The Book of Proverbs Chapter 1 The Proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel. To know wisdom and instruction. To discern the words of understanding. To receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity. to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young man, that the wise man may hear and increase in learning, that the man of understanding may attain to sound counsel, to understand the proverb and parables, the words and riddles of the wise, The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge, but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction. My son, listen to your father's instruction and don't forsake your mother's teaching, for they will be a garland to grace your head and chains around your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, don't consent. If they say, come with us, let's lay in wait for blood. Let's lurk secretly for the innocent without cause. Let's swallow them up alive like Sheol, and whole like those who go down into the pit. We'll find all valuable wealth. We'll fill our houses with plunder. You shall cast your lot among us. We all have one purse. My son, don't walk on the paths with them. Keep your foot from their path, for their feet run to evil. They hurry to shed blood, for in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird. But these lay wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners. Wisdom calls aloud in the streets. She utters her voice in the public squares. She calls at the head of noisy places. At the entrance of the city gate she utters her words. How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery and fools hate knowledge? Turn at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make known my words to you. Because I have called, and you have refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no one has paid attention. But you have ignored all my counsel, and wanted none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you. When calamity overtakes you like a storm, when your disaster comes on like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come on you, Then will they call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me, because they hated knowledge and didn't choose the fear of Yahweh. They wanted none of my counsel. They despised all my reproof. Therefore they will eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own schemes. For the backsliding of the simple will kill them. The careless ease of fools will destroy them. But whoever listens to me will dwell securely and will be at ease without fear of harm. Proverbs 2 My son, if you will receive my words and store my commandments within you, so as to turn your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding. Yes, if you call out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding. If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom. Out of His mouth comes knowledge and understanding. He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, that He may guard the paths of justice and preserve the ways of His saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity, and every good path. For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you, to deliver you from the way of evil. From the men who speak perverse things, who forsake the paths of a brightness, to walk in the ways of darkness. who rejoice to do evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, who are crooked in their ways and wayward in their paths. to deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words, who forsakes a friend of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. For her house leads down to death, her path to the departed spirit. None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the path of life. That you may walk in the way of good men and keep the paths of the righteous. For the upright will dwell in the land, the perfect will remain in it. But the wicked will be cut off from the land, the treacherous will be rooted out of it. Proverbs 3 My son, don't forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and years of life and peace will they add to you. Don't let kindness and truth forsake you. Find them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart, so you will find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight. Don't be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your substance, with the firstfruits of all your increase. So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. My son, don't despise the Lord's discipline, neither be wary of His reproof. For whom the Lord loves, He reproves, even as a father reproves his son in whom he delights. Happy is a man who finds wisdom, the man who gets understanding. For her good profit is better than getting silver, and her return is better than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies. None of the things you can desire to be compared to her. Length of days is in her right hand, in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, all her paths are peace. She is the tree of life to those who lay hold of her, happy is everyone who retains her. By wisdom, the Lord founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the depths were broken up and the skies dropped down the dew. My son, let them not depart from your eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion, so they will be life to your soul and grace for your neck. Then you shall walk in your way securely. Your foot won't stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid. Yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet. Don't be afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked when it comes, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being taken. Don't withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in the power of your hand to do it. Don't say to your neighbor, Go, and come again. Tomorrow I will give to you, when you have it by you. Don't devise evil against your neighbor, since he dwells securely by you. Don't strive with a man without cause, if he has done you no harm. Don't envy the man of violence. Choose none of his ways. For the perverse is an abomination to the Lord, but his friendship is with the upright. The Lord's curse is in the house of the wicked, but he blesses the habitation of the righteous. Surely he mocks the mockers, but he gives grace to the humble. The wise will inherit glory, but shame will be the promotion of fools. Proverbs 4 Listen, sons, to a father's instruction. Pay attention and know understanding, for I give you sound learning. Don't forsake my law. For I was a son to my father, tender, and an only child in the sight of my mother. He taught me and said to me, let your heart retain my words. Keep my commandments and live. Get wisdom. Get understanding. Don't forget. Neither swerve from the words of my mouth. Don't forsake her, and she will preserve you. Love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is supreme. Get wisdom. Yes, though it costs all your possessions, get understanding. Esteem her, and she will exalt you. She will bring you to honor when you embrace her. She will give to your head a garland of grace. She will deliver a crown of splendor to you. Listen, my son, and receive my sayings. The years of your life will be many. I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led you in straight paths. When you go, your steps will not be hampered. When you run, you will not stumble. Take firm hold of instruction. Don't let her go. Keep her, for she is your life. Don't enter into the path of the wicked. Don't walk in the way of evil men. Avoid it. And don't pass by it. Turn from it and pass on. For they don't sleep unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light that shines more and more until the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don't know what they stumble over. My son, attend to my words. Turn your ear to my sayings. Let them not depart from your eyes. Keep them in the center of your heart. for their life to those who find them and health to their whole body. