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.
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But he that {Or, misseth me}sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul:All they that hate me love death.
But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked:Thou art waxed fat, thou art grown thick, thou art become sleek;Then he forsook God who made him,And lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
They moved him to jealousy with strange gods;With abominations provoked they him to anger.
They sacrificed unto demons, which were no God,To gods that they knew not,To new gods that came up of late,Which your fathers dreaded not.
Of the Rock that {Or, bare}begat thee thou art unmindful,And hast forgotten God that gave thee birth.
And Jehovah saw it, and abhorred them,Because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
And he said, I will hide my face from them,I will see what their end shall be:For they are a very perverse generation,Children in whom is no faithfulness.
They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God;They have provoked me to anger with their vanities:And I will move them to jealousy with those that are not a people;I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
For a fire is kindled in mine anger,And burneth unto the lowest Sheol,And devoureth the earth with its increase,And setteth on fire the foundations of the mountains.
I will heap evils upon them;I will spend mine arrows upon them:
They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with {Hebrew: burning coals. See Habakkuk 3:5.}burning heatAnd bitter destruction;And the teeth of beasts will I send upon them,With the poison of crawling things of the dust.
Without shall the sword bereave,And in the chambers terror;It shall destroy both young man and virgin,The suckling with the man of gray hairs.
I said, I would scatter them afar,I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men;
Were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy,Lest their adversaries should judge amiss,Lest they should say, Our hand is exalted,And Jehovah hath not done all this.
For they are a nation void of counsel,And there is no understanding in them.
Oh that they were wise, that they understood this,That they would consider their latter end!
How should one chase a thousand,And two put ten thousand to flight,Except their Rock had sold them,And Jehovah had delivered them up?
For their rock is not as our Rock,Even our enemies themselves being judges.
For their vine is of the vine of Sodom,And of the fields of Gomorrah:Their grapes are grapes of gall,Their clusters are bitter:
Their wine is the poison of serpents,And the cruel venom of asps.
Is not this laid up in store with me,Sealed up {Or, in my treasuries}among my treasures?
Vengeance is mine, and recompense,At the time when their foot shall slide:For the day of their calamity is at hand,And the things that are to come upon them shall make haste.
For Jehovah will judge his people,And repent himself for his servants;When he seeth that their power is gone,And there is none remaining, shut up or left at large.
And he will say, Where are their gods,The rock in which they took refuge;
Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices,And drank the wine of their drink-offering?Let them rise up and help you,Let them be your protection.
See now that I, even I, am he,And there is no god with me:I kill, and I make alive;I wound, and I heal;And there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
For I lift up my hand to heaven,And say, As I live for ever,
If I whet {Hebrew: the lightning of my sword.}my glittering sword,And my hand take hold on judgment;I will render vengeance to mine adversaries,And will recompense them that hate me.
I will make mine arrows drunk with blood,And my sword shall devour flesh;With the blood of the slain and the captives, {Or, From the beginning of revenges upon the enemy}From {Or, the hairy head of the enemy}the head of the leaders of the enemy.
{Or, Praise his people, ye nations}Rejoice, O {Or, ye nations, his people}ye nations, with his people:For he will avenge the blood of his servants,And will render vengeance to his adversaries,And will make expiation for his land, for his people.
And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.
Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remaineth in him, and his scent is not changed.
He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that {Or, believeth not}obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Let their table before them become a snare;And when they are in peace, let it become a trap.
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will send unto him them that {Hebrew: tilt (a vessel).}pour off, and they shall {Hebrew: tilt (a vessel).}pour him off; and they shall empty his vessels, and break their {Or, jars}bottles in pieces.
But {Some ancient authorities read the righteous one.}my righteous one shall live by faith:And if he shrink back, my soul hath no pleasure in him.
A brutish man knoweth not;Neither doth a fool understand this:
But we are not {Greek: of shrinking back.}of them that shrink back unto perdition; but of them that have faith unto the {Or, gaining}saving of the soul.
When the wicked spring as the grass,And when all the workers of iniquity do flourish;It is that they shall be destroyed for ever.
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not when they refused him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from him {Or, that is from heaven}that warneth from heaven:
And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
and he reasoned within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have not where to bestow my fruits?
And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my grain and my goods.
And I will say to my {Or, life}soul, {Or, life}Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry.
But God said unto him, Thou foolish one, this night {Greek: they require thy soul.}is thy {Or, life}soul required of thee; and the things which thou hast prepared, whose shall they be?
So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, {Or, living in mirth and splendor every day}faring sumptuously every day:
and a certain beggar named Lazarus was laid at his gate, full of sores,
and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table; yea, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom: and the rich man also died, and was buried.
And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.
But Abraham said, {Greek: Child.}Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things: but now here he is comforted, and thou art in anguish.
But if ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.