Proverbs 20:18

⁶for by wise guidance you wage your war, and victory is in many advisors.

²²Where there is no counsel, plans fail; but in a multitude of counselors they are established.

³¹Or what king, as he goes to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?

¹⁴Where there is no wise guidance, the nation falls, but in the multitude of counselors there is victory.

¹After the death of Joshua, the children of Israel asked of the LORD, saying, “^[+] Who should go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them?”

²The LORD said, “Judah shall go up. Behold, ^[+] I have delivered the land into his hand.”

¹⁸The children of Israel arose, went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God. They asked, “Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Benjamin?” The LORD said, “Judah first.”

²⁶Then Abner called to Joab, and said, “Shall the sword devour forever? Don’t you know that it will be bitterness in the latter end? How long will it be then, before you ask the people to return from following their brothers?”

²⁷Joab said, “As God ^[+] lives, if you had not spoken, surely then in the morning the people would have gone away, and not each followed his brother.”

⁷Behold, you children of Israel, all of you, give here your advice and counsel.”

¹⁷Then Amaziah king of Judah consulted his advisers, and sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, “Come! Let’s look one another in the face.”

¹⁸Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, “The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son as his wife. Then a wild animal that was in Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thistle. ¹⁹You say to yourself that you have struck Edom; and your heart lifts you up to boast. Now stay at home. Why should you meddle with trouble, that you should fall, even you and Judah with you?’”

²⁰But Amaziah would not listen; for it was of God, that he might deliver them into the hand of their enemies, because they had sought after the gods of Edom. ²¹So Joash king of Israel went up, and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Beth Shemesh, which belongs to Judah. ²²Judah was defeated by Israel; so every man fled to his tent.

²³Joash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth Shemesh and brought him to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits.

⁸Don’t be hasty in bringing charges to court. What will you do in the end when your neighbor shames you?