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life. Put away from yourself a perverse mouth. Put corrupt lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you. Make the path of your feet level. Let all of your ways be established. Don't turn to the right hand or to the left. Remove your foot from evil. Proverbs chapter 5 My son, Pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding. That you may maintain discretion. That your lips may preserve knowledge. For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil. But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood and as sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to shill. She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn't know it. Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don't depart from the words of my mouth. Remove your way far from her. Don't come near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others and your years to the cruel one. Lest strangers feast on your wealth and your labors enrich another man's house. you will groan at your latter end when your flesh and your body are consumed and say, how I have hated instruction and my heart despised reproof. Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers nor turned my ear to those who instructed me. I have come to the brink of utter ruin among the gathered assembly. Drink water out of your own cistern. running water out of your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares, let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you. Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth, a loving doe and a graceful deer. Let her breast satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love. For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace a bosom of another? For the ways of man are before the Lord's eyes. He examines all his paths. The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly. He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly he will go astray. Proverbs 6 My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, if you have struck your hands and pledged for a stranger, you are trapped by the words of your mouth. You are ensnared with the words of your mouth. Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself. Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, go, humble yourself. Press your plea with your neighbor. Give no sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eyelids. Free yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter. Like a bird from the snare of the fowler, Go to the Anshew's sluggard, Consider her ways and be wise, Which, having no chief overseer or ruler, Provides her bread in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep, So your poverty will come as a robber. and your scarcity is an arm man. A worthless person, a man of iniquity, is he who walks with a perverse mouth. who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who motions with his fingers, in whose heart is perverseness, who devises evil continually, who always sows discord. Therefore his calamity will come suddenly, he will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy. There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to him, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift and running a mischief, a false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers. My son, keep your father's commandment and don't forsake your mother's teaching. Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck. When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life, to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife's tongue. Don't lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids. For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for the precious life. Can a man scoop fire into his lap and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished. Men don't despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry. But if he is found, he shall restore seven times. He shall give all the wealth of his house. He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul. He will get wounds and dishonor. His reproach will not be wiped away. For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won't spare in a day of vengeance. He won't regard any ransom. Neither will he rest content, though you give him many gifts. Proverbs 7 My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you. Keep my commandments and live. Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart. Tell wisdom, you are my sister. Call understanding your relative, that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words. For at the window of my house I looked through my lattice. I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a man void of understanding, passing through the streets near her corner. He went away to her house. in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night, and in the darkness. Behold there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute and with crafty intent. She is loud and defiant. Her feet don't stay in her house. Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner. So she caught him and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him, Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. Today I have paid my vows, therefore I come out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you. I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped claws of the yarn of Egypt. A perfume I bid with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning. Let's solace ourselves with loving. For my husband isn't at home. He is gone on a long journey. He is taking a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon. With persuasive words she led him astray. With a flattering of her lips she seduced him. He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose, until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare and doesn't know that it will cost his life. Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth. Don't let your heart turn to her ways. Don't go astray in her path, for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army. Her house is a way to Sheol, going down to the rooms of death. Proverbs 8 Does not wisdom cry out? Does an understanding raise her voice? On the top of high places, by the way where the paths meet, she stands. Beside the gates, at the entry of the city, at the entry door, she cries aloud, to you, O men, I call. I send my voice to the sons of mankind, you simple, understand prudence, you fools, be of an understanding heart. Here, for I will speak excellent things. The opening of my lips is for right things, for my mouth speaks truth. Wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness, there is nothing crooked or perverse in them. They are all plain to him who understands, right to those who find knowledge. Receive my instruction rather than silver. Knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies. All the things that may be desired can't be compared to it. I, wisdom, have made prudence my dwelling. Find out knowledge and discretion. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. I hate pride, arrogance, evil way, and a perverse mouth. Counsel and sound knowledge are mine. I have understanding and power. By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, nobles, and all the righteous rulers of the earth. I love those who love me. Those who seek me diligently will find me. With me are riches, honor, enduring wealth, and prosperity. My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold. My yield than joy silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, in the middle of the paths of justice, that I may give wealth to those who love me. I feel their treasures. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His work, before His deeds of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth existed. When there were no depths, I was born. When there were no springs abounding with water, before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills I was born. While as yet, He had not made the earth nor the fields nor the beginning of the dust of the world. When He established the heavens, I was there. When He set a circle on the surface of the deep, when He established the clouds above, when the springs of the deep became strong, when He gave to the sea its boundary, that the water should not violate His commandment, when He marked out the foundations of the earth, Then I was a craftsman by his side. I was a delight day by day, always rejoicing before Him. Rejoicing in His whole world, my delight was with the sons of men. Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, for blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction, and be wise. Don't refuse it. Blessed is the man who hears me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts. For whoever finds me, finds life. and will obtain favor from the Lord. But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul. All those who hate me love death. Proverbs 9. Wisdom has built her house. She has carved out her seven pillars. She has prepared her meat. She has mixed her wine. She has also set her table. She has sent out her maiden. She cries from the highest places of the city. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here. As for him who is void of understanding, she says to him, come, eat some of my bread, drink some of the wine which I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and live, walk in the way of understanding. He who corrects a mocker invites insult. He who reproves a wicked man invites abuse. Don't reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you. Reprove a wise man and he will love you. Instruct a wise man and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For by me your days will be multiplied. The years of your life will be increased. If you are wise, you are wise for yourself. If you mock, you alone will bear it. The foolish woman is loud, undisciplined, and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, to call to those who pass by, who go straight on their ways. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here. As for him who is void of understanding, she says to him, stolen water is sweet. Food eaten in secret is pleasant, but he doesn't know that the departed spirits are there, that her guests are in the depths of hell. Proverbs 10, the Proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son brings grief to his mother. Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death. The Lord will not allow the soul of the righteous to go hungry, but he thrusts away the desire of the wicked. He becomes poor who works with a lazy hand, but the hand of the diligent brings wealth. He who gathers in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during the harvest is a son who causes shame. Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked. The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot. The wise in heart accept commandments, but a chattering fool will fall. He who walks blamelessly walks surely, but he who perverts his way will be found out. One winking with the eye causes sorrow, but a chattering foal will fall. The mouth of the righteous is the spring of life, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all wrongs. Wisdom is found on the lips of him who has discernment. But a rod is from the back of him who is void of understanding. Wise men lay up knowledge, but the mouth of the foolish is near ruin. The rich man's wealth is his strong city. The destruction of the poor is their poverty. The labor of the righteous leads to life, the increase of the wicked leads to sin. He is in the way of life who heeds correction, but he who forsakes reproof leads others astray. He who hides hatred has lying lips. He who utters a slander is a fool. In a multitude of words there is no lack of disobedience, but he who restrains his lips does wisely. The tongue of the righteous is like choice silver. The heart of the wicked is of little worth. The lips of the righteous feed many, but the foolish die for lack of understanding. The Lord's blessing brings wealth, and He adds no trouble to it. It is a fool's pleasure to do wickedness, but wisdom is a man of understanding's pleasure. What the wicked fear will overtake them, but the desire of the righteous will be granted. When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous stand firm forever. As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the slugger to those who send him. The fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened. The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hope of the wicked will perish. The way of the Lord is a stronghold to the upright, but it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity. The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not dwell in the land. The mouth of the righteous produces wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off. The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked is perverse.