeasurably greater, and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver! If a person should gain the wealth of the whole world, such an acquisition could not compare with that of true wisdom.

V. 17. The highway of the upright; their entire conduct, is to depart from evil, they avoid it by following the highway of strict piety; he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul, for it is by a careful following of God’s will and Word that a person keeps his soul from spiritual and eternal death.

V. 18. Pride goeth before destruction, for self-exaltation blinds a person against dangers and against the growing resentment of other people and thus hastens his fall, and an haughty spirit before a fall, the herald of the proud person’s overthrow.

V. 19. Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, to abide with those who are in trouble, content to lead a life of obscurity, than to divide the spoil with the proud, enjoying the ill-gotten gains of false ambition.