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 and justice and equity;
To give prudence to the simple,
To the young man knowledge and discretion:
That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning;
And that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels:
To understand a proverb, and {Or, an interpretation}a figure,
The words of the wise, and their {Or, riddles}dark sayings.
The fear of Jehovah is the {Or, chief part}beginning of knowledge;
But the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
My son, hear the instruction of thy father,
And forsake not the {Or, teaching}law of thy mother:
For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head,
And chains about thy neck.
My son, if sinners entice thee,
Consent thou not.
If they say, Come with us,
Let us lay wait for blood;
Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;
Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol,
{Or, Even the perfect}And whole, as those that go down into the pit;
We shall find all precious substance;
We shall fill our houses with spoil;
{Or, Cast in thy lot}Thou shalt cast thy lot among us;
We will all have one purse:
My son, walk not thou in the way with them;
Refrain thy foot from their path:
For their feet run to evil,
And they make haste to shed blood.
For in vain is the net spread
In the sight of any bird:
And these lay wait for their own blood;
They lurk privily for their own lives.
So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain;
It taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
Wisdom crieth aloud in the street;
She uttereth her voice in the broad places;
She crieth {Hebrew: at the head of the noisy streets.}in the chief place of concourse;
At the entrance of the gates,
In the city, she uttereth her words:
How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?
And scoffers delight them in scoffing,
And fools hate knowledge?
Turn you at my reproof:
Behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you;
I will make known my words unto you.
Because I have called, and ye have refused;
I have stretched out my hand, and no man hath regarded;
But ye have set at nought all my counsel,
And would none of my reproof:
I also will laugh in the day of your calamity;
I will mock when your fear cometh;
When your fear cometh as a {Or, desolation}storm,
And your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind;
When distress and anguish come upon you.
Then will they call upon me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me {Or, early}diligently, but they shall not find me:
For that they hated knowledge,
And did not choose the fear of Jehovah:
They would none of my counsel;
They despised all my reproof.
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way,
And be filled with their own devices.
For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them,
And the careless ease of fools shall destroy them.
But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely,
And shall be quiet without fear of evil.
Querverweise zu Sprüche 1,19 Spr 1,19
He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house;But he that hateth bribes shall live.
If I have eaten the {Hebrew: strength.}fruits thereof without money,Or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:
Be not desirous of his dainties;Seeing they are deceitful food.
There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept by the owner thereof to his hurt:
Weary not thyself to be rich;Cease {Or, by reason of thine own understanding}from thine own wisdom.
And Joab said unto the man that told him, And, behold, thou sawest it, and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground? and I would have given thee ten pieces of silver, and a girdle.
And the man said unto Joab, Though I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, yet would I not put forth my hand against the king's son; for in our hearing the king charged thee and Abishai and Ittai, saying, {Hebrew: Have a care, whosoever ye be, of &c.}Beware that none touch the young man Absalom.
Otherwise if I had dealt falsely against {Another reading is, my.}his life (and there is no matter hid from the king), then thou thyself wouldest have set thyself against me.
But Gehazi the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: as Jehovah liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.
So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw one running after him, he alighted from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well?
And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there are come to me from the hill-country of Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets; give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of raiment.
And Naaman said, Be pleased to take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of raiment, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him.
And when he came to the {Hebrew: Ophel.}hill, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house; and he let the men go, and they departed.
But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither.
And he said unto him, {Or, My heart went not from me, when &c.}Went not my heart with thee, when the man turned from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and men-servants and maid-servants?
The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.
But thine eyes and thy heart are not but for thy {Or, dishonest gain}covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! They shall not lament for him, saying Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.
And they covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks, neither shall ye walk haughtily; for it is an evil time.
They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet they lean upon Jehovah, and say, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? no evil shall come upon us.
Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.
Woe to him that getteth an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil!
saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Spirit.
But Peter said unto him, Thy silver perish with thee, because thou hast thought to obtain the gift of God with money.
{Or, not quarrelsome over wine}no brawler, no striker; but gentle, not contentious, no lover of money;
But they that are minded to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition.
For the love of money is a root of all {Or, evils.}kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Come now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you.
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony {Or, unto}against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days.
Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
And in covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose sentence now from of old lingereth not, and their destruction slumbereth not.
having eyes full of {Greek: an adulteress.}adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; enticing unstedfast souls; having a heart exercised in covetousness; children of cursing;
forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of {Many ancient authorities read Bosor.}Beor, who loved the hire of wrong-doing;
but he was rebuked for his own transgression: a dumb ass spake with man's voice and stayed the madness of the prophet.