New International Version

Proverbs 24:27-34 New International Version (NIV)

27. Put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.

28. Do not testify against your neighbor without cause— would you use your lips to mislead?

29. Do not say, “I’ll do to them as they have done to me; I’ll pay them back for what they did.”

30. I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense;

31. thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins.

32. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw:

33. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—

34. and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.