28:1 The vengeful will suffer the LORD’s vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail.
28:2 Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.
28:3 Should a man nourish anger against his fellows and expect healing from the LORD?
28:4 Should a man refuse mercy to his fellows, yet seek pardon for his own sins?
28:5 If he who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins?
28:6 Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin!
28:7 Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor; of the Most High’s covenant, and overlook faults.
28:8 Avoid strife and your sins will be fewer, for a quarrelsome man kindles disputes,
28:9 Commits the sin of disrupting friendship and sows discord among those at peace.
28:10 The more wood, the greater the fire, the more underlying it, the fiercer the fight; The greater a man’s strength, the sterner his anger, the greater his power, the greater his wrath.
28:11 Pitch and resin make fires flare up, and insistent quarrels provoke bloodshed.
28:12 If you blow upon a spark, it quickens into flame, if you spit on it, it dies out; yet both you do with your mouth!
28:13 Cursed be gossips and the double-tongued, for they destroy the peace of many.
28:14 A meddlesome tongue subverts many, and makes them refugees among the peoples; It destroys walled cities, and overthrows powerful dynasties.
28:15 A meddlesome tongue can drive virtuous women from their homes and rob them of the fruit of their toil;
28:16 Whoever heeds it has no rest, nor can he dwell in peace.
28:17 A blow from a whip raises a welt, but a blow from the tongue smashes bones;
28:18 Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not as many as by the tongue.
28:19 Happy he who is sheltered from it, and has not endured its wrath; Who has not borne its yoke nor been fettered with its chain;
28:20 For its yoke is a yoke of iron and its chains are chains of bronze!
28:21 Dire is the death it inflicts, besides which even the nether world is a gain;
28:22 It will not take hold among the just nor scorch them in its flame,
28:23 But those who forsake the LORD will fall victims to it, as it burns among them unquenchably! It will hurl itself against them like a lion; like a panther, it will tear them to pieces.
28:24 As you hedge round your vineyard with thorns, set barred doors over your mouth;
28:25 As you seal up your silver and gold, so balance and weigh your words.
28:26 Take care not to slip by your tongue and fall victim to your foe waiting in ambush.