| Proverbs Proverbs 1 |
The Proverbs of Solomon 1 Kgs. 4.32 the son of David, king of Israel:
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| 2 |
To know wisdom and instruction;
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| to perceive the words of understanding; | | |
| 3 |
to receive the instruction of wisdom,
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| justice, and judgment, and equity; | | |
| 4 |
to give subtilty to the simple,
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| to the young man knowledge and discretion. | | |
| 5 |
A wise man will hear, and will increase learning;
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| and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: | | |
| 6 |
to understand a proverb, and the interpretation;
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| the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
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| 7 |
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: Job. 28.28 · Ps. 111.10 · Prov. 9.10
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| but fools despise wisdom and instruction. | | |
Wisdom's Warning |
| 8 |
My son, hear the instruction of thy father,
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| and forsake not the law of thy mother: | | |
| 9 |
for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head,
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| and chains about thy neck. | | |
| 10 |
My son, if sinners entice thee,
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| 11 |
If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood,
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| let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: | | |
| 12 |
let us swallow them up alive as the grave;
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| and whole, as those that go down into the pit: | | |
| 13 |
we shall find all precious substance,
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| we shall fill our houses with spoil: | | |
| 14 |
cast in thy lot among us;
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| let us all have one purse: | | |
| 15 |
my son, walk not thou in the way with them;
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| refrain thy foot from their path: | | |
| 16 |
for their feet run to evil,
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| and make haste to shed blood. | | |
| 17 |
Surely in vain the net is spread
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| in the sight of any bird. | | |
| 18 |
And they lay wait for their own blood;
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| they lurk privily for their own lives. | | |
| 19 |
So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain;
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| which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
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| 20 |
Wisdom crieth without;
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| she uttereth her voice in the streets: | | |
| 21 |
she crieth in the chief place of concourse,
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| in the openings of the gates: |
| in the city she uttereth her words, Prov. 8.1-3 saying, | | |
| 22 |
How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?
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| and the scorners delight in their scorning, |
| and fools hate knowledge? | | |
| 23 |
Turn you at my reproof:
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| behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, |
| I will make known my words unto you. | | |
| 24 |
Because I have called, and ye refused;
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| I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; | | |
| 25 |
but ye have set at nought all my counsel,
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| and would none of my reproof: | | |
| 26 |
I also will laugh at your calamity;
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| I will mock when your fear cometh; | | |
| 27 |
when your fear cometh as desolation,
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| and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; |
| when distress and anguish cometh upon you. | | |
| 28 |
Then shall they call upon me,
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| but I will not answer; |
| they shall seek me early, |
| but they shall not find me: | | |
| 29 |
for that they hated knowledge,
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| and did not choose the fear of the LORD: | | |
| 30 |
they would none of my counsel:
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| they despised all my reproof. | | |
| 31 |
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way,
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| and be filled with their own devices. | | |
| 32 |
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them,
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| and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. | | |
| 33 |
But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely,
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| and shall be quiet from fear of evil. | | |